Establishing Quarantine Periods That Respect Go-Karting
I love go-karting. Highly recommended, brilliant fun, and I dare you to beat my times around the track. Yesterday, I checked my e-mail as I was heading out to go go-karting again, and in my inbox was yet another survey from one of my favorite retailers. Now I don't know about you, but go-karting is one of a zillion things I prefer over filling out another survey, so I just ignored it. Am I really alone in thinking this way?
One of the many challenges of structuring a successful customer feedback program is that your customers are busy people; busier than ever, in fact, with bills to pay, deadlines at work, laundry at home, you know the drill. People who, like you and me, get bombarded by distractions that hinder them from focusing on the things that matter most. Oftentimes survey invitations are seen as, at best, low priority and, at worst, spam.
So what principles can we establish that respect our customers' time? What are the best practices in quarantine rules that uphold the value of our customers yet achieve the desired goals of our program?
Here are a few general recommendations:
First, choose a 90- to 180-day quarantine rule, depending on your sample size. If you're looking to collect feedback on a specific type of experience, the 90-day rule invites customers four times a year, and we've found this won't overwhelm them. If you're performing a census with a tremendous amount of volume, consider the 180-day quarantine. Your number of completes will be lower compared to the 90-day (fewer invites, fewer completes), but you'll end up inviting more people with a broader census, which should balance that out.
Second, if you have multiple survey programs that allow you to obtain feedback on different touchpoints (store, call centers, online, and so forth), protect the customer from multiple invites. For instance, when customers visit your brick-and-mortar store AND your online store in the same week, give one program the priority and learn about only that experience.
Third, some programs should be immune to quarantine rules altogether. You don't want to miss feedback on infrequent but large transaction items simply because of dogmatic quarantine rules. For instance, when a customer receives an oil change in one month, then purchases a new automobile the next, you'll want to ensure you capture that critical feedback regardless of any imposed quarantine.
And finally, remember that each program is unique. These and other recommendations should be applied after considering the particulars of your program, your industry, and your business model. Reader discretion advised.
Respect your customers' time with good quarantine rules, and then instead of filling out another survey, they can do something more exciting. Like go-karting or, in today's case, taking my wife to the city to see a musical. That is, drive 40 miles, pay an exorbitant amount for a parking spot—if I can find one—and watch people burst into song for no particular reason. Yup, there are a zillion things I'd prefer to do, and FYI, seeing a musical is not really one of them. But don't tell my wife.
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