Every business/service I deal with emails me a survey. Why?

[MineralMan]

14. Actually, those surveys are legit, mostly.

I just did one for an HVAC company that came to clean and check my AC outdoor unit before cooling season. Like everyone, they sent a survey link to me. It led to a Google survey, and will show up as a review if someone looks for reviews on Google for that company. It's a little bit of a risky move by the company, since bad reviews also show up. I didn't give a bad review, though.

Other businesses use surveys to monitor customer satisfaction with individual representatives, as well. You get a survey request, but the questions are about how you were served by an employee. Depending on what the customer says, the employee gets an "attaboy," or a talking to. The employee doesn't get a choice, so the idea is to improve employee interactions with company reps.

Franchising companies use surveys to help them monitor how their franchisees are doing with customer relations. Useful.

So, if you don't want to respond, just ignore those survey links. If you want to help inform the business about your thoughts, go ahead and do them. They do get looked at, I guarantee.