How you request for customer feedback can make you sound like a drone

Last week I downgraded a service that I use. I only needed it on a higher plan for a short time and didn't feel like paying for the extra capacity.

A few days after downgrading I got this email (names omitted to protect the guilty).

Hi there,

I saw you downgraded recently from Company. We're a small team and constantly trying to learn more about what we can do to make the product more valuable for people like you. If you have even just 2 minutes to send a quick email about your thoughts on the product, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your time!

John Doe CEO Company

On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 11:16 AM PST, Edavis10 wrote: > > customuser #100000 says because: > > Checked: Only needed it for a short time. > Comments:

It's a decent email to use to ask for feedback but they made a couple of mistakes.

Mistake #1: If you read the quoted email at the bottom you can see that I already gave my reason for the downgrade "Only needed it for a short time." and that I declined to add additional comments. The phrasing of asking for "your thoughts on the product" feels like this is just a generic, automated response.

I bet if I said "I hate your product and wish your horse becomes lame" I would have got the same feedback request.

Mistake #2: Then seeing my feedback quoted in the email chain with some garbage data (customuser #100000) and my username (Edavis10) makes this feel even more automated and non-personal.

As far as automated feedback emails go, it's okay. They could be doing worse, but the impersonal nature of it doesn't make me want to respond at all.

That's a loss for them and their company, which I enjoy using.

Adding automation and process to your business is great for you as the business owner. But you need to remember to look at what you're doing from the perspective of your customer too.

These requests for feedback (or reviews) may be the last time a customer hears from you. You don't want that last time to sound like a drone, especially when you're up against the Chief of Robots... Amazon.

Eric Davis