Mind Blindness, Asperger's, and Why Consumers Hate Surveys

CX’s Bill Maher Moment

CX’s Bill Maher Moment

New York Times Article

• Is this something you’d want said about you, personally?

• If it were said about you, what would that indicate about you?• Insecure• Tone-deaf• Self-centered

New York Times Article

What’s going on here?

What’s under the surface of thecustomer’s antipathy toward surveys?(Hint: It’s not the length of the survey.)

Is survey fatigue about time?

• Max (Sr.)’s Rule: Brevity is good – but not brevity for brevity’s sake.

• Why do people share feedback?• Incentive?• Do they work for you?

• Max (Jr.)’s Rule: Never behave in an online feedback experience in ways you wouldn’t were you face-to-face with a customer.

What happens in healthy face-to-face feedback?

Actions

Often doing most of the talking

Actions

Doing most of the listening

Demonstrating empathy: verbal and non-verbal acknowledgement

Adjusting responses to meet emotional level

Sharer of Story

Receiver of Story

What happens in healthy face-to-face feedback?

Outcomes

Feels listened-to Feels validated Feels important

Outcomes

Better informed Can better separate emotion from

fact More credible for having listened

Sharer of Story

Receiver of Story

Both sides leave the conversation feeling more invested in the relationship

What happens in unsuccessful face-to-face feedback?

Actions

Often doing most of the talking

Actions

Not listening authentically

Either not sending non-verbal queues…or sending the wrong

ones

Failing to meet the sharer’s emotional level

Sharer of Story

Receiver of Story

What happens in unhealthy face-to-face feedback?

Outcomes

Feels like he’s not being listened to

Positive emotion reduced Negative emotion compounded

Outcomes

Better informed? Less able to separate emotion

from fact Perceived as less credible and

authentic

Sharer of Story

Receiver of Story

Leaves conversation feeling less invested in the

relationship.

We’re wired to have a negative reaction to many surveys

• When sharing feedback, we’re predisposed to desire a degree of empathy. So, what’s going wrong in most Cx surveys?

❌ Whether we’re sharing a positive or a negative experience, we’re not receiving an empathetic response. (In fact, we might be receiving a counter-productive one.)

❌ We’re being asked questions without any “conversational context”.

❌ There’s no association with real people – the employees of the company, for example.

What would we call this behavior in a person?Mind Blindness

• Term popularized by the British psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen to describe adults and children with Asperger’s Syndrome

• People with Asperger’s have difficulty decoding language (and body language) in a social context

• They can struggle to respond in the ways their conversational partners usually expect – frustrating and unsettling for both sides of the discussion

Mind Blindness

What can we learn from how therapists offer help to those with Asperger’s?

Lessons from Asperger’s Research

• The focus is not on teaching empathy – but rather on mimicking empathetic responses

• What are some responses that therapists coach?• Personal eye contact• Nodding (To signal disagreement or agreement)• Statements of encouragement• Knowing when to give control to your interlocutor

• In solicited feedback, we need some kind of conversational context™

Example Case: High-end Hotel, Singapore

Case Comparison

Example Hotel Survey Mind Blindness Comparison

• Over the course of many minutes, shifts subjects with little or no warning

• Introduces concepts without introducing the human factor behind them. (People respond to people, not forms.)

• Hop-scotches and often repeats questions in an erratic way

• Doesn’t respond or change course based on what happens

Hallmarks of any Emotionally Intelligent Cx Survey

4 hallmarks of a highly functioning Cx survey

• Provides conversational context

• Humanizes the experience

• Responds and changes course based on situation – always putting the course of the customer conversation ahead of the data collection

• “Nods” – reinforcing that real people will read and think about the response

Watch Out! The Peak-End Rule Pitfall

• Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice .

• Peak-end Rule says that in memories and consumer experiences what matters most is the highlight of the event and the final experience.

• Any mind-blind survey as the “end” experience factors against whatever “peak” experience you created.

Follow-up Notes

• Watch for the recorded version of this webinar within 24 hours. Feel free to share it.

• We’ll include links to the Ideas & Inspiration articles referenced.

• We invite you to do a one-on-one VoC or Survey Diagnostic. It’s free – and as part of that we’ll send along copies of any of the books we reference “on the house”.

Question & Answer