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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To be fed up with pointless feedback requests

13 replies

Gartenzwerg · 08/04/2015 16:31

Every time I have some kind of interaction with a (usually large) company, I seem to get a series of automated texts or emails requesting feedback. In many cases, these seem to be utterly irrelevant and I fail to see how they can be of any use to the company.

Example: I phoned Sky yesterday to downgrade my package, as I had received yet another letter from them informing me of yet another price increase. The customer service agent took my call within a reasonable time, and processed my request without fuss. I then received automated texts from Sky asking me whether I "would recommend Sky to others based on this interaction".

Well, the answer is no - who would recommend a company based solely on the fact that their call centre were capable of basic administrative tasks ? What the feedback should have asked for, is why I was downgrading ? I could then have fed back about their constantly inflating prices losing them custom. I would have thought that would be more useful in terms of feedback, no ?

In fact, I suspect that the whole exercise is nothing more than a box-ticking exercise for the Customer Services Manager without any actual business benefit. By the way, I am not singling out Sky. I get plenty of similar requests, with the common theme of asking questions irrelevant to the matter in hand.

I am not losing sleep over this, in most cases I just ignore the mails/texts. But AIBU to think it all feels a bit spammy and to wonder whether the companies ever do anything with the feedback received ?

OP posts:
FryOneFatManic · 08/04/2015 16:39

Do agree with this.

The best one recently was from the Nat West Fraud people. DP had a message to call back over a query, all sorted very quickly. But within 2 minutes we had an automated call asking for DP to complete a survey on his experience.

I had similar recently (same people, I'd used the browser back button in error when it says don't and it cocked up the online banking) but I did at least have about 30 minutes before getting the feedback survey request.

mrsfuzzy · 08/04/2015 16:44

probably keeps someone in a job, i presume someone reads the feed back ? mostly pointless though.

Nicknacky · 08/04/2015 16:44

I got really fed up after buying my last car. I had emails, phone calls from the salesman and phone calls from the head office asking for feedback. The salesman even told me what he wanted me to say!! Eventually I gave feedback over the phone and they STILL called for feedback aaarrrrggggh!! My feedback was "stop asking for bloody feedback"

I hate the car so phoned for a settlement figure as I'm getting rid of it. It was an automated system and yesterday I got yet another email looking for feedback......

TheListingAttic · 08/04/2015 16:45

Agree completely. If there was a problem with the service, people would make damn sure they complained - you don't need to spam them with feedback requests to identify genuine problems! It creates the appearance of paying attention to customers.

There was an article about this recently in The Guardian (I think...) about a couple who had undergone a fairly traumatic medical event - and then got a spammy text asking them to rate the level of service received from the staff who helped them through it. The writer pointed out that this was really crass, and dredged up all the hurt that the actual staff they'd dealt with had managed impeccably. For the majority of us it's annoying, but in some circumstances it can have a real negative impact. For what supposed gain, I don't know.

Gartenzwerg · 08/04/2015 16:47

Nicknacky - I feel your pain. I sometimes think the best feedback for these companies would be to stop irking your customers by asking for so much bloody feedback !

OP posts:
PuppyMonkey · 08/04/2015 16:56

(Sky will probably be in touch with you shortly offering a better deal).

Irrelevant.

EvansOvalPiesYumYum · 08/04/2015 17:01

Aaah, yes. A little while ago went into a branch of my bank to pay in some cheques. Nothing more. Several days later, was called (whilst I was cooking evening meal) to ask me for feedback. I said all I had done was pay in some cheques, so feedback probably wouldn't be necessary.

"Oh, it won't take long, just a couple of minutes, if you can spare the time".

Well, the questions I was asked bore absolutely no relevance to my transaction, eg:

'Were you satisfied with your transaction' Yes thank you, just paid in chqs
'Were all your questions answered' Didn't have any questions
'Did you receive all the help you could have' No help needed, I had filled out my form beforehand.
'Was there anything more the cashier could have done to make your transaction easier?' Nope, it wasn't a difficult transaction.
'Could the cashier have offered any further advice which may have been useful?' Well, no - as already stated, it wasn't a visit which required any help or advice

And on, and on and on . . . . .
In the end, I got a bit cross and asked them never to call me again.
And they haven't (so far)! Grin

Complete and utter waste of bloody time.

AGrinWithoutACat · 08/04/2015 17:23

I loved my last feedback request, mortgage company rep called me and asked how I would rate them after we had just had a mortgage offer ...

I gave them bottom marks because of the impossible to fulfil conditions they had attached to the offer and to be fair the lady went away to see if conditions could be altered (she didn't think they were fair either!) and then called me back, still with a no but at least she tried.

AlpacaPicnic · 08/04/2015 18:09

Oh YANBU! A friend of mine works in a mobile phone call centre and their monthly bonus is dependant on getting a certain percentage on feedback calls - but he works in the complaints/troubleshooting section, so people are rarely happy to be calling. Sometimes there is a problem that can't be fixed and therefore he gets a low score, so no bonus.
The 'bonus' by the way, would barely tip him over minimum wage - we aren't talking hundreds of pounds! But it keeps the wages low - basic wage is NMW with the 'potential' to earn more through selling etc...

ShouldIworryornothelp · 08/04/2015 18:11

I got texts from the local a&e asking for feedback... Wholly inappropriate!!

amicissimma · 08/04/2015 18:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Collaborate · 08/04/2015 18:29

And what about Amazon requesting feedback about packaging? WTF is that all about???

Errr..... it was a brown cardboard box. With sellotape and an address label. Not a life changer really.

charmund · 08/04/2015 18:38

I got one from the company who had delivered my (bulk order) of dog food - it was headed "How did you find your delivery?" I emailed back "By opening the front door" They haven't asked again Grin

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