I had lunch at the Olive Garden recently with a good friend. The service there is always good and the food is decent. Nothing fancy but then, fancy is not what I want or expect. Plus they have a tasty (and healthy) soup and salad lunch special.

While we waited for our food, a tall young lady stopped by to chat with us. She worked for the restaurant and asked if we wouldn't mind completing a survey card about our lunch. We both agreed to so she gave us each a card and left. Even though her visit was an interruption, she knew it and handled it well. She was friendly without being phony.

We both ignored the survey cards until we finished eating. First things first! But once we looked at them, we immediately had two different responses. My dining pal dove into his survey card. He complete every question. I, on the other hand noticed (and commented on) the huge quantity of questions. Plus each question had multiple possible answers. For me it was too much. By the time I reached the fourth question my eyes went hazy. I felt weak and dizzy. Then, finally, my brain synapses stopped completely. I couldn't continue.

I wanted to help them. I really did.

They went to a lot of trouble to make it easy and convenient for me to offer feedback. And I love offering feedback. It's sort of a hobby. Plus I was impressed at their efforts to get input from their customers. They even paid attention to what we ordered and gave us different survey cards based on our food selection.

This is a big part of what I preach. "Talk to your customers" I tell people. Because we should. We need to constantly communicate with our customers to learn what they want, what they expect, how we're doing and how we might improve.

So I was thrilled they were making such a valiant effort to extract information from us.

But I was also unable to help them. You see, the survey card they gave me was too much. It had 19 questions. And each question had an average of 5 choices. (Some had more, some less.) So, to help them get feedback about my meal, I had to wade through about 100 different responses.

Not going to happen!

There are people (like my dining friend that day) who are willing to go through dozens of questions and multiple answers point by point to complete a survey card like this. So for them, perhaps this sort of feedback mechanism works. But it didn't work for me. I hate foraging thought a lot of questions and answers. In fact, I hate surveys unless they have only  a few questions and can be answered quickly. A

I'm not suggesting companies forgo surveys completely. But I think this survey went over board. I think it's length will prevent them from getting a lot of useful responses.

It's better to make a smaller request of your customers. User a shorter survey. Don't have so many options for each question.

And, find other ways to connect with your customers. We all respond to different things so using one feedback method will not produce the best results. You need to use a variety. And, to get the best results, customer feedback should be ongoing not once in awhile.

What ways do you currently connect with your customers? How can they offer you feedback? Is it convenient for them? Is it useful for you?

If your answer is no to either of these last two questions then spend some time thinking and talking about how to do better. Ask your employees and your customers for their ideas. Then try some new ways to reach out to your customers and see what happens.