The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
When "Satisfied" Isn't Satisfied.
Monday - August 22, 2005 04:45 PM in
One of the first items one learns when becoming involved in reliable feedback on customer satisfaction is that the meaning of satisfaction in the mind of the customer can be vastly different than how the company interprets the term.
In the mind of the consumer, "satisfied" is a neutral to slightly negative rating, as in: "I didn't expect good service, didn't get it either, but was able to accomplish why I called so I'm satisfied." Pretty lukewarm right?
I heard or read this example somewhere recently. You're at a restaurant. The coffee wasn't too hot and the service was a bit slow. The server comes over: "How is everything?" You don't want to bother with a confrontation so what do we all say? "Fine, thanks." The server goes away thinking another customer is happy, but you know next time you'll pick another place to eat.
Combine this with what I call the Pollyanna factor. It is human nature to look at the bright side, but no one can improve unless you focus on the trouble spots. So, when I frequently encounter the call center manager proud of his/her 75% satisfaction rating, I'm hard pressed not to say. "What's so great about annoying one caller in four? In school a 75% was a low "D" wasn't it?" And gosh only knows what they'd say if I point out that "satisfied" isn't a positive anyway, or that the overall average across all the companies we study is over 80%.
In fact, when VocaLabs is calculating satisfaction scores, we count "satisfied" as neutral or zero, and arrive at a much more realistic comparison by subtracting the percent who report dissatisfaction from those reporting "very" satisfied or better.
Concerning customer care, as long as satisfied is good enough and managers figuratively stick their heads in the sand, none of us can expect better service than we now receive.
Posted by Rick Rappe
I heard or read this example somewhere recently. You're at a restaurant. The coffee wasn't too hot and the service was a bit slow. The server comes over: "How is everything?" You don't want to bother with a confrontation so what do we all say? "Fine, thanks." The server goes away thinking another customer is happy, but you know next time you'll pick another place to eat.
Combine this with what I call the Pollyanna factor. It is human nature to look at the bright side, but no one can improve unless you focus on the trouble spots. So, when I frequently encounter the call center manager proud of his/her 75% satisfaction rating, I'm hard pressed not to say. "What's so great about annoying one caller in four? In school a 75% was a low "D" wasn't it?" And gosh only knows what they'd say if I point out that "satisfied" isn't a positive anyway, or that the overall average across all the companies we study is over 80%.
In fact, when VocaLabs is calculating satisfaction scores, we count "satisfied" as neutral or zero, and arrive at a much more realistic comparison by subtracting the percent who report dissatisfaction from those reporting "very" satisfied or better.
Concerning customer care, as long as satisfied is good enough and managers figuratively stick their heads in the sand, none of us can expect better service than we now receive.
Posted by Rick Rappe
Posted at 04:45 PM by | | | |