Most of us have been there. The scenario may be different, but it goes something like this: you get your oil changed, and after you pay, the staff member tells you that you would be receiving a customer survey and they would really appreciate it if you gave them all 5s.
For whatever reason, this request does not sit well with me. On the one hand, I feel that a 5 is for above and beyond, and a 4 may be good enough for most uneventful transactions. On the other hand, I don’t know if their corporate office penalizes them for anything below a 5.
What is the point of the survey? One would assume that surveys are designed to give honest feedback so that processes can be improved, but that is not always the case. I have heard of a survey where customers have only 4 choices: a) Definitely Not Recommend, b) Not Recommend, c) Recommend, and d) Definitely Recommend. That survey became binary once the business combined the last two and marketed the results as “95% of our customers recommend us to their friends and family”. This is an example of a survey designed to give good news.
Survey design and purpose are important. Most of us would agree that surveys should be designed to receive honest feedback for the purposes of improving operations. Ideally, if the business acts on the survey results, then future scores would naturally improve and there would be more 5s. That approach requires patience and consistency. Patience because you need time to increase your sample size and be able to trend the data, and consistency because the questions should not change during that period. Frankly, I am not even sure that a 1-5 scale can accomplish that.
My recommendation is to abandon the 1-5 scale and go with a 1-10 scale. When you have a larger spread, it is easier to detect small movements of the needle (provided your sample size is large enough). I also do not recommend tying too much of the staff’s compensation to the number of 10s. Sometimes customers are unhappy for reasons beyond the control of the staff.
Finally, if you are curious, I do give all 5s when staff request it, provided that my experience is seamless and uneventful. I prefer to err on the side of not having them penalized for anything less than a 5. If the staff does not ask me for all 5s, and I do fill out a survey, I often give a 4 when I am satisfied, and a 5 only when I am wowed.
I am curious to know what your thoughts are. Do you think there is a problem with asking for the highest scores? Should 5s be given if the service simply met expectations?