Re: Survey Effectiveness

From: Nick Wreden <nick_at_fusionbrand.com>
Date: Mon 30 Jan 2006 10:18:44 -0600

>This company is about to survey its customers (to gauge satisfaction with
>service) and wants to know which method is best:
>1) Personal email with questions - doable, but wouldn't that make people
>hesitant to say anything negative?
>2) Link within an email that is the bulk of the service itself, to a webpage
>survey that could be answered anonymously
>
>Sadly, we're lacking in the technical skills required for an HTML-based email
>survey, and there are no incentives to offer to respondents.


The simplest and easiest method is to use surveymonkey.com. I have
had a great experience surveying about brand metrics
(http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=26041331404) and other topics.

But there is a larger issue. It is highly likely that you will not
obtain the actionable data you are looking for from a customer
satisfaction survey. There are numerous problems with "satisfaction"
surveys. Everyone defines "satisfaction" differently.
Cause-and-effect isn't revealed. If you get a 90% satisfaction
rating, what caused it? Quality? Responsiveness? You don't know.
Satisfaction surveys don't reveal customer benchmarks for
"satisfaction." These and other problems with satisfaction surveys
are why companies like Enterprise Rent-a-car and several GE
subsidiaries have abandoned them.

What you really want to do is ask your customers three questions:

In what areas, do you hold us accountable?
What are your benchmarks for accountability in those areas?
Against those benchmarks, how are we doing on a scale of 1-10.

You then want to plot the responses on an X-Y axis and then determine
where to apply or re-allocate resources.

There's also another issue. Be sure to know the relative
profitability of the customers you survey. After all, why do you
want to "satisfy" an unprofitable customer?

Good luck

Nick Wreden
CEO, FusionBrand
Author, "ProfitBrand: How to Ensure the Profitability, Accountability
and Sustainability of Brands"
strategy+business: "Best Business Book of 2005"




Received on Mon Jan 30 2006 - 10:18:44 CST