What happens to all that juicy data from customer surveys? Not enough, according to the recent research report, Discovering the Real Answers.

The report, conducted by Strativity Group, states that companies are "conducting surveys to merely validate the value of their products and services," instead of using the feedback to drive change -- and that by ignoring the responses from their customers, companies do more damage than good in the overall customer experience.

"We've been [researching] the way companies respond to customers for years," says Lior Arussy, CEO of Strativity Group. According to Arussy, examining survey practices was a next logical step. "Are surveys really serving a purpose and meeting customer expectations, or are we just fooling ourselves?" he asks.

Strativity talked to more than 200 executives from various countries, industries, and company sizes about the impact and importance of surveys. The findings suggest that despite customers' expectations to the contrary, survey responses are rarely used to change and improve the customer experience.

Although nearly 60 percent of the respondents claimed that they design customer surveys with strategic intent, a majority (52 percent) felt their companies were instead seeking validation for current performance over direction for change and improvement. In fact, although half of the respondents said that their survey questions are designed to drive action within their organizations, more than 70 percent stated that there was very little follow up internally to change organizational behavior. And only 42 percent said that survey findings led to organizational changes made to help create a competitive advantage. "Not connecting customer-centricity with competitive advantage is the root cause of the problem," Arussy says.

Questioning the truth
Interestingly, some respondents indicated that their coworkers doubt the validity of their own survey results. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said their peers disagree with customers' responses. Not surprisingly, more than three quarters of the participants find it difficult to get buy-in for change within their organizations, and only a third claimed to have effective follow up internally in terms of changing the behavior of customer-facing employees. "It seems that some executives are trying to challenge the results of surveys, rather than working with the results to resolve customers' concerns," Arussy says.

However, about 45 percent said that they can link their survey findings to actions taken to improve the customer experience and resolve complaints that customers may have.

Solving the issue
Numerous respondents commented that they would like their customer surveys to provide more actionable results and suggestions. According to the report, this suggests that surveys are not being designed and executed effectively, and therefore fail to deliver meaningful results that drive actions. Customers' concerns in effect, are not being addressed. "It's shocking," Arussy says, "that companies do not realize that acting on requests and actually making profits is the definition of customer-centric; to disregard a customer's responses is to betray their trust."

To change the outcome of surveys and the way in which they are handled, Arussy suggests that the surveys themselves must address the tough issues -- and companies must be willing to listen to these issues and take action to fix the problem, rather than spinning the survey's outcome to hide the problem in the first place. "Companies need to look in the mirror and ask themselves if they're ready to act before their next study," he says. "If they're not ready to act, then please don't send out the surveys. Stop asking, and start acting."