FWIW, I’ve seen various folks asking why they haven’t received X survey, whether they’ve been excluded or there’s some other problem. FYI, agnostic of THS, companies very rarely survey all members or a large group. Typically, they survey only a sample set — relatively few people — because a sampling is usually all that’s needed for accurate representation of a larger group. Surveying too many people is laborious and not additive, as well as costly. That’s according to best practices of surveying or polling.
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Plus, of course, if you are carefully selective of whom you choose to do the surveys then you get the answers you want.
‘There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics’
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After seeing the sample survey, I was actually looking forward to this one. Instead, I got an email that just asks me to say whether I’d recommend THS or not.
why do I suspect that my answer (or non-answer) would determine what kind of surveys, if any, I get in the future? 
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I don’t see the need for THS to go through such motions. Why bother? They’re making decisions despite protests.
One thing to note: Companies can survey and ignore all or some of the results if they want to.
Often, the only thing customers can do in those cases is vote with their money and walk away. But if the company has few and/or weak competitors, then the alternatives are limited. That’s the case with THS. If they had stronger rivals, they’d have less freedom to do as they please.
Hi @Colin
These surveys have been created to gauge member opinions on improvements we want to make to our messaging and app processes and to do that, we need to ask our members for their opinions.
The questionnaires allow us to do this by targeting the people who would be using and benefiting from a specific part of the app or messaging. It wouldn’t be useful to be selective about this, as we need organic opinions. This is why one of the features of more recent surveys is the ability for survey participants to leave comments.
The most recent survey is going out to 20% of our member base, across Owners, Sitters and combined members. The survey is being sent out to a group that reflects our user base and is a blend of new/existing and non-experienced/experienced members. This survey is focused on one area/aspect of the experience in terms of application and messaging.
We also have a lot of surveys throughout the year on specific areas or overall on the platform, from ongoing NPS to when we want to get insight into new projects. We also want to make sure we are not asking the same customers the same questions (or questions on the same topic) multiple times and want to ensure we don’t cause survey fatigue.
Hope this insight helps. 
Jenny
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Hi @belluca
That doesn’t sound like yesterday’s survey, as that question isn’t mentioned in the “sneak peek” I posted yesterday. Today’s survey doesn’t include it either.
I’ve asked the team to clarify just in case something changed that I wasn’t aware of, and I’ll report back.
Jenny
EDIT to confirm the team have told me that this wasn’t a survey question, so this isn’t from the surveys I announced here
I got that too yesterday. One question to ask if I would recommend Trusted Housesitters to a friend, rank my answer from 1 to 10, then a box for comments. That was it. Fwiw, I’m a full-time sitter, part of a couple, more than 20 sits.
Hi, My frustration at the moment is that I went to rerad a message sentg and the inbox hax completely changed. Lots of huge black symbols taking up the entire page on my laptop like a huge blacvk’V’ shape etc. Had to scrol down past lots of these huge black symbols then found a tine box on left with tiny picture and message. took me a while to fins where to actually reply. A very tiny bos where you could only see a couple of words at a time and not whole message at once. And where are all my messages for previous sits? A couple I am booked to do but no clear idea whwre the previous messages are to send another message. Can you pleas put inback as it was, where I could see a dozen message at a time all in a line, one below the other. Absolutely ridiculous to all be hidden. And why the huge black meaningless symbols covering everything??? Changes are getting beyond a joke.
Another survey! At least we’re being asked our opinion in advance of changes this time. But really, there have been too many changes in too short a time. Just let the dust settle before making any more.
Hi @AnnieNai
Hopefully, you’ll have read my reply to another member, it’s the post above yours, as I confirmed there that the email you received isn’t either of the surveys that went out these last couple of days.
I’ve asked the team to provide more information about the email you’ve received so I can hopefully pop back and give you some more context.
Jenny
@Colin I got it. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have sent it to me if it was rigged. I’m continually in the naughty corner. They are possibly regretting it now as they had a field at the end for further comments so I told them (yet again) what I thought of recent policy changes. It contains quite a few questions about solutions for the new overlap ban we’ve discussed in this and other threads, so I’m waiting with baited breath to see any changes that result. Let’s hope I don’t turn blue!
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@Visit Try going to your dashboard-》 your sits-》then choose 'conversation. That should get you there.
Can I urge anyone who gets this survey to complete it; there are some suggestions for new features which I liked, some I didn’t like, and one I thought was kinda alarming.
If you’ve been asked, please answer!
Cheers all
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Hi @ChristieC
I noticed you replied to a post which was meant to be locked to new replies - any feedback about the surveys relating to messaging and apps is meant to be kept to this thread. Sorry for the confusion, that’s my bad!
For anyone reading @ChristieC’s reply - it relates to this survey heads-up.
Jenny
Sorry Jenny – I’m new to this forum.
Cheers
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It’s no problem at all @ChristieC - it was up to me to make sure the announcement was locked!
All good. We’re really pleased you’re here, sharing your thoughts.
@Jenny I understand keeping all the discussion on the topic here for the purpose of collecting feedback.
But, if people actually would like to discuss about those surveys, one combined thread is highly unpractical for that. Things get mixed up way too easily and it’s hard to know which survey or topic is being discussed.
Not that the surveys seem to bring up too much discussion this time anyway (or because of that?), which is a shame. I’d love to hear more about them.
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@ChristieC got it. Did it. Not holding my breath for changes, but fingers crossed.
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Hi @CatsAndDog
I hear what you’re saying.
In the case of this thread I can see how there might be the risk of confusion over what’s being discussed, as messaging and applications is a bit of an umbrella term.
I think if a specific topic was becoming very popular e.g. if discussion over one of the surveys took off, then @Carla or I could start a new discussion post for that, on an ad hoc basis.
That being said, I’ll keep your comments in mind for the next time we’re doing an update, and see if we can discuss the merits of an open discussion under the update, rather than having the discussion topic elsewhere.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this with me.
Jenny
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Idea:
•A way to contact past sitters before applying. I see sitters who don’t leave reviews, which is a statement in itself. I would like to get direct feedback as to why they didn’t leave a review and so many sitters are hesitant to leave anything that is negative. It would help decide if the HO is a bad fit.
Improvement that you would to see:
•Better search system. I have saved searches, but not all listings that are applicable show in the saved searches.
Top frustration that you have:
•HO’s posting sits that are not serious. I’ve encountered three in the last month where HO’s posted and decided they weren’t needed but didn’t bother to remove. Honestly feel there should be a penalty for this; do it so many times are your temporarily suspended. It’s not an accident and just shows disregard. And makes THS a less reliable platform. In one case the HO sent me a messages (a week later) stating they needed to remove the listing, they didn’t remove the post and THS did nothing.
•HO’s just sitting on posts and not contacting applicants or making a decision until the last minute. Example: applied for one three days ago. HO reached out and said how amazing I seem, what great reviews, etc. The sit would start in four days, but no decision has been made. There are three applicants. The HO shouldn’t be allowed to just sit on this decision.
•Properties not listed in the correct city. And maybe a means if saying how far away it is from a major city (i.e. 20 miles from London, 15 miles from Los Angeles).