The Customer Service Survey
Customer service questionnaires as storytelling
Thu - April 12, 2007 01:44 PM in
I'm working on our upcoming workshop and there are a lot of things to cover. My wife can't believe we have enough material for two days, but the fact is that there's far more than we can squeeze in. So I'll be blogging about a few ideas that catch my attention that we may not have time to cover. (Peter's already done this in a recent entry.)
One thing that's occurred to me is that a customer service questionnaire should be as similar as possible to how the respondent would tell the story to a friend. It's the respondent's life, and much of what we humans spend our time doing is telling and retelling our stories. When a survey leads us away from our story, we disengage from the survey. That leads to less accurate and less heartfelt responses.
If you watch a lot of interviews on television or listen to them on the radio, you know that a bad interview consists of questions which bore the interviewee or highlight the gap between how the interviewer and the interviewee see things. A good interview, on the other hand, consists of a mix of questions which allow the interviewee to tell a favorite story (in your book, you describe..., explain what that's about) with the occasional engaging question which make the interviewee think about things (s)he's an expert in, but in a new light.
With a survey, it's impossible to give everyone that expert, personalized experience. But there are a few ways you can craft it to engage the storytelling instinct.
Posted by David Leppik
If you watch a lot of interviews on television or listen to them on the radio, you know that a bad interview consists of questions which bore the interviewee or highlight the gap between how the interviewer and the interviewee see things. A good interview, on the other hand, consists of a mix of questions which allow the interviewee to tell a favorite story (in your book, you describe..., explain what that's about) with the occasional engaging question which make the interviewee think about things (s)he's an expert in, but in a new light.
With a survey, it's impossible to give everyone that expert, personalized experience. But there are a few ways you can craft it to engage the storytelling instinct.
- Consider the hook. There are three types of customer service experiences: good, bad, and indifferent. By far, indifferent is the most common, but you get a more nuanced view if you can draw out something good or bad from the experience. Questions like "what's the best thing you remember about..." or "if you could change one thing..." draw out the emotional center of the story, along with memories of the experience.
- Consider the plot. How is the story structured? Chronologically? Thematically? One of the classic techniques that lawyers use in cross-examination is to ask questions out of order, in order to confuse the witness. Often surveys do this unintentionally, with the same effect. Good surveys will often include memory-jogging factual questions simply to prepare the respondent for the real questions.
- Consider the audience. If the survey is delivered verbally, the responses are taylored to the questioner. If it is written, the responses are taylored to whomever is likely to read them. The same questions can yield significantly different responses based on the audience. If the interviewer has a slight Indian accent, you can bet that you'll get a lot fewer complaints about incomprehensible call center agents than if the interviewer has a midwestern accent. Sometimes respondents intentionally exaggerate for effect, but usually it's subconscious.
Posted by David Leppik
Posted at 01:44 PM | | | | |