We ask and get asked this regularly. Sometimes it’s called a ‘customer satisfaction survey’ we receive post purchase of a product or service. Restaurants have been asking for decades, ‘how is/was everything?’ My mobile phone provider sends me a SMS every few months with 4 questions. The list can go on. Some of it is genuine and some of it is simply polite conversation.

We do this is aid too. We check in on people to ensure they received their distribution ok or made it home safe and so on. On a regular basis, we check in with people to see the changes we seek are being realised or not.

However, we rarely ask if people are happy or regret what they ‘traded’ for the assistance. Or even if they understand why they needed to give us information in the first place. For someone to receive aid or assistance, they provide us with information and often personal data. Sometimes we explain why this data and information is needed. Most of the time we don’t or do a poor job of this. And almost never do we ask ‘how’d we do’ about this part of the process. We don’t ask if they understand why we need the information and data. We don’t check if they regret giving us the information.

Maybe we should.

And here’s the thing. We already have the processes in place. We just need to add a question or two. And then care about the answer.

The choice is up to us.

Photo by Jon Tyson