I ordered a sandwich the other day and for some reason the poor kid asked me about a hundred times what I wanted on the sandwich. It got so bad that the last time he asked I just said “that’s good” simply so he could wrap it up and I could go.
Now he was trying to provide good service and get me exactly what I wanted but it just resulted in my getting annoyed.
Ever been to a restaurant and had the waiter or waitress ask you a zillion times how the meal is going? In the beginning this is great. Maybe you need some ground pepper or another drink and it’s awesome to have the help.
And then it gets tedious. You almost dread making eye contact with the person for fear that they head in your direction. You feel like your dinner conversation consists of single words because you can’t form full sentences before the freaking server asks you again “is everything to your liking?” “Well, it would be to my liking if you just left me the hell alone for 5 minutes so I could actually chew my food!”
And now, because all these companies want data, I get a stupid a survey every time I do anything. “'How am I doing?', 'how can I be better serve you?', 'please go on line and complete our simple 57 question survey.'”.
I think we can all love the idea of improving our customer experience but there is a tipping point where service becomes disservice. Where I no longer feel you are serving my needs but simply becoming a pest for more information.
And as soon as I get this feeling I see you as insincere. Then I stop trusting you. Then I stop going to your store.
In trying to find out if you are providing the “right service”, make sure that the way you gather feedback subscribes to that same goal.