In the Customer Experience report, we look at the many ways companies and consumers interact and how companies might make those experiences better for consumers. Previous coverage and new stories running this week can be found here.
If you’ve recently shopped for groceries or rented a car—or bought pretty much anything—chances are the company asked you to fill out a survey about your experience afterward.
It’s likely you didn’t fill it out, dismissing it as not worth your time. And if you did fill it out, it’s also likely the company might not have gotten much value out of your answers.
Having conducted hundreds of surveys as a marketing researcher and an academic over the past two decades, I have a simple explanation for both the poor consumer response and the dearth of usable information: Many companies do surveys poorly. And their errors can derail marketing research programs, alienate loyal customers, waste marketing resources and lead to distorted signals from responses.
With that in mind, here are the five most serious mistakes companies often make with surveys.