The polls are in trouble. Nowadays, a person interacts with hundreds of companies, and most of them want to know your opinion. What do they resort to? To a survey. The result: thousands of forms flood our inboxes, while companies struggle with ever lower response rates.

The problem is simple: surveys no longer work as they used to. Customer saturation and fatigue have brought this feedback method to a critical point. In this article, we'll explore why this is happening and, most importantly, what we can do about it to improve the customer experience and gain valuable insights.

Burnout is real

People are tired of answering surveys. The numbers don't lie:

Only 30% answer telephone surveys on average.
In long surveys (30 minutes), less than half complete them.
The quality of answers plummets over time.

The result? Mediocre data that doesn't help you make important decisions.

Designing a good survey is a pain in the head*

Creating a survey that actually works is a complex and costly process. Requires: maybe

A solid theoretical base.
Careful question generation.
Validation by experts.
Proper implementation and sampling.
Rigorous statistical analysis.
Ongoing refinement and validation.↑

For most companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, this is simply not feasible. They don't have the time, the money, or the experience to do it right.

Surveys don't guide important decisions*

Here's the sad reality: According to McKinsey, 93% of companies use surveys, but only 6% believe they're useful for strategic decisions. Why? Because traditional surveys:

They're limited—they only capture a fraction of the customer experience.
They're late: by the time you get the results, the problem is over.
They are confusing: they don't explain the real causes of the problems.
They don't connect with ROI: it's hard to see how they impact the business.↑

Meme with the figure of a businessman with a worried face, in front of a graph of a falling stock market. The upper text says 'CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE' and below it says' OPINION ', suggesting that the customer's opinion of their experience is drastically diminishing.

It's time to innovate*

The future of customer experience isn't in more surveys. We need tools that:

Capture data in real time.
Analyze the customer's voice more naturally.
Connect directly to business metrics.
They're easy for any business to implement.†

At woku, we're working on solutions that do just that. Because we believe that understanding your customers shouldn't be a headache.

References

Woku (2024). Problem. Woku documentation. https://www.woku.app/docs/problema