The reason to do a customer satisfaction survey is to find out how customers feel about doing business with you. Did their questions get answered? Were things handled efficiently? On the face of it, it seems straightforward to ask customers about their experiences and tabulate the results. And that's why customer satisfaction surveys are a multi-billion dollar industry; they are fast, cheap, and easy.

But the vast majority of customer satisfaction surveys (our informal assessment suggests about 98%) are plagued by one, two, three or all four types of major distortions. The net result is that the data collected from customer satisfaction surveys is often grossly inaccurate, presenting little to no truth value.

The cost of this misinformation adds up when companies think things to be true that aren't, invest in solutions that don't match their problems and operate in a fog when it comes to their customers' expectations and perceptions.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Problem #1: Garbage in, Garbage out

Customers' answers are only as good as the questions you ask. If you ask your customers to rate services they didn't receive or aspects of the customer experience that aren't relevant, your scores will be meaningless. The fix is to only ask about the customer's specific experience. For example, for one of our catalog retail clients, we wrote surveys based on where the customer was in the buy cycle. One survey addressed customers who called in to request a catalog, another survey addressed customers who had just placed an order, a third survey asked questions pertaining to recently received products and a fourth looked at customers who tried to return something.

Email us an overview of your company and its services and we’ll give you a few ideas on how to get specific.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Problem #2: Rigged Wording

How you phrase your customer satisfaction survey questions influences results. Things as simple as question order and word choice all impact how satisfied your customers appear.

One of the more egregious and pervasive biases is the statement at the top of many surveys that says, “We want to make sure you were 100% satisfied.” In effect, this tells customers what you want to hear. Usually, we recommend more neutral statements like, “We are interested in everything you have to say about your experience.”

Ask The Experts: Submit your customer service survey for a free Expert Review.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Problem #3: Non-response

Not all customers are equally likely to take your survey, resulting in sample or non-response bias. Those who have the time and inclination to answer your survey may or may not represent your real customer base-or your most profitable customers. When it comes to who takes your surveys, another source of bias comes from the fact that different types of surveys (IVR, email, face-to-face, etc.) appeal to different types of customers.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Problem #4: Data Tainted By Employees

Depending on how managers communicate with staff, employees may think the purpose of a customer satisfaction survey is to tally up positive feedback and top scores. In reality, the objective of a customer satisfaction survey should be to capture customers' perceptions of their experiences. But if employees don't understand this, they are prone to avoid negative responses and amplify positive ones. From the rental car agent who checks how many miles you drove and then wants to know 'whether you would refer a friend' as you're rushing to get the airport to the carpet installer who slides you a postcard that says, “when they call, give me a top scope” most of us have encountered a situation where we exaggerated the quality of the service to move things along or to avoid a potential confrontation. All in all, data collected by employees is suspect, and therefore, it's better to keep data collection out of employees' hands.