After almost every interaction today, you get a survey.
Buy something—survey.
Call support—survey.
Quick chat—survey.
We get so many that most people ignore them unless something goes wrong. And when something does go wrong, the scores are harsh. That creates a built-in bias: feedback skews negative by default.
But volume isn’t the real problem. What we ask is.
There Are Two Problems Hiding Under “Customer Service”
Customer service is really two separate things:
- The service representative
- The product or process itself
Most surveys focus almost entirely on the first.
They ask whether the rep was polite, followed a script, or “resolved” the issue. Sometimes that’s fair—training and enablement matter. But in many cases, the rep is just the messenger.
The real issue is usually upstream.
Support Calls Are Signals—If You Listen Correctly
Customers don’t call because they want to. They call because something is broken, confusing, or poorly designed.
Every call is a data point pointing to:
- A flawed workflow
- A confusing feature
- A missing capability
Yet most surveys never capture this. Instead of learning why customers are frustrated, companies measure how well agents absorb that frustration.
That’s backwards.
Good customer service isn’t just handling problems well—it’s eliminating the reasons those problems exist.
Ask One Better Question
If you want useful feedback, stop asking ten shallow questions and ask one strong one.
Make it open-ended. Make it focused.
The question we use on our intranet is:
“What is the ONE thing that would most improve your experience with [Intranet Name]?”
The phrase “the ONE thing” forces clarity.
You get fewer answers—but better ones.
And they point directly to where time and energy should be spent.
Try it.
One Last Thing: Be Fair to Your Support Team
When customers do have a good interaction, reward it—clearly and consistently.
Service reps spend most of their time dealing with problems they didn’t create. They absorb frustration caused by broken products and bad processes, and they often get blamed for both.
If someone handled a bad situation well, give them a high grade.
They earned it.
Fix the system.
Listen better.
And don’t punish the people stuck holding the bag.