Closing the feedback loop on surveys: tell people what you learned

I get regular impassioned pleas to complete surveys for some product or group. Often multiple requests. I bet you do too.

But how often do you hear back from anyone about what they learned? Rarely, right?

A recent survey from AeroPress.com (sellers of the amazing human-powered espresso maker), had a surprising and engaging follow-up message: they shared results!

There are a few things I like about David's approach here.

He speaks in a human voice: "Such a ton of great feedback, thank you!"

He says thank you repeatedly.

He offers a download of the results.

He invites further feedback!! 

He goes on to tell the reader what they are going to do with the feedback they received -- launch a new product that responds to unmet needs. Now how cool is that?

In an age when every business is striving to engage customers, this approach really stands apart for actually BEING engaging.

Well done Aeropress.com.

What can you do with this idea?

How can you take this idea back into your own business? Are you doing surveys? (Silly me. Of course you are.) Do you ever go back to the surveyed people and provide them feedback?

For research with business people, it's often important to offer some feedback on what was learned in order to actually get participation in the research. They may like hearing what others said, or compare their own situation with the average situation, for example. So providing some feedback doesn't compromise anything secret, it just offers something of real value in exchange for their time and opinions. This is a recommendation I have made to many clients, and the smart ones follow through on it. (Hey, sometimes they even ask me to write the memo! Which is fine with me.)

If you used a panel to conduct the survey, you likely don't have permission to e-mail these folks directly. But you could still post something on your social media sites, liked Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or company blog. You could put something on your web site. You could issue a press release.

In your actual survey, you could ask people if they want a copy of the results, and to provide their e-mail address for that purpose. Then you could actually e-mail them a copy of the results, or even a subset of the results.

I'd love to hear from you if you like this idea (or don't like it!) or if you have ever tried it. What happened? Did your customers respond well? Was it hard to convince management to do this?