Its the old ‘whats in it for me’ (WIIFM) that smart marketers understand but dummys who create surveys simply dont.

Gary

Surveys are relied upon too much these days and as you say, they never really get the nub of the matter.

Take eBay feedback for example. How can you condense an accurate account of your transaction into a few words and a 5 star rating?

Seller Communication: So is that 5,3 or 1 star if the transaction went smoothly but I never had any communication with them? Do I deduct points because they did not confirm my order, e-mail me when it shipped, etc?

Delivery time: Heres a good example. My mum has a low delivery time rating on eBay because she is house bound and I have to do the post outs. I do them once a week as I do not pass the post office on a daily basis, I go especially for that purpose.

However, should she be low rated? She always clearly explains on the listings that it will not be next day delivery and is only posted out once a week. Yet the low rating. As the rating should be related to if you delivered within your specified time period, it makes the rating null and void entirely as people do not rate based on that.

Everyone has their own idea of what a 5 star service is so everyone will interpret the results differently.

There is no replacement for a good long explanation but people do not like having to use words so that leaves surveys as pretty much pointless full stop.