Customer Satisfaction Surveys

These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.

What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.

If they *really* wanted my opinion, they would make the survey as
compatible as possible, with no fancy bells and whistles which I may
have disabled or which the browser may not even handle.

As a basic test, they should check to see if the survey will work with
a lynx text-only browser on a non-MS operating system.

Better yet, they should devise a way to reply to their emails directly,
without having to log in to any web site.
If they were concerned that rivals might read what I said, they could
ask for a PGP/GPG encrypted reply by giving out the necessary
information about their public key. (Of course some people might be
sufficiently annoyed to just send a plain-text reply regardless).
They'd get spam, but there are ways to reduce spam.

I've just received a "survey" request from Plusnet, who suspended my
no-contract service at my request when I explained that I wanted to
cancel because I'd been flooded out by a huge water leak from above,
and the damage would take some time to repair.
They offered to suspend instead, but now say they want some thirty to
sixty pounds to reconnect me.
And claim no longer to have a MAC code they could give out.

To reply to their survey I'd need to log in to www.zoomerang.com/Survey
first, but right now I've only got dialup and I'll be hanged if I'll
wait twenty minutes for anyone's bloated bloody web pages to load!


--
Windmill, Use t m i l l
(E-Mail Removed) @ O n e t e l
. c o m

Windmill wrote:
> These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
> totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.
>
> What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
> designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.
>
> If they *really* wanted my opinion, they would make the survey as
> compatible as possible, with no fancy bells and whistles which I may
> have disabled or which the browser may not even handle.
>
> As a basic test, they should check to see if the survey will work with
> a lynx text-only browser on a non-MS operating system.
>
> Better yet, they should devise a way to reply to their emails directly,
> without having to log in to any web site.
> If they were concerned that rivals might read what I said, they could
> ask for a PGP/GPG encrypted reply by giving out the necessary
> information about their public key. (Of course some people might be
> sufficiently annoyed to just send a plain-text reply regardless).
> They'd get spam, but there are ways to reduce spam.
>
> I've just received a "survey" request from Plusnet, who suspended my
> no-contract service at my request when I explained that I wanted to
> cancel because I'd been flooded out by a huge water leak from above,
> and the damage would take some time to repair.
> They offered to suspend instead, but now say they want some thirty to
> sixty pounds to reconnect me.
> And claim no longer to have a MAC code they could give out.
>
> To reply to their survey I'd need to log in to www.zoomerang.com/Survey
> first, but right now I've only got dialup and I'll be hanged if I'll
> wait twenty minutes for anyone's bloated bloody web pages to load!
>
>
My general response is that if I had a problem, I'd tell them, and if
not, the thing that really pisses me off most is customer surveys.

"Windmill" <spam-no-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
> totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.
>
> What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
> designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.

I got one which, when I clicked on the link, required that I "logon" to my
account first.

When entering the email that they sent the questionnaire to, I got "there is
no account registered for that address".

So what was the flipping point.

On 09/05/2011 10:49, Windmill wrote:
> These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
> totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.

The surveys are sent to a subset of customers who have recently
contacted us via either telephone, or the online ticketing system.
That's pretty much the only selection criteria we use.

> What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
> designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.
>
> If they *really* wanted my opinion, they would make the survey as
> compatible as possible, with no fancy bells and whistles which I may
> have disabled or which the browser may not even handle.
>
> As a basic test, they should check to see if the survey will work with
> a lynx text-only browser on a non-MS operating system.

The survey uses off-the-shelf software that's provided by a third party.
By and large I'd personally consider it to be fit for purpose. I can
probably count the number of customers we have using text-based browsers
on my fingers and toes!

> Better yet, they should devise a way to reply to their emails directly,
> without having to log in to any web site.
> If they were concerned that rivals might read what I said, they could
> ask for a PGP/GPG encrypted reply by giving out the necessary
> information about their public key. (Of course some people might be
> sufficiently annoyed to just send a plain-text reply regardless).
> They'd get spam, but there are ways to reduce spam.

Email is far less accountable than the ticketing system. I'd warrant a
guess that average Joe would also struggle to get their head round
things like PGP encryption etc.

> I've just received a "survey" request from Plusnet, who suspended my
> no-contract service at my request when I explained that I wanted to
> cancel because I'd been flooded out by a huge water leak from above,
> and the damage would take some time to repair.
> They offered to suspend instead, but now say they want some thirty to
> sixty pounds to reconnect me.

If the line has been ceased then that would make sense. We have to pay
our wholesaler to cease/reprovision the circuit so it makes sense to
pass these costs onto the customer.

> And claim no longer to have a MAC code they could give out.

If the circuit has been ceased then there's no active service to migate.
This is probably why we're unable to provide a MAC.

> To reply to their survey I'd need to log in to www.zoomerang.com/Survey
> first, but right now I've only got dialup and I'll be hanged if I'll
> wait twenty minutes for anyone's bloated bloody web pages to load!

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------

On 09/05/2011 13:25, tim.... wrote:
> "Windmill" <spam-no-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>
>> These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
>> totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.
>>
>> What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
>> designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.
>
> I got one which, when I clicked on the link, required that I "logon" to my
> account first.

Hmmm, that doesn't sound right!

Perhaps the hyperlink was broken?

> When entering the email that they sent the questionnaire to, I got "there is
> no account registered for that address".
>
> So what was the flipping point.

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------

Plusnet Support Team wrote:
> On 09/05/2011 12:48, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> My general response is that if I had a problem, I'd tell them, and if
>> not, the thing that really pisses me off most is customer surveys.
>
> The surveys are typically sent when you *have* told us about a problem
> (or at least felt the need to contact us about something).
>
> The results from the survey help us determine/measure customer
> satisfaction/disatisfaction.
>
What about 'the ticket is still open, you wankers' do you not understand
or conversely, 'I have left your customer list' or 'the ticket is now
closed due to satisfactory support'

If you don't know yourselves whether your support is more useful than
raw wet fish in a raspberry tart, why the **** should the customers have
to tell you?.

Try spending a month on the support desk YOURSELF. Instead of employing
market research companies and 'having meetings'

On 09/05/2011 15:05, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> Plusnet Support Team wrote:
>> On 09/05/2011 12:48, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>> My general response is that if I had a problem, I'd tell them, and if
>>> not, the thing that really pisses me off most is customer surveys.
>>
>> The surveys are typically sent when you *have* told us about a problem
>> (or at least felt the need to contact us about something).
>>
>> The results from the survey help us determine/measure customer
>> satisfaction/disatisfaction.
>>
> What about 'the ticket is still open, you wankers' do you not understand
> or conversely, 'I have left your customer list' or 'the ticket is now
> closed due to satisfactory support'
>
> If you don't know yourselves whether your support is more useful than
> raw wet fish in a raspberry tart, why the **** should the customers have
> to tell you?.

The surveys aren't used /exclusively/ for customer
satisfaction/disatisfaction reporting. There's other stuff factored in
as well. IMO every little helps, and at least we care about and target
ourselves against this sort of stuff!

I've a feeling you're unlikely to share that opinion though

> Try spending a month on the support desk YOURSELF. Instead of employing
> market research companies and 'having meetings'

I already deal with my fair share of help desk enquiries.

--
|Bob Pullen Broadband Solutions for
|Support Home & Business @
|Plusnet Plc. www.plus.net
+--------------- twitter.com/plusnet ----------------

On Mon, 9 May 2011 09:49:05 GMT, spam-no-(E-Mail Removed)d
(Windmill) wrote:

>
>These surveys seem sometimes to be sent out when they surmise you're
>totally fed up with them and about to vote with your feet.
>
>What I find most annoying, though, is that the surveys are in the main
>designed to work only with Microsoft products and with recent browsers.
>
>If they *really* wanted my opinion, they would make the survey as
>compatible as possible, with no fancy bells and whistles which I may
>have disabled or which the browser may not even handle.
>
>As a basic test, they should check to see if the survey will work with
>a lynx text-only browser on a non-MS operating system.
>
>Better yet, they should devise a way to reply to their emails directly,
>without having to log in to any web site.
>If they were concerned that rivals might read what I said, they could
>ask for a PGP/GPG encrypted reply by giving out the necessary
>information about their public key. (Of course some people might be
>sufficiently annoyed to just send a plain-text reply regardless).
>They'd get spam, but there are ways to reduce spam.
>
>I've just received a "survey" request from Plusnet, who suspended my
>no-contract service at my request when I explained that I wanted to
>cancel because I'd been flooded out by a huge water leak from above,
>and the damage would take some time to repair.
>They offered to suspend instead, but now say they want some thirty to
>sixty pounds to reconnect me.
>And claim no longer to have a MAC code they could give out.
>
>To reply to their survey I'd need to log in to www.zoomerang.com/Survey
>first, but right now I've only got dialup and I'll be hanged if I'll
>wait twenty minutes for anyone's bloated bloody web pages to load!

Have you raised this issue on the PN newsgroups? Bob Pullen often
reads/posts there and he is usually very helpful.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

On Mon, 09 May 2011 15:05:56 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>What about 'the ticket is still open, you wankers' do you not understand
>or conversely, 'I have left your customer list' or 'the ticket is now
>closed due to satisfactory support'
>
>If you don't know yourselves whether your support is more useful than
>raw wet fish in a raspberry tart, why the **** should the customers have
>to tell you?.
>
>Try spending a month on the support desk YOURSELF. Instead of employing
>market research companies and 'having meetings'
>

How does that answer the 'How can we improve our service ' question. A problem
may be closed, but not dealt with in the most suitable way and if you wait until
they've left your customer list, it's a bit too late. I agree a lot can be
learnt by experiencing something yourself, but I doubt it would show the whole
picture in a largish organisation.

On May 9, 3:05*pm, The Natural Philosopher <t...@invalid.invalid>
wrote:
> Plusnet Support Team wrote:
> > On 09/05/2011 12:48, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


> >> My general response is that *if I had a problem, I'd tell them, and if
> >> not, the thing that really pisses me off most is customer surveys.
>
> > The surveys are typically sent when you *have* told us about a problem
> > (or at least felt the need to contact us about something).
>
> > The results from the survey help us determine/measure customer
> > satisfaction/disatisfaction.
>
> What about 'the ticket is still open, you wankers' do you not understand
> or conversely, 'I have left your customer list' or 'the ticket is now
> closed due to satisfactory support'
>
> If you don't know yourselves whether your support is more useful than
> raw wet fish in a raspberry tart, why the **** should the customers have
> to tell you?.
>
> Try spending a month on the support desk YOURSELF. *Instead of employing
> market research companies and 'having meetings'


Huge dissatisfaction with customer services seems to be a near
universal problem. Why do most companies get it so wrong?

Satisfaction sureys are hardly a great tool, they generally deny the
real issues. But they're still a tool with some use, and can help
improve things (some anyway) (later) (for others) (sometimes). When
they allow nothing but ticking boxes, they tend to just be exercises
in bs.


NT