Damn Those Pop-Up Surveys!

December 14, 2008 · 12 comments

“I hate these damn pop-up surveys!” a colleague cried earlier this week as she tried to complete a transaction on a Web site. And understandably so!With market competition up and the economic outlook down, it seems like pop-up surveys are bombarding us with increasing frequency. But in this age of permission marketing, it seems as if pop-up surveys too often cross the line.

Indeed, loyalty-measurement guru Fred Reichheld has underscored how surveys, when abused or improperly executed, can quickly become a negative ad campaign for a product or company brand. Still, online retailers frequently unleash them to ambush you as you attempt to fork over your credit card and hard-earned money. A lot of publishers are guilty as well, flashing them in front of your eyes, introducing a new layer of clutter on top of the ads beneath. Yikes!

To gauge sentiment on this issue, I recently polled my followers on Twitter (a highly opt-in interaction venue): “What do you think of Web site pop-up surveys? 1) Love them 2) Indifferent 3) Hate them. Please reply with your sentiment.”

During my 24-hour data collection cycle, 25 people responded. The tally? Fully 60% (15) replied that they hate pop-up surveys, while 40% (10) are indifferent. Not one single person voted “love them.”

I know, this was not a scientific poll (if there even is such a thing). Nonetheless, it provided convincing guidance that pop-up surveys are disliked, and tolerated at best. Moreover, the majority who replied “indifferent” commented that they most often ignore them, or answer them only if relevant and there is direct benefit.

Therefore, it is my theory that pop-up surveys are becoming far less effective and even more damaging over time. Still, collecting insights from actual customers as they use your products is critical.

Which begs the question: What is the most appropriate way to solicit feedback from customers? Are pop-up surveys ever appropriate? What methods do you use for your type of business?

Please let us know. You can vote in the comments.

(This also was my last MediaPost column.)

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  • PaydayPERX

    We use space on our offline product – print ads on the reverse side of major employer payroll checks – to either pose a clever (we hope) trivia question that requires a survey to get the answer to, or a low-cost item giveaway or high-odds contest (one in ten win two movie tickets, etc) as an incentive to motivate our user base to give us feedback. In our case the feedback is not just useful for self-assessment and improvement, but our advertising demographics data is supplemented by permission-based feedback from the actual users (as opposed to going solely on what the Payroll department tells us about the people receiving the checks, who are their employees and about whom they tell us, generally, as little as possible). Our brand is built on not being annoying, so we don't use popups for anything; we don't even require a registration or collect user data for our websites. Since we work directly with employers our issue is promotion rather than access to an audience. The audience is built in, the tough thing is coming up with lots of things they actually care about,

  • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

    That's an interesting approach. I wonder if there's a database of clever, non-intrusive techniques for engaging customers in insights transactions. What are the examples of surveys polls where participating is truly enjoyable?

  • http://www.paydayperx.com PaydayPERX

    Clever is key, which is why I would be suspicious of a database. What's clever to a PHP coder is not necessarily clever to a stockboy or shoe salesman. And the other thing is not asking idiotic questions like what my cell number is or what state and country I live in whan you have my zip code. I have yet to see a survey that asked for my twitter handle or friendfeed – our end users aren't likely to have them, but the people surveying me (a marketing VP) should be smart enough to ask me – and then smart enough to use that information for something. Too often surveys come off as no more sophisticated than an A/S/L check on some old school AOL chat, which was bad enough at AOL but inexcusable from Apple or LinkedIn.

    PS I have to congratulate you – your questions have prodded me to write a comment that's better than anything I've put on the company blog in a long time. Like everything else it's badly in need of an overhaul…

  • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

    I hope you’ll expand even more. If you could unpack your philosophy of best
    practices a bit more, perhaps even for your own blog, I’d be more than happy
    to republish you as a guest poster. Your blunt observation of idiotic
    questions is hilarious but true.

  • Pingback: How To Create Effective Surveys That Make Customers Love (Not Hate) You | AttentionMax

  • sandra0493

    great article!, grats for u site :)

  • pattiefmartin

    Very nice tips. Thanks for sharing!
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  • Delores

    I am going to start tading the surveys until I get to the end and find out what product they are advertising. Then I will back up and delete the answers and call the sponsoring original page. I've done that with my local library and they dropped it. Now I will let everyone know not to buy tooth brightener.

  • Delores

    I am going to start tading the surveys until I get to the end and find out what product they are advertising. Then I will back up and delete the answers and call the sponsoring original page. I've done that with my local library and they dropped it. Now I will let everyone know not to buy tooth brightener.

  • Pwf

    fuck the surveys

  • Fdsf

    Why do some websites make it a point to force a survey on users when they visit for the first time? Half of them are designed so that less experienced users can’t decline and leave. It just gives a negative impression from the beginning.

  • http://twitter.com/rationalsurvey Rational Survey

    You’re right about the fact that their overuse can lower their effectiveness – which is one of the reasons why we recently added a feature that allows users to add popup surveys that will only open on the first webpage visit. This way, you still solicit visitors for feedback but with minimal annoyance.

    http://www.rationalsurvey.com/blog/features/popup-surveys-open-first-visit-only/