Many
companies are now focused on end to end experience design and measurement and set
their KPIs accordingly. But are some in danger of seeing their ‘sophisticated’
measurements backfire?
Some
companies these days present you with a survey at every touch point asking you
to rate each interaction – however small. When it’s only one or two companies
doing it, customers may put up with it. Get
everyone doing it and customers will feel like they spend more time answering
surveys than getting what they want.
For
the companies, these surveys have two inherent dangers.
1. Data collection is often skewed
A friend was trying to deal with a telco. Every time he
called, he was promised resolution and it all seemed fine. Duly he was asked to
stay on the line to answer a short survey. Of course, most call centre staff do
not miss the chance to ask for a good score as ‘the survey rates their personal
performance’. And because the survey
only refers to the specific touch point and operator, one feels obliged to give
a good score. He even gave it happily – the interaction was pleasant and he
thought his issue was resolved. But later, when they had screwed up again, and he
sat there fuming, there was no survey, no opportunity to let them know. The
good scores he gave previously had no connection with the reality of his
experience.
Another one. My wife wasn’t happy with our bank (ever since
Ogilvy we’ve know this to be important!). So after 20 years it was time to
break up. After just 2 weeks and without them having been able to achieve
anything, my wife is told she will receive a call for a survey. She also
receives an request from the manager to please give a 9 or 10 as anything below
is considered unsatisfactory!
The reliance on KPI control and leads to people at every
level finding ways to skew their numbers – leaving the entire system ad
absurdum.
2. Survey creates a bad experience
All these surveys are taken in the name of a great customer
experience. But the surveys now become so intrusive, that their very existence
has to be considered as part of the experience design.
Coming back to the telco and my friend. As a result of
‘having been tricked into giving good scores and not being able to report bad
ones’ his experience perception is now worse than if the company had just
screwed it up.
We tried it ourselves across a number of touch points. Then
did a few interviews to see what people thought. Initially the request for
feedback is considered a nice touch and suggests the company cares. But after a
short time a feeling of annoyance sets in - ‘they only ask when it suits their
purpose’. Those that had dealt with more than one or two of those survey heavy
companies, start to think of them more negatively. It feels to them as if:
- the onus of providing a good experience is put on the customer
- the company has to ask constantly because they do not know
how they are doing
Transfer this into personal life. Imagine you have an
employee that asks you with every task for your appraisal. You’d just go nuts.
If it is a supplier, you’d go nuts even faster. It shows their insecurity, lack of
internalised standards and inability to self-assess.
In designing customer experiences we will never be able to
do without some form of measurement and setting customer focused KPIs. But surveying and measurement has to be understood
as an inherent part of the customer experience, not a tool for managers to
chase their bonuses.
