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Standard Email Survey Request, New Section

Standard Email Survey Request, New Section

Old Mar 5, 2018, 2:13 pm
  #1  
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Standard Email Survey Request, New Section

I just received the standard DL “How Did We Do?” linking to the online survey. After my standard answers which basically include “How good can a snack basket be” I came upon a section asking about premium earbuds and reduced price music service subscriptions as additions to Medallion benefits. The earbud section was asking if I cared more about sound quality or longevity of the earbuds and subscription questions were focused on how much I would be willing to pay said subscription.

Has anyone else run into this lately or had strange sections in a Quality of Flight survey? It just strikes me as odd that DL would even be thinking about benefits such as these. I would think anyone who cares about sound quality has already invested in a hearing device suited to, and durable enough to survive, an airplane environment. And anyone desiring streaming options already has an applicable account (even my parents have a Spotify account). Is it possible DL would grant bandwidth to the new, faster, seemingly more finicky Gogo internet that always seems to be broken?
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Old Mar 5, 2018, 2:20 pm
  #2  
 
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I just received the same survey. I though it odd that they would ask about our thoughts on a two month free subscription to one of the services bundled with the earbuds. Would be interested to know how that would work for F pax that get free earbuds. Frankly, I could care less about the earbuds DL provides - I bring my own.
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Old Mar 17, 2018, 9:39 pm
  #3  
 
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Also got this survey today where it seems like Delta wants to offer a two-month premium subscription to Spotify if you're willing to pay one of several different price points for onboard earbuds.
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Old Mar 18, 2018, 10:04 am
  #4  
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I never respond to DL surveys.

They always begin something like "Based upon your XXXX experience, would you recommend DL to a friend?"

Any survey that begins with the premise that your recommendation of an airline could be predicated upon a single factor, out of a myriad of possible other factors, suggests an overly simplistic thought process that is not worth me wasting my time to support.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 12:36 am
  #5  
 
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Originally Posted by StayingHomeIsBetter
I never respond to DL surveys.

They always begin something like "Based upon your XXXX experience, would you recommend DL to a friend?"

Any survey that begins with the premise that your recommendation of an airline could be predicated upon a single factor, out of a myriad of possible other factors, suggests an overly simplistic thought process that is not worth me wasting my time to support.
It's the normal question for any survey, but sometimes I just have to laugh. I got one from a fuel station. How likely am I to recommend a particular brand of fuel station to a friend? Um, zero chance. I'm not an unhappy customer, but I just don't randomly recommend services to my friends.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 6:45 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by StayingHomeIsBetter
I never respond to DL surveys.

They always begin something like "Based upon your XXXX experience, would you recommend DL to a friend?"

Any survey that begins with the premise that your recommendation of an airline could be predicated upon a single factor, out of a myriad of possible other factors, suggests an overly simplistic thought process that is not worth me wasting my time to support.
Out of curiosity, how do you communicate with Delta for either complaints or compliments? Do you tend to use the online form more than anything? I find the latter to be extremely time consuming. There should be a drop down list auto-populating ticket numbers, dates and flight info from past trips. Most often the email survey gives me the platform to communicate the proper feedback (and I’ve been known to jam other flights into that survey as well). Gate agents who do an awesome job, like one at ATL yesterday who corrected an error made by a DM phone agent, get immediate feedback via Twitter. The website form, though, most times I don’t have the time to complete it.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 7:53 am
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I recently received the survey asking about earbuds and music service subscriptions, and like the OP it also struck me as odd. I would think most people already have their own earbuds/NC headphones and music stored on their device, but maybe there's a market there somewhere.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 8:14 am
  #8  
 
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Originally Posted by StayingHomeIsBetter
I never respond to DL surveys.

They always begin something like "Based upon your XXXX experience, would you recommend DL to a friend?"

Any survey that begins with the premise that your recommendation of an airline could be predicated upon a single factor, out of a myriad of possible other factors, suggests an overly simplistic thought process that is not worth me wasting my time to support.
This is Delta's way to obtain a Net Promoter Score which is currently a favored approach by many larger companies to determine satisfaction and loyalty. It is a good measure and used by my company very effectively but we don't ask for responses from the same people multiple times a week.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter

My biggest problem is that I get one for every flight and for many customer service interactions. I answered a few times in the beginning but now I just view them as annoying. I really should setup an Outlook rule to immediately delete these e-mails. To the extent Delta marketing executives read these forums I highly recommend improving the software generating these requests to ask frequent flyers less frequently. Twice a year is more than enough to get good data without annoying recipients.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:12 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by tvtd


Out of curiosity, how do you communicate with Delta for either complaints or compliments? Do you tend to use the online form more than anything? I find the latter to be extremely time consuming. There should be a drop down list auto-populating ticket numbers, dates and flight info from past trips. Most often the email survey gives me the platform to communicate the proper feedback (and I’ve been known to jam other flights into that survey as well). Gate agents who do an awesome job, like one at ATL yesterday who corrected an error made by a DM phone agent, get immediate feedback via Twitter. The website form, though, most times I don’t have the time to complete it.
I stopped using the online form when it became painfully obvious that initial submissions were being screened by an incompetently programmed computer algorithm, and that it took several more iterations to actually reach a human... who might or might not understand the issue anyway.

If the matter is sufficiently important (positive or negative) I send a paper letter to the appropriate DL representative, if I can find out who that is (and, most frequently, I can).

IMO, the online form is intended only to provide a cathartic outlet to the aggrieved, in hopes that the customer, having vented, will let the matter drop. It does a poor job of achieving that intent.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:27 am
  #10  
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Originally Posted by mfFrom35K
...My biggest problem is that I get one for every flight and for many customer service interactions....
For a long while, I received a survey for each time I visited the PHL Sky Club (my home airport). Ludicrous... the survey, not the club... which I always rated highly.

Then there are the surveys asking "Please rate your experience with the last phone agent you spoke to on such-and-such-a-date..." Surveys usually sent many days later. At that point, the only impression that I can form is that the call must have satisfied my needs, otherwise it would not have been the last call. Unless the process toward resolution had been particularly painful, I am not likely to remember any particulars. And, I am not going to provide a positive response based upon the presumption that, if I don't remember the details, things must have gone OK.

And, then there are the surveys that come after a delayed flight, that focus solely upon the GA's performance during the delay... and not the airlines overall handling of the situation, or its culpability in creating the situation.

Overall, I regard the DL approach to surveys to be a hollow attempt to create an impression of "We care...".

I'll consider changing my mind about surveys when I first get a survey along the lines of "We are considering removing (or have already removed) newspapers from the Sky Club. We would like to hear your opinion on this."
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:31 am
  #11  
 
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Had horrible service on flight. Responded with same complaint verbiage online and on survey. Online responded within 24 hours and gave me 7,000 miles but still waiting for online response after 10 days. First survey I answered.

I hate surveys from auto dealerships, medical providers, hotels, cell providers, etc. All they want is perfect scores and the questions are too general to be useful anyway.

I don’t respomd anymore. Is it the hotel’s fault there was a power outage? The dealership’s fault the part took 3weeks to come from Germany? My satisfaction was poor for both but no way for the guilty party to be blamed.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:43 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by mfFrom35K
This is Delta's way to obtain a Net Promoter Score which is currently a favored approach by many larger companies to determine satisfaction and loyalty. It is a good measure and used by my company very effectively but we don't ask for responses from the same people multiple times a week....
Perhaps the NPS is a relevant metric when used properly. But, I struggle to see it relevance when the question "How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?" is focused on a single event or interaction. My thinking is not that simplistic, and the inference that it might be is offensive.

And, yes, multiple surveys in a short period, asking the same poorly focused question (often addressing the same repeated experience, as in my recurring visits to the PHL Sky Club) suggest poor construction of the survey.

Looking at the article you linked to leaves me wondering whether DL uses the scores as input to how the airline regards/deals with the respondent.

"Those who respond with a score of 9 to 10 are called Promoters, and are considered likely to exhibit value-creating behaviors, such as buying more, remaining customers for longer, and making more positive referrals to other potential customers. Those who respond with a score of 0 to 6 are labeled Detractors, and they are believed to be less likely to exhibit the value-creating behaviors."

Also from the article: " Companies are encouraged to follow the likelihood to recommend question with an open-ended request for elaboration, soliciting the reasons for a customer's rating of that company or product."

It has been a while since I actually responded to one of these surveys, so I do not recall the open-ended request for elaboration. I may do a dummy run at responding the next time to see if such exists.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 10:49 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by puddinhead
...
I don’t respomd anymore. Is it the hotel’s fault there was a power outage? The dealership’s fault the part took 3weeks to come from Germany? My satisfaction was poor for both but no way for the guilty party to be blamed.
Good point. The DL parallel would be the all-too-common situation where the flight is delayed. DL has not even updated the posted departure time (which by now is demonstrably fallacious). The GA is not being given info other than "the mechanics are on their way" but we get a survey asking us how well the GA did in keeping us abreast of the situation.

Pax are royally PO'd about the situation, but are asked to comment on how the GA (who had no more control of the situation than the pax) handled the situation.
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Old Mar 19, 2018, 1:39 pm
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I don't know if this is related to the survey asking for our interest / willingness to purchase the premium earbuds along with a reduced price music service subscriptions...

Has anybody noticed that the "Billboard Hits" and "More Billboard Hits" options within the radio channel are not there anymore? I am not sure if I have missed it in their line up but I've looked for it on my last couple of round trips and haven't been able to find it.
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