The Customer Service Survey
It's Not My Nature to be Cynical, But...
Wed - September 27, 2006 02:52 PM in
When Vocal Laboratories was created, Peter made the decision that we would be strictly a service bureau and not offer advice on what actions to take as a result of our study findings. I can argue both sides of that decision, but he is very right that our objectivity is better preserved if there is no incentive to formulate studies that result in finding problems for which we just happen to have a solution.
But I have often said that it is impossible to have performed hundreds of surveys on caller acceptance, ease of use and satisfaction with customer service quality and not form some strong opinions. And it is gratifying when your observations are validated. So when I was pointed to this article in the on line version of ICMI's Call Center magazine:
www.callcentermagazine.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193004767
I needed to share some of the comments.
In articles, seminar presentations, Peter and David's book "Gourmet Customer Service..." and here on this blog, one of our recurring themes has been the wide disconnect often seen between survey results on which companies base their views of service quality and what their customers truly think about the service they get.
The article is about a study released by the Strativity Group investigating how companies use surveys, and what is done with the findings. The answers are not very well and not much.
That 71% of survey respondents don't think the data collected is ever acted upon is consistent with VocaLabs findings.
Over 3/4 of participants in the study of how survey results are implemented say that it is difficult for them to get company buy in to make changes, and nearly 3/4 say there is little follow up internally to change behavior based on study findings. Sad, but not terribly surprising based on our experiences.
We also frequently rant over amateurish survey methodology that leads to a false sense of good service, as a root cause of ongoing bad customer care. And we have always suspected, but never tried to quantify whether some few individuals deliberately craft surveys that make them look good at the expense of truth.
Well, Strativity's findings suggest we haven't been cynical enough. I Quote: "Slightly more than half (52.3%) of survey participants design surveys to validate current performance" !!
When I discuss survey question bias and use the example "Do you like our product or would you rather be poked in the eye with a sharp stick?", I thought was exaggerating for effect. If over half of all surveys are slanted to a predetermined result; maybe I haven't been exaggerating all that much. To discover that we haven't been cynical enough is really depressing. Selling truthful, insightful and objective surveys when over half the market doesn't want honesty, and 3/4 wouldn't use the information anyway adds some challenge right?
Posted by Rick Rappe
www.callcentermagazine.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193004767
I needed to share some of the comments.
In articles, seminar presentations, Peter and David's book "Gourmet Customer Service..." and here on this blog, one of our recurring themes has been the wide disconnect often seen between survey results on which companies base their views of service quality and what their customers truly think about the service they get.
The article is about a study released by the Strativity Group investigating how companies use surveys, and what is done with the findings. The answers are not very well and not much.
That 71% of survey respondents don't think the data collected is ever acted upon is consistent with VocaLabs findings.
Over 3/4 of participants in the study of how survey results are implemented say that it is difficult for them to get company buy in to make changes, and nearly 3/4 say there is little follow up internally to change behavior based on study findings. Sad, but not terribly surprising based on our experiences.
We also frequently rant over amateurish survey methodology that leads to a false sense of good service, as a root cause of ongoing bad customer care. And we have always suspected, but never tried to quantify whether some few individuals deliberately craft surveys that make them look good at the expense of truth.
Well, Strativity's findings suggest we haven't been cynical enough. I Quote: "Slightly more than half (52.3%) of survey participants design surveys to validate current performance" !!
When I discuss survey question bias and use the example "Do you like our product or would you rather be poked in the eye with a sharp stick?", I thought was exaggerating for effect. If over half of all surveys are slanted to a predetermined result; maybe I haven't been exaggerating all that much. To discover that we haven't been cynical enough is really depressing. Selling truthful, insightful and objective surveys when over half the market doesn't want honesty, and 3/4 wouldn't use the information anyway adds some challenge right?
Posted by Rick Rappe
Posted at 02:52 PM | | | | |