I’m not a fan of surveys. As a rule I ignore invitations to participate in a survey, particularly from commercial entities. I have two main objections.
- The asymmetry of work vs reward. If I complete a survey, I’m doing the work, but the business is getting the reward. I lose my time, they gain details to help them make more money.
- Most surveys ask stupid questions.
Like this one, after I recently purchased a Ryobi power tool and registered the product on their website to get an extended warranty period …
Really? On the basis of my experience of using their website, they want to know if I’d recommend their product? The two have the most tenuous of connections. It’s like me asking you …
“Thinking of your recent experience of reading this blog post, how likely are you to recommend me to perform brain surgery on your family and friends?”
| Unlikely | Very likely | |||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
P.S. I was very satisfied with the power tool. Totally unimpressed by the follow up customer survey.
Asked by BP to do survey after filling car up 1st question was .how could we do better ..what the hell are you expected to say it is simply filling up the car with fuel something I have done for 40 years ..that’s it what else do they need to know ..
The level of survey stupid is endless. Just this week I got asked to fill in an online survey after purchasing a dozen 750ml PET bottles for beer brewing. I was very tempted to reply with “They were bottles, 750ml in capacity, and are very obedient pets – they always stay when I tell them to stay.”