Think about the last time a friend asked you for your opinion on a business?
Did you tell them “I’d rate that burger joint an 8 out of 10 overall. The food was pretty good, 9/10 but the speed of service was a 6/10 and my server didn’t ask me if I’d like a refill on my bottomless side. The cleanliness of the restaurant was 10/10 though.”
Probably not. I’d guess it went something like “That place is pretty good. Awesome pizza but it can take awhile to get your food.” Simple, to the point, and gives 1-2 pertinent details.
We need to stop expecting customers to fill out an entire Scantron sheet when they’re kind enough to offer to take the time to give feedback. Tailor your CSAT surveys to how people naturally give feedback.
Use multiple choice, but make it simple. “How was your experience?” Bad, Neutral, Good, or Amazing. 4 choices. Using simple colored icons can make it even easier to fill out.
Placing a dedicated kiosk or tablet next to an exit point can suddenly increase the amount of submitted surveys you get.
A place to leave freeform comments. Not required, give the option to skip this.
If they had a bad experience, you’d better believe they’ll give you all the context you need in the comments field. If they had an amazing experience, they’re likely to do the same.
The important data you’re after is really only bad experiences, or amazing ones. This tells you what went wrong and how to improve it for the future as well as what went right and what not to stop doing.
A final question asking them to leave an email or phone number if they’d like to be contacted for follow-up or to give more feedback. Also not required, with the option to skip.
This increases the chances that 1) you’ll get enough people volunteering to give feedback to have a suitable sample pool and 2) you’ll get honest feedback from them.
And while we’re at it, let’s stop counting anything that’s not a 5/5 or 10/10 as a zero. It’s unrealistic, kills employee morale, and customers know this happens so they’re more likely to adjust their answers to be either zeros or 5/10s.
Stop doing this to your employees and your customers!
Which makes for…you guessed it…garbage data.
If you’re not collecting accurate data, why bother collecting any data at all?
Plus, it gives customers the impression that you don’t value true feedback, or your employees' efforts.
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