When the government wants to survey...

Over the past week, Ken and I made our way down to the sunshine state to start our next chapter. Along the way, we stopped at *a lot* of rest stops. One of them, in particular, stood out to me because as you left, they asked you to take a survey.

I love that the state of Tennessee wants feedback on their rest stops (especially because I felt like the ones in Illinois were way better—Tennessee has room to improve!). And, it’s so great that they’ve put together a simple little QR code you can scan to give them feedback.

Alas, that is where my praise ends because the survey itself...gosh, it's a bummer. I took a screen grab so you can take a look for yourself.

What breaks my heart about this survey is that Tennessee clearly wants feedback. They took the time to write the questions, program them into a survey platform, and create QR codes to make it easy for people to provide feedback.

Unfortunately, they didn't invest in writing good questions. Tennessee is absolutely not getting data that they can use to improve their rest stops from this survey.

Good surveys are simple, quick & easy, and get you information you can take action on. This survey falls short across the board.

If I were working for the Tennessee government, I would simplify the survey language, switch to a yes/no format (maybe throw in an “I don’t know” option), and reduce the number of questions. At the end of the survey, they could ask if travelers would recommend others stop there (oh, hi, Net Promoter question).

People are busy. They’re getting in their cars and driving somewhere. Tennessee needs to make this survey as simple and straightforward as possible. What do they really need to know? Was the person working there friendly? Was the bathroom clean? Did travelers notice (or use) the additional resources provided, like the weather or traffic monitor?

A little bit of thoughtful revision could turn this survey into a tool that actually helps the state improve its rest stops. It doesn’t have to be complicated—just focused on what they want to learn (and, I'd suggest, areas they can actually improve!).