ar
![]() |
![]() |
||
| home | the author | the book | the seminar | zingers | testimonials | site map | contact | buy now | | |||
|
The Perception of a DifferenceThe Power in Buying, Marketing, Selling, Customer CareWes Zimmerman
Thursday, December 6, 2007Thursday, April 26, 2007"We value your opinion - - our way.""We value your opinion - - our way." Customer Satisfaction? On Saturday I took the time to fill in the blanks on a Service Satisfaction Questionnaire. It was emailed to me for the purpose of learning if I was satisfied with the service their representative had provided. I usually respond to these requests for two reasons; o I want the provider to know what was done correctly and what was not. Either way, the answers will help an honest business to succeed. o I want to know if the company or at least its Marketing Department is honest. The way the questionnaire is constructed, the questions asked and the sequence in which they are asked reveals this. In this case the lack of honesty was very evident; the questions were set up to force me to say I was satisfied. The first three questions were "motherhood and apple pie," clicking on an answer indicating dissatisfaction was impossible unless I am a real schnook. The questions following were less obvious about hidden intent. They trapped me by not having any "somewhat" answers. I had to either be totally satisfied or dissatisfied. Clicking on dissatisfied made it necessary to back track and change my answers on the first three questions. I did not like this but I finished the questions expecting to find a box at the end in which I could clarify things with type written answers. There wasn't any such box. I had to choose between the carefully written answers to each questions. If I left one question unanswered I could not "submit" the finished questionnaire. I clicked on all of them and then clicked on ‘Submit'. Being stubborn, I searched and found the company's Web site. Sure enough there was a button to click labeled, "contact us." I clicked it filled out all the asterisk required items, then wrote my feelings clearly in the "comment box" and clicked on ‘Submit". . . It would not submit because "you must fill in the required blanks marked with an asterisk." I checked and I had, I tried again, same answer, tried again, same result. I then filled in every blank on the form with data that would be acceptable, same result. Three tries with the same result. Needless to say the effort left me very frustrated. My conclusion: Either the IT department, the programmer creating the form, the Marketing Department, the Company is dishonest, or the CEO is so insecure no one has the guts to tell him the truth. I sent the draft of this blog to a friend to get his comments. This is what he sent back. I just finished a customer survey recently. It had exactly the same limitations. I believe that you infer much more devious plans than most of these represent. They are generally put together by people who have never thought of looking at service from the point of view of the consumer. They are hopeful that, at best they will provide justification for "business as usual" and at worst will point out areas that can be remedied within the current budget. As you note, there is no room for customer suggestions; they don't lend themselves to statistical summary. If my friend is correct it means that people in the Marketing Departments of many large companies are just plain dumb. Am I correct in this conclusion? I welcome your comments. Isn't wonderful to find yourself doing business with companies like this? Wes Zimmerman Labels: Customer Satisfaction, marketing, perception Click the Add to Cart button below to purchase the Perception of a Difference Book through Pay Pal at $31.50. Shipping and handling will be added at checkout at the rate of $4.95 for first book and $2.75 for each additional book. ISBN 0-9760307-0-5 - Hard Cover, 305 Pages Buy the Perception of a Difference Book:Subscribe to Zingers Newsletter:About ZingersWes Zimmerman |
| Copyright © 2005-2007 Wesley W. Zimmerman All Rights Reserved |