The Customer Service Survey
The VocaLabs School of Common Sense
Thu - December 7, 2006 12:39 PM in
If you haven't picked up on it just yet, many of our latest blog entries have been discussing survey technique and some of the problems when trying to get to the truth of what people really think. The reason for this current focus is that we are preparing to introduce "Vocalabs U", a seminar service to help improve the quality of user surveys and the underlying interpretations. These blog comments are a result of an ongoing process of trying to define the curriculum.
Some night question whether attending VocaLabs U is needed since we have written so much already about faulty survey methods. Not so. True, we continue to point to problem issues, but we have not given away the store. Identifying the problem is a different focus than fixing it.
As Peter pointed out yesterday with his Home Depot example, manipulating customer satisfaction results can be a lot easier than actually doing something to improve. A few weeks ago I shared some data strongly suggesting that the majority of surveys are written to try and confirm some already held belief rather than discover the truth. And we know that when an uncomfortable truth is discovered, human nature is to first discredit the data rather than change a belief.
So whether people distrust survey results because of a justifiable skepticism, or because the answers might cause a set of beliefs to be upset; the result is the same: The data isn't taken seriously.
Perhaps this is why roughly 20% of the market research firms from a 2006 buyers guide that I've been trying to contact to offer our services are no longer in business. Perhaps this is a reason why those firms that offer cheap surveys seem to be the most active. I don't have those answers. What I do know, and continue to preach, is that well defined surveys, conducted objectively, and which deliver reliable insights; can be done. Vocalabs U will teach you to recognize the difference.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
As Peter pointed out yesterday with his Home Depot example, manipulating customer satisfaction results can be a lot easier than actually doing something to improve. A few weeks ago I shared some data strongly suggesting that the majority of surveys are written to try and confirm some already held belief rather than discover the truth. And we know that when an uncomfortable truth is discovered, human nature is to first discredit the data rather than change a belief.
So whether people distrust survey results because of a justifiable skepticism, or because the answers might cause a set of beliefs to be upset; the result is the same: The data isn't taken seriously.
Perhaps this is why roughly 20% of the market research firms from a 2006 buyers guide that I've been trying to contact to offer our services are no longer in business. Perhaps this is a reason why those firms that offer cheap surveys seem to be the most active. I don't have those answers. What I do know, and continue to preach, is that well defined surveys, conducted objectively, and which deliver reliable insights; can be done. Vocalabs U will teach you to recognize the difference.
Posted by Rick Rappe'
Posted at 12:39 PM | | | | |