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Who else is sick of being surveyed?

1K views 34 replies 21 participants last post by  High/Deaf 
#1 ·
Every couple of days I get a request to complete a survey. I get that companies want to improve but I'm sick of being a free source of constructive feedback. I'm done with surveys at least for a while. Anyone else?
 
#7 ·
I never do these surveys. I work in the IT department of a company that designs survey programs for businesses. Mostly mystery shop programs. So we don't call people up. We run these programs for our clients who pay us to do it.
So I never do these free surveys. It feels like I'm doing something that I should be getting paid for.
 
#9 ·
I have always refused and always will. Completing a survey usually does two things:

1. Tells strangers something about you that they - or someone else they sell your information to - can use in a future attempt to sell you something, and

2. Tells strangers that you're willing to complete surveys and share information about yourself.

The second is often more valuable than the first. A primary reason that political polls have lately sometimes been way off in predicting results is that ever-fewer people are reachable and willing to complete surveys. Knowing about people who *will* complete surveys is a big asset in the information age. Getting yourself on some of those lists will certainly get you more requests to complete surveys.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Huge databases are being developed by some of the biggest companies in the world, and by government agencies, and at least some of them likely already contain profiles of you and your life and your interests that might shock you in their detail and their accuracy. Some of the information in them contains or is extrapolated from innocuous online surveys you've completed.
 
#13 ·
Sometimes I'll do them, buy not very often, and only if the subject matter is of interest to me as a survey designer.

Political polls are less accurate these days because landlines can't be relied on to identify a truly stratified random sample as they would have been 25 years ago. If anybody asks me something I would rather they not know, I simply decline to answer the question. When it comes to market-research surveys, companies tend to piggyback on a survey, such that multiple products might be asked about in the same survey. The majority of them are things that simply don't apply to me, so that makes such surveys a lot shorter.
 
#14 ·
I will do them only if they are directly from a company or organization I have a relationship with. Quite often they are trying to rationalize moving forward with feature requests or trying to understand end user work flow. Izotope and Universal Audio come to mind, and the reciprocate by bringing out new products or services that are useful.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Actually, organizations, and organizational units that specialize in surveying the same group of people, worry about "survey fatigue". Trouble is, they don't all necessarily talk to each other to know just how much surveying is going on, overall, being primarily concerned with their own surveying objectives, rather than the general public's interest in being, or willingness to be, surveyed.

I worked for many years in the area of employee surveys, both designing survey instruments and analyzing and communicating data patterns. Canada had surveyed its employees every 3 years to identify systemic issues, and the outcomes of any interventions intended to fix those issues identified in a previous survey ( Public Service Employee Survey - Canada.ca ). The Americans have a similar survey ( OPM.gov ), but under GWB, it was mandated to take place EVERY year, and the UK followed suit a few years back ( Launching the 10th annual Civil Service People Survey - Civil Service ) with an annual survey. In both the U.S. and U.K. survey results have gotten more sour in many areas, year by year, and I have noted to many colleagues in both circles that this is partly a result of the annual repetition. I have consistently reminded decision-makers at Treasury Board that an annual cycle is unwise, for those reasons, but because the Yanks and Brits are doing it, senior management determined that we should too.

One of the maxims of organizational surveys is that you don't ask questions about things you either have no intention to fix, or can't fix (e.g., "Do you feel you are compensated fairly, compared to people in the private sector doing similar work?"), simply because every employee survey is an implicit promise to improve anything you inquired about. And because many systemic issues can take a while to turn around, asking again, before things have turned around, will generate highly cynical responses/opinions, because you haven't fixed it yet. Not so much a consequence of survey fatigue per se, as fatigue with what seems to be hollow good intentions from management. Of course, that little bit of experienced-based insight doesn't appear to persuade senior managers who think that there is no difference between an employee survey and a quarterly financial report - you simply gather the data, right? And of course, because every organization has retirements and departures each year, in addition to fresh blood being recruited, the impact of new hires thinking everything is peachy keen, tends to buffer the jaded views of remaining longer-tenure employees, such that the overall aggregate result gets a bit worse every year, but still looks remediable.

All of this is to underscore that over-surveying has its costs. It doesn't just piss off people picking up the phone, but can also yield misleading results.

I will close by noting that retailers can dangle the possibility of large prizes and gift certificates in front of me all they want. I will not be completing their customer surveys because I am not interested in receiving the glut of e-mail offers sure to follow, or in having to unsubscribe from all the things I would need to unsubscribe from.
 
#21 ·
Actually, organizations, and organizational units that specialize in surveying the same group of people, worry about "survey fatigue". Trouble is, they don't all necessarily talk to each other to know just how much surveying is going on, overall, being primarily concerned with their own surveying objectives, rather than the general public's interest in, or willingness, being surveyed.

I worked for many years in the area of employee surveys, both designing survey instruments and analyzing and communicating data patterns. Canada had surveyed its employees every 3 years to identify systemic issues, and the outcomes of any interventions intended to fix those issues identified in a previous survey ( Public Service Employee Survey - Canada.ca ). The Americans have a similar survey ( OPM.gov ), but under GWB, it was mandated to take place EVERY year, and the UK followed suit a few years back ( Launching the 10th annual Civil Service People Survey - Civil Service ) with an annual survey. In both the U.S. and U.K. survey results have gotten more sour in many areas, year by year, and I have noted to many colleagues in both circles that this is partly a result of the annual repetition. I have consistently reminded decision-makers at Treasury Board that an annual cycle is unwise, for those reasons, but because the Yanks and Brits are doing it, senior management determined that we should too.

One of the maxims of organizational surveys is that you don't ask questions about things you either have no intention to fix, or can't fix (e.g., "Do you feel you are compensated fairly, compared to people in the private sector doing similar work?"), simply because every employee survey is an implicit promise to improve anything you inquired about. And because many systemic issues can take a while to turn around, asking again, before things have turned around, will generate highly cynical responses/opinions, because you haven't fixed it yet. Not so much a consequence of survey fatigue per se, as fatigue with what seems to be hollow good intentions from management. Of course, that little bit of experienced-based insight doesn't appear to persuade senior managers who think that there is no difference between an employee survey and a quarterly financial report - you simply gather the data, right? And of course, because every organization has retirements and departures each year, in addition to fresh blood being recruited, the impact of new hires thinking everything is peachy keen, tends to buffer the jaded views of remaining longer-tenure employees, such that the overall aggregate result gets a bit worse every year, but still looks remediable.

All of this is to underscore that over-surveying has its costs. It doesn't just piss off people picking up the phone, but can also yield misleading results.

I will close by noting that retailers can dangle the possibility of large prizes and gift certificates in front of me all they want. I will not be completing their customer surveys because I am not interested in receiving the glut of e-mail offers sure to follow, or in having to unsubscribe from all the things I would need to unsubscribe from.
Well said. I learned that last lesson early on in life when I filled out entries for prize drawings at the Ottawa Home Show. This was closely followed by a glut of phone calls and emails. Luckily, that was so long ago that I'm quite a few email addresses and phone numbers away from that. Never again.
 
#22 ·
The more you're on line, and the more 'free' places you go, the more surveys you're bound to attract.

Stuff like streaming movies, Podcasts or TV shows. That's why I prefer to pay a monthly cable bill - I never get survey requests popping up in the middle of Three's Company reruns. The increased pic and sound quality is just a bonus.

Phone surveys crack me up. As soon as I state my hourly rate and request a PO #, they move on. My time ain't free, unless I'm doing what I want to do.
 
#27 ·
My background is in IT management, and because of all the hardware/software/network products we used, there were always lots of requests for survey information by phone. My standard response was that my hourly rate was $200, with a minimum charge of four hours. If they wanted to send me a check for $800 (plus taxes, of course), I'd be happy to take their survey. That was 100% effective. Nowadays, phone contact is very rare for surveys, it's all internet based. Those annoying little app windows get closed/deleted pretty fast, and this method is also 100% effective. Time wasted, though.
 
#31 ·
I just did a Home Depot survey for a chance of winning a $3000 shopping spree. One of the answers to all the questions was "extremely satisfied". I've never been extremely satisfied while shopping for anything. Maybe if everything was given away free of charge but that would be it.
 
#32 ·
I generally don't pick up the phone unless the call display indicates its a friend or an entity with which I deal. However if I pick up the phone in error and its a survey caller, the conversation goes like this:

Caller: I am calling to ask you to participate in a survey on your spending habits.

Krelf: OK. Are being paid to make these calls?

Caller: Yes, this is my job.

Krelf: Is your employer selling the information he gets from these surveys?

Caller: Hmm...yes, I think so.

Krelf: Well if everyone is making money on these surveys, how much are going to pay me for my time in responding?

Caller: Unfortunately we don't pay respondents for their answers.

Krelf: Would you work for nothing if people were making money from your time and effort?

Caller: Well...no

Krelf: Then why do you expect me to?
 
#33 · (Edited)
I generally don't pick up the phone unless the call display indicates its a friend or an entity with which I deal.
At the *moment* I recognize the call is a solicitation my "conversation" goes like this: "Take us off your list and don't ever call us again for any reason" <click> I think it worked after a while... for 6-8 years our neighbors would sometimes talk about all the calls they were getting (we lived in a somewhat affluent area) but we were getting virtually none.

Contradicting that...

We now have only unlisted cell phones, no land lines. I've been getting calls for about a week on my cell, makes me berserk! The caller ID is "Early OEP" and the number is from a different U.S. city every time. I've had as many as four calls in one day, and am literally on the line waiting for Rogers (36 minutes on hold so far! Grrrr!) as I'm typing this to see if there's anything they can do to block the calls.

The voicemails they leave claim that they are selling health insurance. (Great way to collect a bunch of personal information from anyone unsophisticated enough to return their call and answer their questions.) A search on the web reveals that whoever is making these calls has been doing it for at least a couple of months all over North America. Somebody should go to jail over it.

EDIT: Finally talked to Rogers, nothing they can do to block the calls even though the caller ID is always the same "Early OEP".
 
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