Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What is a "10"?


Fellow blogger, Steve Miller shares his experience at a motel which was intended to entice him to give them a "10" on their customer satisfaction survey.

This is an issue that really gives me heartburn. The automobile industry places a high priority on the scores their dealers get from customers on their satisfaction surveys. I believe these surveys are fundamentally flawed.

I don't believe you can trust a survey that takes more than a few seconds to complete. People are busy and they don't want to spend a lot of time completing a survey for which they receive nothing. (Guess what dealers do - that's right - we reward our customers for completing their survey with our help!)

Secondly, I don't think it is realistic to ask people to give the best score, whether that is a "5" or a "10" or whatever it might be. It seems to me that nobody provides such exceptional service that it couldn't be improved in some way (we'll take your "10" though!). If a "10" is offered, the industry then expects one to attain that score and its system is constructed around attaining a perfect score.

It seems like a more realistic question is "Would you recommend this vendor to your friends?". That doesn't require perfection but it does require a good faith effort.

What do you think?

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