Case Studies | Marketing | Best Practices
I’ve been super critical of annoying customer surveys; you know the type – when a company wants you to fill out a ten-minute survey about a five-minute call with somebody in customer support. I recently had an excellent experience with Apple, and the survey they sent me after was well organized because I could control how much time I spent with it.
In a blog post I wrote a few months ago Don’t Annoy Customers with Stupid Surveys, I said the problem with surveys is the customer service department is not aligned with the marketing department. They annoy consumers by sending a survey at an inappropriate moment in the customer journey.
Judging by the large number of comments I received in my blog post, many readers agreed with me.
I ordered the new iPhone 13 Pro Max when it was announced and picked it up in my local Apple store on the first day. Once I got my new phone, Harry, my Apple specialist asked if I wanted to set it up right away with his help. I was surprised he offered because they were quite busy.
Harry walked me through the setup and transfer of my data from my old iPhone and in a quick 15 minutes we were done. Harry was fun to chat with and I enjoyed the experience.
Soon after arriving home, I got a survey request. What made this one different is that I could offer as much (or as little) feedback as I wanted without the survey yelling at me that I didn’t finish.
I could just give a numerical rating (10 seconds) or offer a sentence of my thoughts (a minute or so). I could have provided more details if I chose. The survey experience made me feel like I was able to provide the level of feedback I was comfortable with.
Apple did a great job with my purchase from start (my pre-order) to finish (the survey). Yes, the products they sell are expensive, but they earn the loyalty of customers like me with every interaction.
By the way, the iPhone 13 Pro Max camera is amazing!
Photo: the very first photo taken with my new iPhone 13 Pro Max
