A luxury once experienced becomes a necessity. You advocate limited use of surveys, but we conducted a survey and gathered really good information from our customers. Any effort to understand our customers can be valuable. It is most helpful when it leads to improvement. If you were able to focus improvement efforts based on what customers said, then it was valuable.
Nobody fills out surveys anymore.
Finding out what customers want is expensive. The cost to an organization of not knowing customer priorities far outweighs any costs incurred in discovering those priorities. In Video 4 of the Creating a Customer-Centered Culture Video Series , we discuss a method for uncovering customer expectations that is both efficient and quick. We may assume customers won't take the time to talk with us. If by talking with us you mean the traditional customer satisfaction survey, then you are right.