Are Your Consumer Surveys Driving Your Clients Away?

Why do you have customer surveys? They are to understand your consumers. Right? They can help you use empirical data to drive your business. But can such studies lead to customer loss? Here is an example of how you can drive away customers with thoughtless customer surveys.

My Gym Story

I have been a gym goer for a very long time. On and off, there have been times when my gym routine was interrupted for an extended period. But it had more to do with my inability or unwillingness to change my habits more than anything else.

Can A Gym Customer Be Unhappy?

My sports club of choice has been Boston Sports Club (BSC) since I moved to the Boston area over a decade ago. Even when I moved to Europe, I continued to keep the gym membership as I used to be back in Boston very often. Recently, I moved to New Jersey and started using the New York Sports Club (NYSC) through my old BSC membership.

The club I started using in New Jersey was 15 minutes from home, so it was not inconvenient. But it didn’t have enough free weights. So I would often wait for my turn on the squat rack. Once in a while, I complained about it. But since they didn’t have a fitness manager, no one cared.

Somehow, I got used to the idea that  I needed to wait for my turn at the rack. I told myself that the situation would eventually improve. It was a like a low-grade pain that existed but never really bothered me too much.

A Well Intentioned Survey Appears

Someone at NYSC thought it was an excellent idea to find out about customer satisfaction of gym members. I received a survey at the year end. I decided to fill the questionnaire. And like any good survey, it asked me for feedback on every aspect of the gym. By the time I finished, it became clear to me how unhappy I was with the gym.

An Unintended Consequence

I wondered why I hadn’t change my gym for so long. My next step was to Google gyms near me, and within the next 24 hours I had visited 3 of them and found a replacement. Within 48 hours of receiving the survey, I had changed my gym.

The survey helped me see how unhappy I was with my current gym. Had I not spent ten minutes on that survey, I may have continued to stay with a less than ideal situation much longer.

Lessons For Marketing Survey Creators

So, what are the lesson here?

First, when you make a consumer go through a survey, you help him unpack a situation that he may not otherwise do. It may open wounds you may not want him to open up. In such circumstances, you may lose customers.

Second, when you undertake instrument creation for a survey, do consider the cumulative impact of questions. Often, people examine whether one answer may bias the following answer. The instrument design theory doesn’t ask you to consider other implications. This example shows you that you are better off thinking about other outcomes of your questions too.

Third, consider the context of your customers. Are your clients making active or passive repeat purchases? In an active buying scenario, unpacking wounds may prevent them from buying again. But in a passive repeat purchase situation, it may just lead them to the exit door. In passive purchase situations, you may want to think about your sampling strategy a little more to avoid unintended consequences.

Key Takeaway

The key takeaway here is that marketing surveys are a lot more than data collection work. They can also change the perception of your customers. And in the worst case scenario, they may highlight undesirable pieces of your service and lead to customer loss.