Using Surveys to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Overview/Description
 If you're lucky, your customers will complain when they are dissatisfied with your company's service. If you're not so lucky, they'll say nothing and just take their business elsewhere. It's essential that you keep your fingers on the pulse of customer opinion if you are to prevent them defecting to the competition. You need to measure customer satisfaction on a regular basis, and this course will give you the tools to do this. Once you have established the attributes of your service that customers value the most, by gathering their qualitative feedback, you need to gauge how they rate your company's ability to deliver them. This course concentrates on the techniques required to do this accurately and appropriately with the resources available to you. The first lesson explains why it's imperative that you have firm objectives for the survey in mind before you embark on a project to measure customer satisfaction, whether this is being conducted in-house or by outside consultants. Not only must you measure the right areas--you must also have a system in place that will allow you to act on its findings. Cross-functional backing is essential if the survey is to have the maximum effect on how customers view your service in the future. The success of any customer survey is dependent on it precipitating improvements in the areas that cause or have the potential to cause most customer dissatisfaction. The second lesson describes the various survey methods and explains the situations for which each is the most suited. With this knowledge, you will be able to choose the method that will achieve the maximum response for you within the constraints of available resources and time. The same applies to selecting the most appropriate sampling method, and what you learn from this course will enable you to make the best choice. You'll learn how to structure the questionnaire to minimize bias and encourage openness, and in the third and final lesson, you'll be shown a simple but effective technique for analyzing the results that doesn't require a degree in mathematics.

Target Audience
 Customer service managers, supervisors, team leaders, and anyone with responsibility for managing the delivery of quality customer service.

Expected Duration
3.0 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Planning the Survey

  • recognize the benefits of planning a customer satisfaction survey.
  • recognize survey objectives that are relevant to improving customer satisfaction.
  • recognize the factors that impact on the effectiveness of the three common survey methods.
  • recognize the three steps of selecting a survey sample.

    • Compiling the Questionnaire

  • recognize the advantages of compiling custom-made survey questionnaires.
  • given the research objectives and likely respondents, develop suitable questions for a prescribed survey.
  • classify questions according to their function.
  • given the objectives for the survey, place questions in the order in which they should appear on a customer satisfaction questionnaire.

    • Utilizing Survey Results

  • identify the benefits of communicating survey findings effectively.
  • recognize the correct positioning of customer ratings on a customer satisfaction matrix.
  • calculate the percentages for high, medium, and low customer satisfaction from a set of customer satisfaction ratings.
  • match recipients with appropriate survey results information.

    • Course Number: CUST0172