I would like to share with you my views of EDF and I would be more than glad to read other people's thoughts & insights about it.

We at Ransys Feedback Technologies believe that the primary use of EDF, which is the concept behind our innovative Attentive™ Customer Experience solution, is to improve customer experience and to coach service representatives.
Unlike the wide range of currently well-known survey methods, we think that EDF is distinct in that feedback is provided by the customers a short time after their interaction with the organization. The organization proactively asks the customers to provide their feedback about a specific service they were provided and contrary to traditional methods, they are not required to state their general satisfaction with the company.

Thanks,
Elad

Hi Elad,

I've spent many years in the survey/feedback "industry" and am probably the most opinionated person I know (smile). I have no problem sharing my thoughts, and I particularly have no problem critiquing survey constructs and the resulting feedback received.

A few random thoughts for you, whether you want them or not (smile, again) and whether they are important to you or not. They are random because I don't know your product, your particular level of involvement/interest, etc.

I run scared when I read things like "Unlike....currently well-known survey methods" as the well-known methods got that way for a reason...they work, they are actionable, they are built on statistics, normative data, etc. (NOTE: I'm not saying that your survey is invalid...not by any stretch of the imagination! I've never even seen your product. Just sharing with you where my head immediately went when reading your post. Hey, it's feedback!)

Does your survey construct address WIIFM (what's in it for me)? In other words, asking for feedback is one thing...what you do with the resulting data is quite another story. For a customer to WANT to provide you with data, what are you providing to them? The thought of "future, better service" is simply spin. If I provide you with feedback, I want to know that you care about my thoughts, my opinions. I don't much care if you ACTION my suggestions (that's your business), but I certainly want you to acknowledge my effort. The worst thing anyone can do is ask for feedback and do nothing. Unfortunately, this tends to be the norm. And I'm not talking about a "gimmee" here...you know, complete this survey to get $10 off your next purchase. I'm talking about someone from your organization contacting me to say "We are in receipt of your thoughts and opinions, and I just wanted to personally thank you for taking the time...". An email form-letter acknowledgement thingie is fine a time or two, but eventually, someone needs to reach out.

I'm interested in your statement re: traditional methods and that customers are not required to state their satisfaction. Does this mean that they are provided the opportunity? I agree wholeheartedly that this question/issue should not be required...but I would disagree wholeheartedly if they were not offered the opportunity to provide it. Know what I mean? I find that if a customer is inclined to offer feedback, they more likely than not want to also share their opinion of doing business you.

I hope I'm not coming across too much like the proverbial bull in a china shop...I certainly can have a tendency to do so! I'm glad that you posted, and glad to know of your organization.

ksb

Hi Karen,

First of all I want to thank you for your feedback, it is really important for me hear others thoughts & insights and this is why I have posted my note in the first hand.
Regarding your comments...
Many of the issues you are referring to in your feedback are well known for us and we get these questions all the time. Some of them are even part of the best practices that we gathered during previous implementation and that now we implement in current projects.
We strongly believe that it is not about quantity, but about quality; meaning, as part of our best practices we say that the # of feedbacks that you need to gather on each CSR is between 2-4 during one month. The purpose is for the team leader to be able to take care of those feedbacks, act upon them (train CSRs, retention actions, create learning opportunities and more).
The feedback we are getting from our customers who implemented our solution is that their customers are more than willing to provide them with their feedbacks, especially because the request for the feedback is done a very short time after their interaction with the organization; moreover, the questions that are being asked are in relevancy and in context to a specific interaction and this is why the response rates that our customers have are very high — around the 40%.
When referring to the opportunity that customers have to state their satisfaction I mean that the questions they are being asked are about their satisfaction from a specific CSR and the service he provided them with; and that is in contrary to traditional surveys that asked the customer to provide his overall satisfaction from the company's performance. You know what I mean?

Cheers,
Elad

Hi Elad,

My father-in-law, a fishing fanatic, has a saying for times like these...

You catch?

So, yes, indeed I do catch! But I still wonder if your survey offers the opportunity (free form field?) for the user to provide feedback on topic(s) beyond the scope of your intent? FWIW, I would often find the most interesting (and actionable) feedback when we weren't necessarily looking for it.

In terms of response ratio for event driven feedback - congrats. I think 40% is a pretty big deal, given my understanding of what you're doing!

Glad you are here! Glad to have another survey junkie around! (I'm no longer in the survey business, but I do keep close tabs on it!)

ksb

Karen,

Fathers in law always have those kind of sayings... :)

If you like, I can arrange for a 1 hr web-meeting with our Senior Methodological Consultant, which I think can be very beneficial for your understanding of our solutions.
It is merely an offer so feel free to say "no", although "yes" will be my preferable answer... :)

Cheers,
Elad

Elad,

So sorry that I must come back with a negative for now! I appreciate the offer, but am not in a position to be able to take advantage of it at this time. My org is pretty tiny, size-wise. I'll remember though, if the time comes!

You catch? (LOL)

Best,
ksb

no problems. I catch ...