Are customer service surveys effective?

This is a great discussion! There is one point I'd like to add however.

I think it's important to make the distinction between open-ended vs. closed-ended questions. One of the reasons customer service surveys fail... or just feel well, lame so often is because respondents feel as though they have to pigeon-hole their answers into neat little boxes. We're all accustomed to the the Satisfied vs. Dissatisfied; the Yes's vs. No's; the Poor vs. Excellent; but this is a very black/white approach. The reality is a lot of the real value can be found in the gray area. Researchers and industry analysts love to have tangible figures and neatly packaged data, but very often the answers your company is looking for are in that gray area: as in what your customers would actually say (using their own words) if you gave them the opportunity to say it.

Particularly for 'in-house' studies, or those which are conducted to improve the business (rather than to gather data about the market or identify industry trends), the open-ended question can be invaluable. Ask your customers openly 'What was the most valuable or frustrating part of your experience?' and allow them to answer it without prompt. Rather than 'Rate your experience with the rep on a scale of 1-5,' try 'What about your experience with the rep would you change for next time?' When I take surveys (and I feel strongly about the topic), I love a box just for general commentary. Sometimes researchers are looking for such specific feedback, they overlook the possibility of missing the point (or problem) altogether. Remember, customers have insight into parts of the sales /marketing/ purchasing/ managing/ whatever processes that the business may overlook, or simply see as insignificant.

Think of a survey as a dialogue between the business and the customer; it should NOT be a one-way street.

Hi, Tara:
Recently when I was checking out of a local branch of a national department store, the clerk circled a web address and said if I took time to answer their short survey, I would get a 15% off coupon for my next purchase. How many times do we hear that? Often it's still not enough of a motivator for me, but this time I went to the site.

I had one of those experiences that others have mentioned here. The survey was designed so that I could not tell them about the aspects of the experience I wanted to tell them about. And, it almost seemed as if the survey was designed so that I had to give them a good rating - and maybe that was their aim. But it sure was a waste of time for me - and it lowered my opinion of the company. They have plenty of money to do it right.

So, as others have mentioned, surveying can be an invaluable tool - if you do it right.

Tara, if you don't mind, I'll approach your question from a different perspective. First let's discuss the concept of a survey, you want me to tell you how you did so you can improve your operation and the customers experience. So I understand your motivation, but here's the problem that I have as a customer, why are you asking me to invest my time into something that you should already understand, isn't that why you are in business.

Most customers attitudes are going to be, why should I help you improve your business, it's not my job and if you want my feedback, what's in it for me. Customer surveys are lagging indicators, it's about what happened, it's history. The survey might be effective if you asked the right questions and that's wherein the problem lies, the questions might not be the most important ones to ask. There has been a great deal of discussion around the Net Promoter Score approach, I believe that this approach is too advanced for most companies, they aren't even close to being ready for this approach.
If it were my company, I'd take a different approach, one that would provide me with information that was more of a leading indicator of how we were doing. Here's the big secret, observe or listen to how you are treating your customers and decide on your own, what needs to be changed, if you don't get it, having your customers tell you isn't going to change a thing.

you can't lose by trying one.

My favorite customer service survey is based on the NetPromoter question:

1) On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend company X to a friend or colleague based on your recent customer service experience?

2) What's the one thing we could do differently to earn a higher score?

Sorry Mr Kemper I disagree, you can loose, because:
* most satisfaction surveys are poorly designed & psychometrically unsound (even the concepts of what is meant by "dissatisfaction" and "delighted" are problems both for customer relations and for the design of the items and rating scales - hence the difficulty of interpretation of data);
* the "moment of truth" issue - when a poorly designed time wasting survey gets to customers it can have a negative effect on the image of the product, service & organisation
* there are too many cases of surveys going into a 'black hole' and customers getting sick of wasting their time without getting any feedback or benefit from the process.

Tara
Thanks for asking - this is an important "trap" for new players. There is no doubt that you need to show customers that you value their feedback. But there are better ways than a so-called satisfaction survey. If you want to start the process a better way is to prepare a draft interview guide and trial it with some friends and edit accordingly. Then if you want to go further: 1) pick a selection of customers across the range of your demographics (age, gender, type of product etc); 2) explain to them you want their feedback (in your prepared interview guide); 3) offer them a process of engagement (sometimes this means giving free samples and other inducements) which must include letting them know what were the outcomes of the interviews; 4) ask them a few simple questions and let them do the talking; 5) set up a www page on your www site to give them your feedback data and invite them to continue to inform you about their opinions; 6) set up a Quality Assurance program to immediately address any faults or concerns their identify.
In any case it is worth seeking professional advice in this murky area and most importantly keep a learning log/journal to help evaluate your own approach and what lesson you have learned so you can improve your approach to customers and to the evaluation process.
Good luck
- Dr Colin Sharp, Managing Director, PERSONAL Research & Evaluation (South Australia)

Hi Tara,
Before going to a survey, I would use one or two mystery clients, who would use the customer service and relate their experience against a carefully drawn list of desirable attributes (who and how draws the list?) the customer service ought to have.
The findings of this short exercise will help to bring to light points in customer service that need to be corrected and eventually guide you in designing a customer survey.
Business very often tend to overlook the experience that customers have with their products/services which might totally differ from what businesses think the customers experience.

Tara,

I would first suggest that some goal posts be put around the definition of "effective". And hopefully that definition is determined from the customer's point of view. That said I would strongly suggest that customer service surveys are effective if it is clear, based on the type of questions being asked, that you are actually looking for the honest feedback of the customer base, i.e., there is room for free text commentary by customers. I would also strongly recommend that you openly share the results of the survey with the respondents. Finaly, I would recommend that you provide those respondents with regular, consistent updates on how your organization is changing, for the better, based on the survey results.

Cheers,

William

While I agree mystery shopping can reveal real insight, the limitation there is sample. Where a survey may lack the flexibility and spontaneity of a human, it's unlikely one would employ 50, 100, 1000 mystery shoppers. Perhaps it would be most instructive to combine both of these efforts, employing surveys to represent a large sample of diverse perspectives, as well as mystery shoppers to provide the nuance and intelligence surveys can lack.

You make a good point, Jessica. In our case, Integrity Consultants has a database of over 5,000 mystery shoppers. This comes into play when dealing with special project needs, such as specific demographics and more intense project requirements. If, for example, we were evaluating service at a local eyeglass retailer, we could easily find shoppers who wear corrective lenses. Furthermore, if a specific age range or spoken language is required, we can accommodate that need as well. Most clients do not rely on just one shop, any more than you would survey just one customer. But used correctly, the data provided from a mystery shopping program can be invaluable. I agree that combining all tools and methods at your disposal into a specialized program is the most beneficial.

We use a Netpromoter survey and we find this to be very effective. What makes this assessment significant is that it's tied to overall metrics of the company and the results and comments are read by senior management.

We've found that looking at the trends has been extremely important and has helped us improve over time. While the assessment itself may not be perfect, it's effective. We also have a system for following up post survey which is also just as important or even more important than the overall the results. We make the survey even more effective using our own marketing automation tools to automate and personalize the campaign assets to deliver a higher survey response.

Customer service/ customer satisfaction surveys have to be linked to other surveys around brand, POS/retail outlet etc.
And even customer surveys have to be broken down into existing customers and prospective customers to come up with really useful insights into customer acquisition, growth and retention. The success depends in combining all this information into one model to see the impact on revenues.

Hi Tara,

If you decide to run a customer satisfaction survey I would urge you to ask only two questions...

1) On a scale 1 to 10 (where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent) how do you rate the expereince you had when dealing with my company?

2) If you didn't answer 10 to question 1 what could we have done to make it a 10?

With this information you have all of the data you need to created an excellent customer experience for your customers/clients.

:Laurence

"It depends."
That is the "standard consulting answer" but there is a great deal of truth therein.
I agree that using Net Promoter is a powerful approach: simple, straight-forward, and actionable.
My personal preference is to use the "Customer Management Center" (fka, "the call center") as the first line of source for this feedback. I have had great success using "throw-away" questions towards the end of the call, saying "I just have 2 quick things to ask"....
this approach allows your company to learn where you are "at-risk" and this "At-Risk" analysis is part of the underpinning of Reichheld's approach - cf., TARP's research.

The at risk factors can be assigned a dollar value and then....

I have to agree with Kathi on this one. Try mystery shopping. The consumer survey really is limited in its usefulness and capability. I would suggest working with a company to develop a mystery shopping program, whether your needs are 5 locations shopped once or 1000 locations shopped weekly. You'll have the advantage of a professionally trained mystery shopper, one who is observing the people and things you've specified and conveying all the information that we wish our customers would tell us. It's flexible because you can evaluate all points of customer contact, whether over the phone, online, or at the point of sale; and it can be as complex or simple a program as you need it to be.