I'm a feedback enthusiast who called AT&T for voicemail help. Although "Marilyn" was nice, she couldn't fix my issue. The post-call survey question was biased and misleading, highlighting the difficulty in creating effective surveys.
I love it when companies ask for customer feedback. I’m that idiot that responds with an exuberant “YES!” whenever someone says “Would you like to fill out a survey/answer some questions/provide some feedback on your experience today?”. Not surprising, really, given that studying and understanding experiences is my day to day. Besides, I consider it good karma – since we test a lot of users for our project work, it’s only fair that we return the favor!
Anyway, moving on. I decided to give AT&T customer service a call the other day because my voicemails aren’t showing up on my iPhone. I’m the only one of my friends with this problem, and after trying all sorts of quick fixes, as well as simply waiting (for AT&T to magically work – not a good idea, in the end), I broke down and called in. There’s no need to go into the details of the call, though I will say that I got through to a person almost immediately (which is always nice), and even though “Marilyn” couldn’t fix my problem, she was very bubbly and earnest throughout the process.
It was more the end of the call that got me all riled up:
- Marilyn: “Would you like to answer a quick survey about your experience today?”
- Me: “Sure!” (note my excitement)
- Marilyn: “Would you say I succeeded in trying to answer your questions today?”
- Me: ::: silence as I tried to figure out the correct response ::: “Sure?”
Puh-lease. My first thought was, “well, duh, why else would I call the customer support line other than to get you to try to help me?!” The next thought that came to mind was the poor sod deep in the bowels of AT&T who will get all the “data” from this “survey question” and have to come up with a pretty chart to explain it to his higher ups. “But sir, we succeeded in trying, doesn’t that count for something?” Not really, no. This example illustrates exactly why surveys are tough to get right: it’s all too easy to ask biased, misleading, or confusing questions – and sometimes, as with the AT&T case, all three at once!
