OK - so are we all getting peppered by surveys? The simple fact that you can do an email blast or auto blast anyone that places an order does NOT make this a good idea! I recently had a bad experience with a tech help desk trying to configure a new router and sure enough....each call generated an automatic email "survey" to find out how they did. So 3 hours into it my email inbox is piling up with surveys and the router is still not working right!
I get that everybody wants feedback. If you are running a business or managing a department - you WANT to know if you have happy customers. You want to know if something can be improved. I want to have happy customers too...... but the sense of urgency associated with getting that extra email or worse yet...a telephone call - really ruins any good will that hope you have with your customer.
In a decision that is old school - we printed up simple "how did we do" postcards and include them with every order. It is a photo I took in Monterey of the ocean facing the famous Aquarium. People seem to like them. Most get tossed but nobody feels badly about ignoring them. Then we will get someone so happy (or unhappy) that they have to share. We love it - especially the unhappy ones since it is a rare chance to fix something broken. Some of our best changes have come from people commenting on something they really liked or something that went wrong.
-Sean
