This is a bit of a rant post so if you don’t like rants, skip this post. This week I’ve received a dozen emails all asking for “feedback” for a recent call/service/product/whatever that I participated in. In one case (AT&T), has now spammed me three times to do their stupid survey and guess what, I never even called or interacted with them. We had an outage and they gave me a credit and now I guess they want endless praise for doing their job.
- I ordered spices for my mother for Mother’s Day, they want feedback.
- I ordered a product from Amazon, they want feedback.
- I flew on a flight, they want feedback.
- I ordered a pizza online, they want feedback.
- I stayed at a hotel for business, they want feedback.
On and on, this feedback survey loop needs to end. Most companies offer a way to opt out but I never wanted to opt in to begin with so either way, these corporations are creating work for me to either respond to the survey (usually with negative feedback since I’m annoyed) or I have to navigate through opt out options on their stupid website and half the time, the site is broken.
If there’s a sure way to make me NOT want to ever buy your product again, just spam me with stupid surveys and that’ll do it.
I do have a method of minimizing this spam and that’s by using disposable e-mail addresses that I can disable and enable on a whim. I use this frequently with Domino’s pizza. I enable the disposable email address, order the pizza, get the confirmation and wait till the pizza is delivered then I disable the email.
If I don’t do this, I will get endless spam for surveys, coupons, or other “helpful” information I never had any interest in receiving.
Unfortunately, some of the email addresses are too critical for me to disable and enable because other services are tied to it.
Feedback surveys are the ultimate useless and pointless exercise. How many times have you told your airline that their baggage time sucks, their seats are too small, and their planes never take off or land on time and how many times have they done anything about it?
How many times have you suggested a company do something year after year and only have them do nothing because what you suggest will cost money, eat into their margin/profits or require actual improved services?
Can AI help?
I have been baffled why there aren’t better tools to manage email. I’d like to tell my email inbox AI to trash all surveys and feedback requests but it doesn’t have that option yet.
Share The Wealth
Do feedback surveys trigger you? If so, let me know what you’re doing about it.