Pop-Up Surveys & Disruption to Customer Engagement

Turns out, consumers aren't fans of pop-up ads and surveys after all. Who knew?

A recent survey from IgniteFeedback found that nearly 90 percent of consumers hate taking pop-up Web surveys (up 6 percent from 18 months ago). Is it causing harm to brands?

The initial research in late 2014 found that 83 percent of consumers "hated" engaging with a survey that interfered with their primary task (e.g., the purpose of their visit to a site) - however it appears the irritation level has continued to increase with the latest data showing that nearly 90 percent of consumers express outright hatred for this style of survey interaction and 93 percent for advertisements.

"It should come as no surprise that consumers dislike being interrupted," said Ben Werner, IgniteFeedback founder and CEO. "What is distributing however, is that marketers don't seem to be getting the message that doing so creates terrible customer experiences!"

One of the reason marketers haven't abandoned the practice is because it still works. Just because it works however doesn't mean that it's not causing irreparable damage to your brand.

"We believe the future lies in polite, highly relevant, short and visually attractive styles of customer interaction," Werner said. "Consumer attention spans are shorter than ever before, so it is critical for brands to maximize returns on their most precious resource - their customers' time and attention."