We all have customers. For some people this is quite obvious, because you actually have a product or service that you sell to people. But even if you don’t, you still have customers. Your boss is a customer of your employment services, your spouse or significant other is a customer of your “love services,” and so on. We have to make sure our customers like what they’re getting, and that means we need to make an effort to gather useful feedback.
I’ve always thought that GEICO had fantastic customer service, second only to Go Daddy. Not that I called GEICO all that much, but whenever I had a question about my bill or wanted to change my policy, they were knowledgeable, helpful, and courteous to a far greater extent than what you normally find. That’s why it pains me to say that they’ve just given me the worst customer survey I’ve ever seen.
A few months ago, I filed a claim for a 3-car fender bender I was in. Today I got a claims examiner survey because apparently my opinions about the claims service I received are important to them. Sure, I’m happy to help.
First of all, the survey is about my experience with the claims examiner, and I’m not sure who that is because I spoke to several people. They say:
Your Claims Examiner was the primary point of contact for you regarding your claim. He or she determined what was covered by the GEICO policy, and addressed all aspects of your claim except for inspecting and estimating your vehicle damage and handling your rental.
OK, so it wasn’t the guy who inspected and estimated the damage, but this still doesn’t clear things up. I spoke to one person when I filed the claim, I spoke to another person who took my statement about the accident, there was another person whose phone number I was given in case I had any questions, someone called me to say that I should no longer call that person if I had questions but this other person instead, someone (possibly the “other person”) left me a message saying to call her if I had questions but we didn’t really need to talk, and someone else called to say who was paying for what.
So who is the claims examiner? I think it’s the person who left me the message saying to call her if I had questions, but I never spoke to her. That makes most of the survey questions useless, but let’s continue anyway.
It starts with eight questions about discussing the details of the claim with my claims examiner. If I knew for sure who the claims examiner was and had actually spoken to her, I could answer the questions with no problem. They want you to use a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is unacceptable and 10 is outstanding. If any rating is 7 or less, you have to tell them why and what could have been done better.
First of all, 7 out of 10 is not a low score, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem. Second, if you make people provide that much feedback for scores of 7 or below, they’re likely to give 8s and above just to avoid that. Third, why don’t they want to hear about what they’re doing right? Fourth, the two lines they give you are not enough room to provide adequate detail for even one “7 or below” response.
There’s another question about how satisfied I was with the claim examiner’s explanation of who was at fault. The problem is, that explanation didn’t come from the claims examiner, at least not if they are who I think they are.
One of the questions asks how likely I am to recommend GEICO to a friend or family member. What does that mean? If someone specifically asks me for a recommendation for car insurance, then I’d recommend GEICO. But I’m not going to become an evangelist for them. So should I say 10 or 1?
Something that made me laugh was the question “What else could we have done to make this a far more satisfying experience?” Why do they need to say “far more?” Why presume that the experience was so awful that there’s tremendous room for improvement?
I’m sure GEICO spends a lot of money to send out, collect, and interpret these surveys. I’m also sure that the feedback they get is far less accurate and useful than it could be. Why not pick a few people and pay them $20 each for a phone interview about their experience? Then instead of getting a low response rate and arbitrary answers, they’d get people who were motivated to be as helpful as possible.
I have no idea how to answer this survey. I’m tempted to leave the answers blank and just send them a link to this post. It’s not what they asked for, but it would be far more helpful. Sometimes the best customer feedback you can get is answers to questions you didn’t ask.
Hi Hunter – I hate this type of survey. You’re always left with the impression that it’s designed to be an ego boosting exercise for the company – as opposed to discovering how the customer really feels.
Have to agree on GoDaddy service though. It’s excellent isn’t it. I had a problem when I bought a new domain from them. It wasn’t their fault – my host had given inadequate instructions on how to point the domain to the new site.
But, the host didn’t have a contact number – so I called GoDaddy on a weekend and they told me what to do straight away. They never once mentioned that I should really be calling my host.
So, the next hosting account I opened, I used GoDaddy.
Hi Hunter,
I say, send them a link to your post. That may motivate them to ask better questions, and hence, improve customer service.
It is amazing how different insurance companies deal with claims. Being in business, we have had several claims…some were handled immediately, others gave us the run around, before they paid the claim.
With those that gave us the run around, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, and made a mental note of who they are….so we never use them for our business insurance…which is a nice chunk of change.
Great post Hunter
“First of all, 7 out of 10 is not a low score, and it doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem. Second, if you make people provide that much feedback for scores of 7 or below, they’re likely to give 8s and above just to avoid that. Third, why don’t they want to hear about what they’re doing right? Fourth, the two lines they give you are not enough room to provide adequate detail for even one “7 or below” response.”
lol this is very true
They’re lucky you even bother to give them some feedback. Two questions in, if a survey is that much work, often times I’d chuck it/hang up
…unless the service was superb – I tend to be an enthusiastic customer when treated well and I’ll let em know it.
“Sometimes the best customer feedback you can get is answers to questions you didn’t ask.”
valuable point.. thanks for sharing
@Catherine, I’ve had similar good experiences with Go Daddy, even at 2 in the morning. Only once have I spoken to someone who was merely good and not great (he just seemed new and had to look up information that I bet most of them already know). Every other time, they’ve been extraordinary.
@Barbara, fortunately I didn’t have any problem getting the claim paid. Several years ago, there was a hail storm that damaged the roofs of a lot of houses in my parents’ neighborhood. Some insurance companies paid immediately, while others gave the runaround. It really does matter who you go with.
@JEMi, I know that most people would give up long before the end of the survey, but I found it so entertaining that I had to at least read the whole thing. Besides, it gave me material for this post!
Don’t we love competent people?
I like the “far more” part *grin*
Yeah Nicole, I liked that part too. They might as well have asked “How can we be less awful next time?”