I seem to have received an extraordinary number of requests lately to complete customer satisfaction surveys. Some have been only one question and some have been 10-minute surveys. The goals of the companies requesting my survey participation are generally to improve their service delivery and build customer loyalty. Both are good goals. Unfortunately, if the surveys are not crafted and interpreted properly, they can kill the companies’ chances of achieving their goals.
Let me offer examples. We use Microsoft Office 365, and I recently clicked on their support window for help, which I have done several times. The service was great. Someone called me quickly, opened a remote session and resolved my issue. However, in each service dealing with Microsoft, the rep directed me to the window where I could close the ticket and asked me to rate their service – all while watching. The service was great, but I was also aware of the rep watching me. If I had wanted to give a less than perfect rating, I likely would have had to discuss it with the rep. Most people don’t want to have a direct discussion like that, and so they may not be honest when there are things that could be improved.
Most company KPIs include customer satisfaction, and rightly so. As Malcom Baldrige has demonstrated, happy customers are more loyal to your firm, cost less to service, are less price sensitive, can help you expand into complementary areas, and can actually promote your business. It is completely sensible to learn what your customers like and don’t like, improve the things that are not valued, communicate and demonstrate those improvements, and continue to build your business with those happy customers. The unintended consequences arise when the results are interpreted incorrectly or employees are punished for less than perfect results. Remember, the goal of measuring customer satisfaction is not the score itself, but building customer loyalty and continuously improving.
I had my car serviced recently also. When I picked up my car, the service advisor advisor said I would be contacted to complete a survey. He asked me to let him know if there were any areas for which I would not give a rating of 10. I told him I was happy with the work they did and how I was treated, and I asked how the survey results would affect him. He said for each survey that did not include all 10s, he would lose some compensation. When that survey arrived, I did not respond. While most things were great, there were some categories in which that dealer was not “truly outstanding”, but rather like most other dealers. I would be happy to tell the advisor which areas were acceptable, but not great, but I did not want to affect his compensation for things outside his control.
It makes perfect sense that companies strive to have customers rate them in the top box or top 2 boxes. In general, those ratings are frequently from the most loyal customers and the customers most likely to promote your business. It is also logical to have incentives that encourage employees to do their jobs in a way that will maximize customer satisfaction. I am comfortable giving constructive or negative feedback to someone and letting them suffer the consequences if they could have done something about it. On the other hand, it is counter-productive to have survey practices that discourage honest feedback. If the reward system deducts incentive money for every sub-perfect answer, the managers will have the incentive to hide the imperfections. A better reward system would encourage all feedback and reward managers and employees for improvement, not just perfection.
Two other areas are potential killers of customer satisfaction: (1) asking the same customer to complete the survey too often, and (2) overly long surveys. We are all busy and we get tired of responding to surveys. I have spoken to many people who say they get angry with companies who constantly ask them to complete surveys or ask them to complete 10 or 15 minute surveys. Isn’t it ironic when a well-intentioned effort to delight customers, pisses them off instead?
I am a strong advocate of customer satisfaction initiatives, but I urge caution in how you design, use and interpret surveys. Make sure your surveys and associated incentives are actually enabling you to build customer loyalty and continuously improve. Also make sure your surveys are not just a way to tick the box on a KPI and allocate compensation.
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