A couple of days ago, I moved some money out of one of my savings accounts and into my current account.
As both accounts are with the same bank, this was a very quick and easy thing to do, taking less than two minutes from start to finish. An ‘everyday’ transaction, I would imagine.
So, I was surprised when yesterday, I got an email from the bank, asking me to take part in a survey regarding my recent transaction. As I had nothing better to do for five minutes, I clicked on the link and was taken to a page which asked all the usual stuff: Male/Female/Other; Age, etc. And then it asked me to rate on a scale of 1 to 10, how easy it was to make the transaction.
I gave it a 9 (I’m like Craig Revel Horwood when it comes to giving out 10’s).
The next question caused me to just give up on the survey and close it: Based On Your Recent Money Transfer, How Likely Are You To Recommend Us To Friends And Family?
WTF?
I cannot imagine a single scenario, where a friend – or family member – tells me about a problem they had transferring some money at their bank and I say to them “Oh, you should try HSBC… they’re very good at transferring money between their internal accounts. I scored them 9 out of 10, y’know.”.
This sort of question appears on so many surveys and every time I just back out of it, because I no longer recommend anything to anyone.
This is partly because, some years ago, a neighbour was having problems with their internet connectivity. I looked at it for them and deduced that their broadband provider was the issue. I recommended that they switch to Virgin Media, which they did.
All was well for a while and they were well chuffed, but then they started having problems. Big problems, both with their connectivity and with their billing. It went on for months and it caused them a lot of grief and they told me that they wished they had never signed up.
At that point, I wished I’d never told them to.
I felt bad, even though I had suggested it to them in good faith. I was a VM customer for 25 years or more and I never had a single issue or problem with them.
But maybe not everyone is so lucky.
So now, I don’t recommend anyone, or any service, to anybody.
I do a lot of Yougov surveys. Some of the questions they ask are bonkers. Stuff like:
Of these brands which one do you trust ethically?
On a scale of 0-9 how much do you value these brands?
Which of these telecoms companies do you trust to deliver quality good and services?
If I wasn’t being paid for my opinions I’d jack it all in.
“Which of these YouGov Survey reviewers do consider is only doing it for the money?” 🙂
Generally i don’t do surveys unless I have had a bad experience or really good one. niche customer type 🙂
I’m happy to do the survey, I just don’t like those stupid questions.
I have been known to write that I have better things to talk about to my friends than their rubbish bank/shop/service whatever!
Waitrose regularly email me to ” review your recent purchases”. What do they expect……I bought milk, it made my tea less black. The cheese melted nicely on top of the toast……I ignore that survey!
Glad to see that I’m not alone in this, Frances!
Only this morning I received an email from my broadband supplier asking me to give them a review, despite me giving them a glowing critique less than six months ago!
Maybe we all need to start getting sarcastic with our survey replies.