Surveys

I've been thinking a lot about surveys and their usefulness. In an industry that is primarily customer service - be it HR, IT, or perhaps some manner of Facilities - there is often a lot of opinion out there about the job you're doing.

The problem with those opinions are:

1. They're usually negative,
2. They usually only come up when something is broken, and
3. You usually have to do some kind of work once you receive that opinion to fix or make something right.

Surveys provide you with valuable insight into the day-to-day operations of your job. I think a lot of people out there misuse surveys and simply tie them to giant deployments or otherwise milestone events. I believe that a random survey, be it triggered by x number of events or not, can probably be one of the most valuable insights you can get into the efficiency and opinion of the job you're performing. People will be forced to reflect on both the good and the bad aspects of your service in an equal light - not prompted by an issue.

For example, if you trigger a survey after, say, every incident that your support staff resolves, you'll get two types of surveys:

1. The "Oh my GOD he fixed my problem he is the best! I can work now!," or
2. I can't believe that broke and it took me so long to get my issue resolved. This is horrible service.

Both are true in some ways, but they are magnified by the urgency of the now, and are quite skewed.