Customer Satisfaction Survey

If you missed this article please take a minute and read it!

He really hits the nail on the head in so many ways.

We are proponents of brief surveys... usually only 5 questions.  I agree one is to short.  When you survey customers you have the opportunity to learn what is working and what needs to be worked on.  Not sure if I like the "tracking aggravation". I understand it but think it could be backward looking information.

In the article he says, "I don't know about you, but I hate customer satisfaction surveys. We are all inundated with them thanks to email. It used to be these things came in the mail (easy to throw out) or by telephone (hang up). Now, most of them come via email. I stay in hotels 100-plus nights a year, and no matter how big or small the hotel was, they always manage to send me a survey several days later. Like you, I delete the survey unless I really had a bad experience.

I did waste 15 minutes filling out one I got from a St. Regis Hotel vendor and was madder after filling out the survey than before I started it because there was no place for me to explain the problems I experienced at the property. Plus, I had to waste 15 minutes of my time, telling a company I just paid a lot of money to how they screwed up."

He goes on to say that a 30% return rate of a satisfaction survey is good for most surveys. I think even that is very hopeful. I just don't know people that will waste productive time to take a survey. If they could do it while they waited for their receipt maybe...

As you know we are not fans of a satisfaction survey.  When you ask if people are "satisfied" they have nothing at risk so the answer is a low value.

The Customer Aggravation Index: Predicting Customer Loyalty Without Surveys | Business Finance:

'via Blog this'

Getting the information is the first step... than you need to use it to improve!

Transforming the way people share feedback and how organizations use it!

A New Look at Comment Cards

I was just online and found this article. It's 12 years old but I don't think most companies have learned these great concepts about comment cards.

A New Look at Comment Cards

The only part I don't agree with is near the end they are seeing comment cards as these "paper" things that are handled. That is old school!  It's time for organizations to use technology to gather and tabulate it all!

Great information and ideas!

Transforming the way customer share feedback and how organizations use it!

Regal Cinemas Comment Card

My wife and I went to the movies this evening... so as I walked in I noticed that they had comment cards next to each theater.

After the movie I was looking at the card and here are some things that you can learn from it...

First your choice are Excellent, Acceptable and Poor.  You maybe aware the people are not quick to give a perfect score.  With these three choices that will naturally drive people to the middle.

Next can you tell me what and excellent restroom, lobby or usher is?  In all honesty I could not tell you what would make an excellent usher?  Found our row?  Didn't shine the light in my eyes?

At the end they have some lines for comments and that they want to know the theater, movie and time.

To me the real kicker is on the other side!

It's a mailer they that they want you to pay postage and mail in.  70% of people will not fill these out so you are cut to 30% now when I ask them to spend money to tell me how I did it will drop even further.

What a huge waste!

Did I mention that it will not take 5-7 days for it to get to the "Customer Relations" department in Tennessee!

This will have little or no value for the guest or the theater.  By the time you get this card the movie will be long gone and the 16 year old that made the popcorn will be too.

It's time to transform the way customers share feedback and how organizations use it!

Comment Card - Length Matters!

I'm going to skip the joke... it's too easy.

When it comes to feedback length is a critical factor.

No more comment cards!

A few years ago I stayed at a casino in Las Vegas and when I returned home I got a call and they said they wanted me to take a "Satisfaction Survey".  As a student of customer service and customer feedback I said sure.

After 20 minutes and them asking me way too many personal questions I ended the survey.

In all honesty it was not a satisfaction survey... it was a survey that marketing department had hijacked and turned into satisfaction, demographics and buying behavior.

I'm often asked how can we get our customers to provide feedback?  Make it easy to provide and make the survey brief.

A friend shared that he started taking a satisfaction survey online recently and after I while he noticed that it showed "50% Complete".  As soon as he noticed that he just logged off.

If you want to know about the customers experience limit your questions to the 5-10 that matter.  If you want to ask more than that organize a focus group or tell people that you are doing market research.

This is one place where shorter is better!

Transforming the way customers share feedback and how organizations use it!

Comment Card Mistake Number 3

In case you have not figured it out comment cards to me are a real waste of time, energy and money.

I think it's important to share that I'm a huge fan of customer feedback and of actionable information.  The challenges with comment cards is the don't provide accurate feedback or actionable information.

Here is reason the that comment cards are a mistake...bias!

When comment cards are handed out bias is introduced!

If you are a server and you have a table that has had a horrible experience will you give them a comment card?  If you do will you share what they have written with your boss?

I worked in bar when I was in college and you would have waitresses come back and complain about the terrible tables.  I'm not sure if the table was terrible or the waitress created a terrible experience with their attitude.

Either way are they going to ask for honest feedback from that guest?

I doubt it!

I also doubt that if the guest did provide the manager would have ever seen it.  Most likely it would have found it's way to the trash with the rest of the paper items on the table.

I'm not faulting the servers I'm only pointing out that bias happens.

When you use a system that makes it easy for bias to happen it will.  And if I know that my feedback survey tool has bias how much value can it have?  Probably not much more than talking with some customers each day.  FYI - Customers lie because they don't want to hurt your feelings or get people in trouble.

So as far as I'm concerned this is the third strike against comment cards!  Notice I want customer feedback and customer surveys but they need to be done right so they have value.

I'll share one more mistake tomorrow.

Transforming the way customers share feedback and organizations use it!

Customer Satisfaction

Doing a satisfaction survey in concept is a great idea.  After all for business to grow they need to know what their customers are thinking and feeling.  In order to know the business needs to survey customers.  You need to ask them and generate customer feedback.

Here are a couple of problems with this simple concept.

First research out of Harvard and the London School of Economics shows that “satisfaction” has 0 correlation to future growth.  The researchers found that even when customer satisfaction was high people would often switch.  The reason for this is “Customer Satisfaction” is fickle.  A person will say they are satisfied with a  restaurant, dentist or coffee shop but they may never come back.  You must measure a person’s willingness to risk their reputation and recommend.

The next challenge is how do you get people to provide meaningful customer feedback? 

Comment cards are not the answer.  The people that most often leave comments are the people that had a FANTASIC experience or terrible one.  Studies show only about 10% - 15% of people on each end take the time to fill out the comment card.

The next issue with comment cards is tabulating the data.  Who has time to enter all of the information and then do an analysis of the results?

Did I mention this is all a waste of time if you don’t ask the right questions?

Customer satisfaction is the key to long term business growth and success.  But getting useful customer feedback is not as easy as you may think.