Comments on: The Point of Surveys http://www.symphonious.net/2009/08/28/the-point-of-surveys/ Living in a state of accord. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:07:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Adrian Sutton http://www.symphonious.net/2009/08/28/the-point-of-surveys/comment-page-1/#comment-174238 Adrian Sutton Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:51:36 +0000 http://www.symphonious.net/?p=1232#comment-174238 I didn't update the post, but after filling out the survey it popped up another 4 times that same day insisting I fill it out again. If you're going to interrupt my work you'd better pay attention to that feedback *now* not just ignore it for 5 or 6 years. Log files don't interrupt work... :) I didn’t update the post, but after filling out the survey it popped up another 4 times that same day insisting I fill it out again. If you’re going to interrupt my work you’d better pay attention to that feedback *now* not just ignore it for 5 or 6 years. Log files don’t interrupt work… :)

]]> By: Nathan http://www.symphonious.net/2009/08/28/the-point-of-surveys/comment-page-1/#comment-174237 Nathan Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:59:48 +0000 http://www.symphonious.net/?p=1232#comment-174237 I've always thought survey's were a good thing to have. Taking an active approach to ask user's what they think gives a chance for balanced feedback. Otherwise you're probably only going to hear from irate customers with no indication of how wide spread actual problems or need for improvements are. So if they're not actually using the feedback, two points still spring to mind 1) As long as the user doesn't realise their feedback is being ignored, makes them feel like they have had a chance to vent their frustrations to someone. I had a hell of a time using birch's online site to book tickets on the iphone, but there was a comments section for me to vent in at the end so I felt a little better afterwards. 2) Just because its being ignored today, doesn't mean it's going to be ignored always. In the future someone who realises the value of all that user feedback they've collected can immediately begin to take action on it. As an analogy I'm sure we can all appreciate, we spit insane amounts of info into our app log files and never look at it for the most part, but the moment there's a problem we appreciate the ability to jump in and see just how often it's been cropping up. I’ve always thought survey’s were a good thing to have. Taking an active approach to ask user’s what they think gives a chance for balanced feedback. Otherwise you’re probably only going to hear from irate customers with no indication of how wide spread actual problems or need for improvements are.

So if they’re not actually using the feedback, two points still spring to mind

1) As long as the user doesn’t realise their feedback is being ignored, makes them feel like they have had a chance to vent their frustrations to someone. I had a hell of a time using birch’s online site to book tickets on the iphone, but there was a comments section for me to vent in at the end so I felt a little better afterwards.

2) Just because its being ignored today, doesn’t mean it’s going to be ignored always. In the future someone who realises the value of all that user feedback they’ve collected can immediately begin to take action on it.

As an analogy I’m sure we can all appreciate, we spit insane amounts of info into our app log files and never look at it for the most part, but the moment there’s a problem we appreciate the ability to jump in and see just how often it’s been cropping up.

]]>