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Submitted by: Karen Galvan
With this post we wish to recall the main reasons that lead to false customer satisfaction surveys. We will extend this post by personal experience on Belfius, which boasts 95% satisfied customers, and we will show why this is probably not the case.
The three reasons that lead to customer satisfaction surveys
One thing you should keep in mind when designing a satisfaction questionnaire is that the questionnaire itself will be biased and will influence the quality of the answers you will get.
Among the many factors that may distort your results, let me mention three that we observe on a recurring basis (even in large companies that are supposed to have more knowledge in this area)
Error # 1: The questionnaire is too long
I remember a survey of satisfaction given by the national railway company which took me more than 20 minutes to complete: four pages A4 that did not end. Do you really think that answers to the last questions (that is to say roughly the last two pages, 50% of the questionnaire) will find answers as thoughtful as the first two pages?
In fact after 20 questions the respondents begin to get bored and will hurry to finish the questionnaire without really reading it, without really thinking about their answers. In scientific research, this phenomenon, called fatigue, is subject to special control (but this is another subject). However, a satisfaction questionnaire remains much less extensive in the subject matter and should be completed in less time.
Tip # 1 for designing your customer satisfaction questionnaire : 10 questions max, 5 minutes to answer.
Tip # 2 your satisfaction survey : start directly with this question “What is the probability that you would recommend [your business] to a friend or colleague? “. This is called the Net Promoter Score (or NPS) and it should allow you to enter important information about the level of customer satisfaction.
Error 2: Questions are biased
There are many reasons why issues can be biased. We use real examples when we give training on market research (see for example the slideshare presentation below).
One obvious reason is the very wording of the question. Example: “Do not you think that a good idea would be to provide in-company training on ad hoc reconciliation of invoices in a B2B context? “. If you say so …
In the question above the question is formulated in a negative way is confused (“Do not you think”), the sentence is very long and uses in addition to specific technical terms (“reconciliation”) and less specific Hoc “) that will hinder understanding of the issue.
Tip #1: Use only simple words and try to limit the wording to 10 words. If you can not … try again.
Tip #2: Test your questionnaire on a first sample of people batches of face-to-face interactions in order to observe their reactions. You will see on their faces if something is wrong.
Error 3: You are not asking the right questions
This may be obvious but do you actually know what you need to ask in order to measure the satisfaction of your customers? Most people think that they are. With more than 10 years of experience in the field I can say that the reality is quite different.
In fact you may not know what to measure unless you have carried out a preliminary qualitative research on what satisfaction means for your customers. Customer satisfaction is a very vague term that can vary from person to person, depending on the product and its service component.
If you do not follow a sequential research procedure qualitative research / quantitative research you will find yourself at best with a vague idea of why your customers are satisfied or not.
I must admit though that it is very tempting to sell all-made, skewed questionnaires and the results that go with it. Most companies outsource the measurement of customer satisfaction to external providers who master the IT component of the satisfaction questionnaire but lack knowledge of marketing. Unfortunately, customers also lack knowledge of marketing and most employees do not know the characteristics of quantitative research and its qualitative counterpart. It is therefore tempting to trust and to opt for the cheapest: a questionnaire is done to respondents who do not care. In this way, the costs (both literally and figuratively) of a qualitative analysis are saved. I remember losing a contract because of the (with a large French company). We refused to sell the quantitative part without a qualitative phase. In the interest of the client of course. Inevitably we were more expensive and the customer finally opted for a low-cost provider who carried out a satisfaction survey in 50 questions. I let you imagine the quality of the results.
Tip #1: Study first (with the qualitative method) what “satisfaction” means for your clients. Define the main themes and then carry out a quantitative analysis.
About the Author: According to
SurveyBenefit.com/
There are several companies running successful customer satisfaction surveys like Kroger Feedback Survey, McDonald’s Survey, My Burger King Experience Survey, etc.
Source:
isnare.com
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isnare.com/?aid=1967608&ca=Business}