I received an e-mail from Macy's this morning letting me know my December bill was now due. Unfortunately, I hadn't used my Macy's card in a while and couldn't remember the information necessary to login. Even more embarrassing, I entered my e-mail address incorrectly, so the site was unable to e-mail me the login details. What can I say? I never e-mail myself! So the computer screen popped up asking me to call customer service, which resulted in me speaking with an individual who was very professional and helpful. She didn't even make me feel foolish!

At the end of the call she did something more and more companies are doing these days. She let me know I may get an e-mail survey asking for feedback about the call and asked me to complete it. But she didn't ask me to score the call 'excellent', like so many other corporations are doing. Instead, she told me they were really interested in improving my experience. Wow! Talk about making me feel like they really care!

I don't know about you, but when I am asked to complete surveys and told what to respond, it doesn't make me feel as if they are really interested. I've been told I should check all 'excellent' responses because the employee's compensation is based upon the survey results and I would negatively impact his children, received phone calls reminding me what my response should be, or my favorite: the time when I was handed a survey already completed (for my convenience, of course), and was asked to sign and mail it in. To date, I have never completed a survey when asked to fill in specific results.

Ask your clients to complete the survey and let them know you are genuinely interested in their opinion. Chances are, if the experience was 'excellent' they already know it.

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