How customer feedback destroys the service experience
Product or service ratings have developed themselves as a currency in themselves and are a key pillar in the success of a product. New potential users profit from the ratings offered by others. But the experience can become less positive if the user is spammed with requests to rate the product or service.
Holidays in Italy!
A few weeks ago, I was on vacation with my son in Italy. We traveled from Rome up to Venice with a camper van and organized the trip ourselves. I booked all services over the internet. An AirBnB in Rome, the camper, camping sites and lots of cultural activities via Getyourguide.
Everything went well until each service was finally delivered, then the spamming started:
Within eight days I received about 35 customer feedback emails for the 7 services I had booked. Only one service did not ask for feedback, and if not for other things, I loved this service most for not bothering me.
We also did some guided tours and the last 10 minutes were reserved for the guide to explain how important the ratings are, how well we need to rate so that it is positive for her, and that her salary depends on positive ratings!
This did not feel good
This amount of spam in combination with the persistence and appeals to guilt really had a negative impact on the experience itself, because I could not just enjoy the service. I was asked to build myself an opinion and interact with the service provider again, instead of just enjoying and looking forward to the next event.
In some cases, I even rated the service just because I knew that I would be prompted to do so over and over again. In one case, I rated negatively and that was a mistake, too. They of course followed up on issue, which brought something I tried to forget to my consciousness again.
Consequences
As a user I draw a few conclusions from this:
- I may not use some of those services again because I felt overly chased by emails in general (why do I need 10 emails for buying a skip-the-line-ticket?) and particularly the demand to rate.
- I don’t want to have bad feelings because I choose to not rate an experience.
- I have lost trust in the ratings because I assume that other also only rate services because the provider follows them up closely and that may only be positive because the customer fears they will be bothered otherwise.
Recommendations to service providers
- Give your users room to breathe – don’t send messages right after the experience or even during it.
- Don’t send reminders – if your users want to rate, they will do it, but maybe not immediately.
- Be cautious with the language you use – don’t create pressure or guilt feelings.
- Don’t actively invite every user for each event – make sure they don’t get more than x emails in a certain period of time, even if they have booked several services.
Author
Wolfgang Waxenberger
Wolfgang begann seine Tätigkeit als UX-Profi im Jahr 2004 nach Abschluss seines MA in Politikwissenschaft und Soziologie. 10 Jahre lang leitete er SirValUse Consulting und die UX-Abteilung von GfK, bevor er uintent gründete. Wolfgang’s Schwerpunkt liegt auf Auto- und Healthcare Research.
