Unlocking the Potential of the Micro Survey

Matt Dyer of Sabio discusses the benefits of using micro surveys in the contact centre and how they can improve the customer experience.

Everyone talks about providing great customer experiences, but how can you make that happen? Lack of communication on a recent flight I took brought home to me the need to make the customer feedback process as easy as possible – and also highlighted the valuable role that the latest micro survey approaches can play in making feedback as immediate and relevant as possible.

Sitting on the plane from Aberdeen to London last week, I was frustrated at the lack of communication from the pilot and cabin crew about delays to our flight. Also, when we eventually landed in London, we weren’t told that there would be further inconvenience as we waited for buses to transfer us to the terminal.

I was keen to complain but the only available channels were Twitter and Facebook. That may be fine for some circumstances, but I didn’t particularly want to share my frustrations in public – and I certainly didn’t want to have to go through a potentially complicated complaints process later in the day.

What I actually wanted was to give my feedback there and then, as quickly and simply as possible. Organisations may say that they’re constantly looking for ways to increase customer engagement and obtain service feedback, but the reality is that it’s not always easy to do so. What’s needed is a survey approach that encourages the capture of customer feedback at every level – from the first to the last touchpoint.

Pursuing this strategy would mean that you’re more likely to gather more proactive and balanced feedback from customers – not just the kind of polarised responses that come from either frustrated users or brand advocates.

So in my flight example, it would have been good to have an immediately accessible way of leaving feedback that was relevant to my experience at that particular stage of my journey. And as I was already looking at the seatback in front of me with car rental up-sell adverts and other offers, it struck me as a great location to publicise a feedback number – whether a QR or WhatsApp code, or an SMS number. Additionally, why not have one on the bus carrying passengers to the terminal – actually why not make them available across the whole flight experience?

Delivering the micro survey experience

This is exactly the kind of micro survey experience that’s now available as part of our Bright Navigator customer satisfaction platform. We know that successful feedback surveys need to be as short and easy to fill in as possible, and also that they need to be near real time so that organisations can capture the specific ‘moment in time’ that customers want to share.

Building more accessible surveys into existing customer feedback processes also means that you’re in a much better position to act on these customer insights. You’ll know exactly where the feedback’s coming from, and what’s gone wrong or right. That makes it much more actionable, and also cuts the time needed to make potentially important process improvements.

It’s also important to stress that introducing more accessible surveys isn’t only about capturing negative feedback. If the process is easy, then it will also provide customers with an opportunity to remind you about what you’re doing well. For example, as a regular air traveller I particularly like that Eastern Airways always provides free coffee during the flight, while I have to pay with other carriers. It’s not a massive deal for me, but it makes me more inclined to opt for Eastern when I have a choice. If I had access to a micro survey I would take the opportunity to thank them, and hopefully lots of other customers would too – giving their marketing team a clear indicator of what’s important to their customers.