How Well Do you Know Your Customers?

As an email marketer I try to contribute and give my feedback when possible to companies that I subscribe to receive communication from, not only for my own benefits of receiving more targeted communication (hopefully) but to also allow them to more effectively market their campaigns to everyone. I made a purchase online recently and received a survey from the company today asking for my feedback on my latest visit.

The survey was around their check out process. Upon opening the survey, I was faced with a plain jane survey template. They sent me from a nice branded html email to a generic survey tool with only one question that didn't even pertain to me. The question was asking me why I didn't complete a purchase during my last visit. There was an option I could have chosen that would have best fit my situation which was "I came back later to complete my purchase" which I don't think I did however I can't be too sure. Regardless, I didn't feel I could check that option because it didn't allow me to explain my actual situation so I checked the option "I had trouble completing my purchase," which was the only option that allowed me to leave a comment. So I left my comment explaining that although I may have come back at a later time to complete my purchase, they should know that I made the purchase since its in their system. So why would I be receiving this survey especially if my answer was "I came back later to complete my purchase". Since they should already know this, I can't see them benefiting if I had simply responded with that answer.

Moving on, upon submitting the survey, I wasn't even redirected back to their site, it dropped me off on the survey tools home page. I'm not sure this communication was carefully constructed but who knows, maybe my response will encourage them to do some more pre-planning around gathering customer data, ya think?