From misrepresentative samples to insufficient use of logic gating, there are myriad mistakes companies make with their surveys—mistakes that lead to inaccurate, unscientific data. But the single worst customer survey mistake is having the wrong mindset. This happens when a company treats its customer survey like a task to be completed rather than a growth […]
While customer surveys may seem simple, there’s a lot behind them and a lot that can go wrong. Customer Success Directors know that surveys are complex. At the same time, they are charged with getting the survey done! That’s probably why one of the top questions I get is, “what are the hacks?” “What are […]
The NFT (short for Nonfungible Token) is a new asset class that’s as abstract as an investment gets. Unlike real estate or equities where you own property or a share of a company, an NFT only gives you an NFT; it points to nothing outside of itself. You don’t own a thing or even the copyright to a thing. So, on the face of it, NFTs shouldn’t be worth much. But in fact, they can sell for a lot! As in a lot a lot. Jack Dorsey sold the NFT to his first tweet (“just setting […]
In 1620, Francis Bacon broke with the conventions of his time by articulating a new approach to investigating nature. It’s what we now call the Scientific Method, a way of thinking which remains the gold standard for how we comprehend the world today. Instead of looking to fate or mysticism to explain nature, the Scientific […]
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Does your customer feedback include open-ended survey questions? If so, what are you doing with the verbatim comments? Are you simply reading them? Or, are you quantifying them and showing the actions you’re taking? My guess? You’re missing the one thing you need most. Rating questions show your scores, but verbatim comments do the heavy […]
Bill Gates said, “The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus.” And that about summarizes our current state. While it’s unifying how we’re faced with the same challenge, there’s significant variation among individual experiences. This is highlighted in the relationship between companies and their employees. So now more than ever, companies need insightful […]
Last Updated: April 10, 2026 Your customers are telling you what’s wrong. The question is whether anyone’s listening. Most companies collect feedback. They send surveys, track NPS scores, skim a handful of open-ended comments. But then nothing happens. The customer who took five minutes to explain a problem never hears back. The issue doesn’t get […]
Now that you’ve asked the Net Promoter question, what should you do with the follow-up question? Are you considering simply reading the comments, or using a word cloud to pull out major themes? Geoff Colvin writes in ‘The Simple Metric That’s Taking Over Big Business’ (May 2020, Fortune magazine) the star of Net Promoter is […]
Are you staying safe? How are you feeling? With staggering societal upheaval, you probably want to understand how your partners, staff, and distributors are responding to COVID-19. Do they have enough PPE? Where do they see things headed? A survey is a great way to capture these insights… IF it’s done well. One company told […]
The Los Angeles Times (Sunday, Feb 23, Business Section) describes me as “a vocal critic of survey culture.” Am I? Only sort of. It’s true, I often see companies pestering their customers with biased surveys. It’s also true I see many companies gleaning grossly gamed data from their surveys. But at the same time, when […]
Have you ever wondered if those surveys companies relentlessly send are biased or missing the point? You’re right. Most surveys are so flawed they’re broken.
Last year, I wrote about how Whole Foods asks customers to take their survey in a disorganized way. I also examined an Alaska Airlines Read more…
Lately, at Interaction Metrics, we’ve been discussing the difference between striving to optimize and striving to improve. Specifically, should you optimize your customer experience or improve it? I’ve come down on the side of customer experience optimization because improvement is just too vague. For instance, many of us equate service and manufacturing quality with the Japanese […]