Why You Can’t Trust Your Customer Satisfaction Scores /Is a 4-day Workweek the Future?
As customer experience has now become your brand’s best marketing, it is critical to see specifically how well your company, individual locations, and your customer-facing employees are doing, as well as holding them accountable for the experience they are delivering.
Companies with the highest NPS (Net Promoter Score) in their industry have consistently outperformed the stock market over the past decade, with annual returns of over 26%. You can see why so many organizations, big and small, have implemented customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT) over the past two decades.
However, what started out as companies having good intentions, whether it is a customer satisfaction survey, or utilizing NPS, unintended consequences have occurred as a result. A lot of these companies have found out that they have gone about it totally wrong and have allowed their employees and even leaders to pollute the integrity of their customer satisfaction reporting.
Poorly implemented, self-reported scores and misinterpretations of the CSAT results have diminished its credibility. Leaders linking customer satisfaction results to bonuses for leaders and/or customer-facing employees have created gaming. Gaming is when the employee influences things such as, which customers are asked and not asked to take the surveys, and the worst sin of all, beg customers for high scores.
In an HBR article titled, Net Promoter 3.0, author Fred Reicheld said, “Many firms amplify the problem by publicly reporting their scores to investors with no explanation of the process used to generate them and no safeguards to prevent pleading (“I’ll lose my job if you don’t rate me a 10”), bribery (“We’ll give you free oil changes for a 10”), and manipulation (“We never send surveys to customers whose claim was denied”). No details are provided about which customers (and how many) were surveyed, their response rates, or whether the survey was triggered by a specific transaction. Reports rarely mention whether the research was performed by a reliable third-party expert using the double-blind methodology. In other words, some firms have turned Net Promoter Scores into vanity statistics that damage the credibility of NPS.”
Other common mistakes companies make when they try to survey their clients are asking too many questions—the more steps and the longer it takes the customer, the less your response rate will be. Also, too many surveys are marketing campaigns in disguise. And finally, never have the customer receive a survey from the employee who they are surveying. You will not get their honest feedback.
Measuring the experience your company delivers both internally and externally is critical as long as you can avoid making these mistakes.
Episode 70 of the Customer Service Revolution Podcast: An Entrepreneur’s Relentless Drive to Build a World-Class Financial Service Firm
Bolt has decided to give their employees a 4-day workweek permanently
Last fall, an e-commerce developer tested out a 4-day workweek and says the results were overwhelmingly positive. Bolt’s CEO Ryan Breslow says, “I couldn’t imagine running a company any other way. Productivity has increased, work has been streamlined and employees are happy, he added”. A survey taken at the end of the three-month trial period found 94% of workers and 91% of managers wanted the program to continue. Check out the entire article.
Quick Video of the Week – Make your interview process ungameable.
Stat of the Week – It costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one.
Quote of the Week – “When dealing with an upset customer, listen like you are wrong.”
Last Chance for Attending the CXO Academy 2022
Our 2022 Customer eXperience Executive Academy (CXEA) has only 2 spots remaining. The CXEA course is a 12-month part-time program. The CXEA student is required to attend quarterly 3-day intensive training sessions, in Cleveland, as well as participate in virtual meetings twice a quarter. Quarter 1 is February 22-25, 2022.
Having worked with the top Customer Service organizations in the world, The DiJulius Group’s CXEA course gives you both theoretical and practical experience on how to elevate the levels of service at your company. With the increasing need for the Customer eXperience Executive in businesses today, the CXEA teaches the X Commandment Methodology, which covers all facets and responsibilities that fall under Customer Experience. Unlike any other institution, the CXEA’s focus, strictly on the Customer and Employee experience, prepares leaders to champion change at any company, regardless of industry.
