On Page 28 of our book "Future Business", we argue that business leaders must be very aware of the relative value they receive from customer satisfaction surveys. We had requests from our readers to clarify this warning.

In our experience and research there are four challenges with these surveys directly impacting their validity and reliability.

1. Experience Cool-down.

People experiencing bad service get extremely frustrated during and immediately after the experience but they tend to cool down very soon and they partially forget how bad the experience was. Thus the lag between when we capture the experience and when the experience actually occurred is extremely important. If the survey is completed a day or two after the experience, clients tend to react in a much softer manner compared to the experience they had during the event. A particular company with a history of bad service implemented a courtesy call to all clients who did business with them to track levels of service experienced. The call centre responsible for the surveys quickly learnt to call the clients only three days after their day of doing business with the company. The reason? Because the customer service feedback they then captured from clients was lower in intensity and far fewer customers reported extreme bad service experiences. That is exactly the problem. The survey must be done within the first hour following the moment of service. If not, the cool down principle will dilute the real experience of the client. It will be a misleading picture!

2. Pre-destined Questions.

Can you answer the following question: Do you still kick your dog? Yes or No. Regardless of the way you answer, you will acknowledge that, at a point in time, you kicked your dog. The point is you kicked your dog. The questionnaire is pre-destined. Many survey questions are formulated in such a way that it forces the customer to confirm good service. The survey consists of a well designed set of questions that will inevitably result in a good service score. Alternatively, we ask questions that are pre-destined to give you no insight into customer satisfaction. A hotel group might for instance ask the following questions:

These questions are a waste of time. They say nothing about the content of the service and by implication customer satisfaction. Great, the porter gave you assistance, but was rude and abrupt. You were offered a drink, but the glass was chipped. Many companies do exactly this. They ask questions that give no insight into the content of service and customer satisfaction. You need to be very critical of this. Don’t waste time and resources sponsoring surveys with pre-destined questions that will inevitably result in a good service score or give no insight whatsoever into Customer Satisfaction.

3. Impact of Bad Service.

What do you get from a customer satisfaction survey? You most probably don’t get what you should! What should you get? The impact the business has on clients and the impact bad service has on the business, its brand, its profits, its customer retention and positive branding of the business through its customer. Knowing that you’ve scored 87% on a customer service survey tells you absolutely nothing. The following questions need to be answered:

If a customer satisfaction survey doesn’t tell you this, you’ve wasted your money!

4. Uninformed Customers.

Customer satisfaction surveys bank on the fact that the majority of customers do not know exactly what excellent customer service is. They are not aware of what should be done and what must be delivered. They tolerate standing in a queue, letting the phone ring ten times before the customer service agent answers, going back three or four times to enquire about the delivery of a product they have purchased etc. Customers simply tolerate too much. They don’t cancel the purchase if they have to stand in a queue. They don’t stop payments if deliveries are not done exactly as promised. The point is that the majority of customer’s answer survey questions without a mindset of good service. In reality they answer with a mindset that mediocre service is good enough. It is very dangerous to let you customer unwittingly decide your customer service benchmark.

Make sure that the money you spend on surveys is worth the results you get. Ask a few well informed and critical questions and never become complacent because some survey said that your company’s customer service is good enough!