By Linda Kuster / Guest Column
Have you had an experience like this? You just purchased a product, checked out of a hotel or finished a meal at a new restaurant. The salesperson, desk clerk or waiter alerts you that you will be receiving a customer satisfaction survey, and that they would appreciate you giving them all 10s if you were satisfied.
Don’t let your employees tell your customers to give you a 10!
This has bugged me for years, ever since the first time I purchased a car and the sales rep asked me to give the dealership all 10s on the survey I would be receiving from the manufacturer. He then proceeded to explain why it was important – in that case, it counted toward dealer awards.
What is the point in conducting satisfaction research when you bias participants before they even give you their feedback? You are investing time and money into what is in essence worthless data – and, more importantly, you are likely missing the chance to gain critical information that could help your company or organization improve or take advantage of a market opportunity.
This practice goes on in a variety of industries including hospitality, auto sales and retail, and typically happens for one of two reasons. Either the location you patronized is part of a national chain or franchise and they don’t want to be singled out for poor scores, or an individual within the organization has decided it will help him or her look good to management.
If this sounds familiar, consider ending it in your organization. Even if you don’t formally advocate this practice, your employees may still be doing it. If you gather customer satisfaction data or informal feedback, tell your employees that you want to hear customers’ ideas for improvement and you don’t want to see all glowing reviews. Help them understand that this information is going to be used for continuous improvement and identifying opportunities – not for employee performance reviews or punishment. Then stick to your promise.
Don’t attach bonuses or incentives to the satisfaction scores. Empower employees to reach out to customers who leave feedback, either to address their concerns or thank them for the positive feedback.
To gain the most valuable customer experience feedback, check that you are using these best practices:
- If you use a survey, make sure you include some open-ended questions so customers can communicate their experience in their own words
- Keep surveys short, five minutes or less
- Use a personal, friendly tone instead of the typical formal, scripted tone often seen in surveys
- Select customers to participate randomly – don’t let front-line employees choose who is asked for feedback
- Include a question that invites criticism, such as “How would you improve the customer experience at Company XX?”
- Request customer feedback either at the time of interaction or within a few days
- Provide a couple of brief examples of past improvements you made from customer feedback – it encourages people to respond when they know you are actually using their input
- Monitor customer conversations on your social media pages or review sites – that’s often where the most honest comments are being made
- Get out of the office or store and talk to people who have been customers
Once you have reassured employees and encouraged them to obtain thoughtful, real feedback on customers’ experience and satisfaction, you will start to benefit from authentic customer insights. That information can be used to shore up weaknesses, highlight strengths, fine-tune training and generate customer-friendly ideas for improvement.
If you can’t disband the practice because it will penalize your company, consider conducting your own customer satisfaction research that you don’t share with the corporate or franchise office.
Remember, all 10s is not a good thing in customer satisfaction. You can’t do anything useful with that.
Linda Kuster is director of research strategy at Vernon Research Group, based in Cedar Rapids. Contact her at (319) 364-7278, ext. 7104 or lkuster@vernonresearch.com.
