Why you need more than surveys

Talking to the people you serve provides invaluable insights. You need additional data to fully understand how well you’re achieving your outcomes.

When you need something, where do you turn? If you’re like me, you either go to people you know for a recommendation, or you go to the computer…where you can get recommendations from thousands of strangers.

I’d argue that in some ways, the proliferation of online reviews has undercut our willingness to simply stop at the first restaurant we see and give it a try for ourselves, but that’s a post for another time. 

The reality is that we increasingly rely on the digital word of others to make decisions about where we invest our resources. As a result, business leaders seek out any form of testimonial, review, or love note they can paste on the internet, in as many places as they have the glue.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous businesses are willing to manipulate the system to ensure that five-star reviews light up their products. Third-party sellers have been gaming Amazon’s reviews section for years by sending free things to real people in exchange for glowing write-ups — even if that luscious…