Organisations are keen to know what their customers think of them. But anyone who has ever filled in a customer satisfaction survey may wonder just how keen. Long questionnaires, irrelevant questions and endless rows of ratings make giving feedback mostly a chore. Whereas a good conversation can be surprisingly enjoyable.
It usually starts out friendly. Your opinion matters to us. Or: Help us improve our service.
Fair enough. You were in touch with the company recently, and you do have a view on it. Maybe something went remarkably well, or maybe something annoyed you. And you're actually quite willing to say so.
Then question 1 of 24 appears.
Would you rate their availability out of ten? The employee's expertise. Their friendliness. The website. The information provided. Some questions are relevant; others have little to do with your experience. Yet every one of them has to be answered.
After ten questions, something changes. Where you were initially willing to help, now you mostly want to be done. That is remarkable. An organisation asks a customer to spend time and attention on improving its service, and then makes that experience thoroughly unappealing.
Giving feedback can be enjoyable too
Compare it with a conversation with someone who is genuinely interested in your experience. Someone who doesn't work through a list, but asks: so how did it actually go? You say it mostly went well, except for that one moment. They ask about it. You explain why it was annoying, and in the course of the conversation you may even think of how it could be better.
Then the nature of the feedback changes too. A respondent trying to reach the end of a questionnaire as fast as possible will stick to what's strictly necessary. Someone who feels they are really being listened to is more likely to explain, add nuance and think along.
A conversation like that feels different. Not like an administrative chore, but like giving an opinion that someone is actually listening to.
From filling in to telling
That is the principle behind ScoreStory. The respondent isn't led through a long, fixed questionnaire, but gets room to describe their experience in their own words. The follow-up questions are about what they think matters.
So the gain isn't only on the side of the organisation, which gets richer information. The research changes for the respondent as well.
That distinction is easily forgotten in customer research. We optimise questionnaires for measurability, comparability and reporting, but far less for one simple question: is this actually pleasant to fill in?
Organisations should stop treating feedback as information they are entitled to. A customer is giving something valuable: their time, their attention, their experiences and sometimes even ideas to make the company better. Anyone who wants more of that can start by giving something back. A conversation worth having.