SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Did you have a good summer? I spent much of mine being a critic. Perhaps you did too. Take a flight - you get an email - tell us about your flight to Cleveland. Stay at a hotel - you get another survey - rate your stay. Go to a movie; have dinner; buy a garden hose, gym shoes, or a car; get your teeth cleaned, your cat cremated, buy a movie ticket, send flowers, or have an MRI, and often you're asked to rate the experience, like a Broadway opening. Five stars? Only two? Buy a book online - you're asked to rate the book, the author and the book seller. Call a customer service department and they ask you to rate customer service. I don't think Roger Ebert had to write as many reviews.
Many Americans may have developed survey fatigue over the years. Richard Oliver, professor of management at Vanderbilt, told The New York Times that frequent requests to fill out these surveys, especially with no incentives, have been so annoying that people just stop doing it. And do you think company presidents, airline chiefs and the heads of hotel corporations tremble in their suites as they wait to read your review? Oh, I hope they had a good time. The only way to read - there are quotes around that - reviews from the thousands of people who file off a 747, spend the night in a hotel or order bags of kitty litter is to run them through text recognition software, not people. So do all the reviews and ratings we're asked to make lead to anything, or do they just offer an illusion of solicitousness and add more names to a company's email base? Donna Fluss, the president of DMG Consulting, once told readers in Customer Relationship Management Magazine - which seems to be a good place, by the way, to find out how companies really see customers - that asking for feedback is great, but only if the information is going to be used to fix or change something.
For many customers, it's not just fatigue, but a feeling of futility, even foolishness. Survey results are closely held, but I'd be very surprised if the top complaint from the passengers of most any airline flight these days isn't the seats are too small. We're packed in here like dill pickle spears. But airline seats and space still shrink. The bottom line of profits for the airline and low price for flyers is more important than website grumbles and reviews. These days, there seems to be so much feedback, so little impact.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SATISFACTION")
OTIS REDDING: (Singing) I've tried. I've tried. I've tried. I have tried. I can't get me no - I can't get no - when I'm driving in my car and the man comes on the radio...
SIMON: Otis Redding, "Satisfaction." You're listening to NPR News.
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