Everywhere you turn you’re being asked for feedback on things. Were we happy with this and that, can we respond to whatever survey when such-and-such contacts us, and can we spend 2 minutes just filling this and that in.

Only this week at my bank they asked if I’d been contacted by an agency about completing a survey. I said no, and they confirmed that by using my card in their reader for the transaction it may trigger someone contacting for us for feedback on the service I had received from them that day. They asked if I was happy with this which I confirmed, and that of course I would say so if asked by whoever would contact me. I sympathised with this lady, as she obviously had to come out with this preamble and it just seemed over the top.

Another example is when you’re eating in a pub or restaurant – someone will always come over and ask how things are going and if there are any problems, sometimes more than once. The principle is fine, but not when it all comes across as almost automated. If you’re with a group of people all with mouths full of food and they announce this to everyone, you’re therefore waiting for someone to say yes before they’re happy and leave. Awkward.

It feels like the modern world has now caught on to the important principle of feedback but now taken it too far. This is important to help determine how successful a certain product or service has been in fulfilling customer needs – hearing straight from them, not some assumed sales figures. You can then fine-tune and improve things.

So OK, great in principle, but here’s some practicalities to help get right and not be over-the-top:

1. Come up with a comfortable way for people to communicate this. So rather than always asking when people are eating, at a more appropriate and natural time afterwards, or by a fun form with a prize.

2. Don’t miss use the results. This includes passing the results to any other Tom Dick and Harry, or using it to whip staff into better service rather than it help look at the overall service. If people know it is being misused, then this can actually come across when they’re trying to establish.

3. Reward people for completing. This doesn’t have to be a holiday abroad, or a new IPad (which still seems poplar), but maybe just a few chocolates or thankyou card/slip.

4. Train people to apply in the natural course of contact with people. So rather than having to force the issue with every customer that walks through their doors, train them to gauge the right time maybe during conversation and only when right. Go for quality not quantity of results.