Can we stop talking about surveys!

It has been several years now and I still see many conversations floating around about customer satisfaction surveys. I am not against them at all. In fact, I champion and own the policy around voice of customer in every leadership role. But the conversations that keep floating are always equating customer experience with satisfaction surveys. 

Your customer experience is NOT a survey! 

Let me explain: 

I recently went to buy a coffee machine. I spoke with the first advisor on the shop floor. I asked them: what colours does this machine have? Their response was: it comes in this colour but the price is based on specific subscription. If you don’t want the subscription it is a full price and it cost this much. 

🤯 I was baffled with the approach. I thanked them and went to another advisor. 

They actively listened, shared all the available colours, went to check in the stock room if they missed any colour, told me the full price, asked if I am interested in a subscription, and offered me coffee while they got the machine of my choice. 

The difference between the two advisors is chalk and cheese. So I received a survey: 

• How was your store experience 
• How was the advisor that helped you? And so on and so forth …

I filled the survey – although I found it difficult. Was my experience pleasant or not? It started terrible and ended up brilliant. Which advisor am I evaluating? The first or the second? Or both? It didn’t matter, I filled it up.

My question is what did the company do with the information? This is the real question that tackles customer experience. 

The CX Academy defines Customer Experience as how a customer feels as a result of every interaction they have with a company. How I feel dictates how / if I engage with this organisation again. And this will apply to every customer. 

Let’s consider the CX academy framework:

 

Understanding how the customer feels goes beyond a survey. In fact, the term survey is not mentioned at all in the framework! Organisations need to understand that customer experience is a philosophy they have to commit to from the ground up. Customer Experience goes from understanding what customers want, to how they engage with the business; from the response (or lack of) to survey, to a response to call of action or uptake on certain offers that could be personalised. 

Let me take you back to the coffee machine story. I left the store telling my partner: 

See it is all about people and how they feel on that particular moment. The first advisor did not demonstrate any active listening. They seemed irritable and transactional. In fact, I felt as if they were passing on a previous customer’s dissatisfaction onto me. The second advisor was very calm and collected and ready to listen to my needs and assist accordingly. 

If businesses have a learning and development programme that focuses on customer experience, I wonder how they check their team embodies the values and skills they explored in such programmes. If the only check is a satisfaction survey, the company could be operating blind to the risk of staying relevant. 

So what is a survey then?

A satisfaction survey is only ONE way of gathering insights from your customer base regarding a touch point in your overall process. There are tens if not hundreds of touch points you can gather insights and enrich your customer experience. Did you think of customer forums, focus groups, engagement with a digital footprint, complaints, reviews, feedback (direct through a form and indirect through conversations with your organisation’s employees (ambassadors).

So next time you speak with businesses about customer focus and customer experience, make sure they understand that surveys are only one avenue of gaining insights. It does not give a full picture. Make sure they understand that customer experience is about connecting with client base and make every touch point matter. 

To all the Quality Auditors out there: when you conduct your audits and dive deep into a company’s customer focus, please work with the customer experience champions to understand what impact their insights have on business process behaviours.