I recently went on vacation and used a tour company.  The trip started in Paris, the first time I have ever been there and I wanted to make the most of it.  According to the brochure the hotels were, “handpicked” and in central locations.  Paris has 20 different neighborhoods which are called arrondissements.  The tourist locations which are ideal are between one through eight.

My hotel was in arrondissement 19, which means I was in the middle of nowhere.  It would take more than 2 changes on the metro to get into Paris proper and over 30 minutes.  The distance was not the only issue.  Two words: powdered eggs.

In a country that is home to the omlette, breakfast was a continental one with breads and meats and scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were suspiciously runny. It was then that someone in our group identified them as being powdered eggs.

Sure, I understand that the hotel is trying to make a profit and a way to save money is to buy powdered eggs and add water. Voila! Let’s fool the travelers.  (I am not going to talk about the dirty sheets.)

In the end, the tour company stressed completing the feedback form because, “we do listen.”

I have not heard from the tour company.  Actually, I did. They sent me a brochure.

If you are going to ask for feedback or ask for a completion of a survey, then you need to do something with that information.

1)    What are the questions you are asking and why?  For example are you looking for age information, what are your popular products or the value you provide?

2)    What are you going to use to gather information?  There is survey monkey online, but there is also social media or you can provide a mailing.

3)    How will you collect the statistical information?  Once you have the info then you need to set up interpreting the information.

You have collected this information so now what? Are you willing to change? Are you going to put this in your best practices? Will you reply?  Surveys and feedbacks can be great as they can bring to light legal issues and management issues along with marketing opportunities.   However, this can only happen if you do something with the feedback. Bonne chance!