You've just been to your insurer [your garage mechanic, your banker, etc.] and you receive an e-mail asking you to assess the quality of the service you received and the information you were given: how satisfied are you?
You've just had a DM exchange on Twitter with your ISP's after-sales service, [your mobile operator, your electricity supplier, etc] when you receive a new message inviting you to assess the quality... and your satisfaction.
Today, I don't dare push open the door of my insurer or ask a Community Manager a question for fear of being immediately asked for my opinion on the customer experience I've just had: I've wasted precious minutes trying to work out what was wrong with my Internet connection, and I'm being asked for more to say how good the service was.
Not to mention the fact that most of the time the script for these questionnaires - which are necessarily extremely short - just makes it impossible for me to answer: "Are you satisfied with the answer you received from...?
"No, not at all", I'd like to say: my box is still struggling, so it's worth switching to fibre! Except that what I'm being asked is whether the guy on the other end of the phone or in front of his computer has done a good job; and I'm afraid that if I say no, he'll get a bad mark, even though it's not his fault.
But if I answer 'Yes', I can already see the satisfaction of a marketing director proud of his good results... which aren't good at all!
Providing a rapid response to the many requests from customers, whether on social media or during physical or telephone contact, is all well and good; but is it really necessary to try to systematically measure the quality of this response?
Or, to put it another way, is it really appropriate, given the very poor quality of the answers generally obtained, and the growing irritation of customers who are asked too many questions?
Putting in place annual barometers, or even more regular satisfaction tracking systems, where you don't just interview anyone and everyone on the fly, will always provide better tools for monitoring after-sales service or customer experience: it also means taking the time to reflect at a time when everything is done in a hurry.
