Give us "feedback"!

We demand feedback! You have to give us feedback! Why haven't you given us feedback? We rely on your feedback!

And so it goes on. I suppose I have just lied to the last company after they demanded feedback on no less than five occasions. I told their "survey" I could not remember the transaction.

I do remember getting the product in question but the occasion itself is not seared into my memory. It was a very ordinary transaction. It was just the sort of thing I expected. I ordered. They responded. I paid. They delivered. That was the end of the story.

This "feedback" thing seems to be relatively new. Companies seem to be demanding it in order to advertise and in order to compete with similar companies. 

My view is that, if they are good, word will get around anyway. Word will get around if they are not good too. I am more likely to look for negative reports in order to avoid businesses. There is also what I call "the telephone test" to seek out competent businesses. If someone answers the phone within a short space of time and knows their own business they will get credit for it. If they do not know but call me back when they said would then it is much more likely I will want to do business with them. This is by no means foolproof but it is at least an indicator.

I get particularly irritated by people who refuse to accept my failure to respond to their demands. One individual actually told me I "had to respond". I told him I had to do no such thing. I also said I had not purchased the service in question and was not intending to do so. He was particularly persistent. He called back three times. The third time I put the receiver down firmly. 

I also know enough about writing surveys and conducting surveys to know that the format can influence the outcome. Ask me to give a rating on a scale of one to ten with no reference points and I want to strangle the writer of the questionnaire. There is no point in collecting data like this if you are looking to improve performance. It means nothing. If you are simply looking at ways to say "Eight out of ten dentists recommend our toothpaste" it might work - but that is not the same as "eight out every ten dentists recommend it".