On a scale of one to five...

[+ purplekow]

I was sitting home not doing much and I noticed on my land line phone id that I was being called by the Gallup Poll. Thinking that it may be a political survey, I answered to find it was a survey about my bank. The caller said that the call would take 5 minutes and I agreed to do the survey.

The surveyor started each question with the same statement: On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is least likely and 5 is most likely, how likely is it that..." after three questions, I told him that I understood how a scale of 1 to 5 works and he said that he was required to ask the question in just this way. He then started to ask another question and when he was done, I asked what 1 meant again, He said his spiel. I then said i was confused and what did 5 mean again. He repeated his message. I told him I was not sure what 3 meant. Did it mean equally likely and unlikely or did it mean that I really didn't know how likely it was. He said that he though it meant that I cold not say how likely it was. Well I told him I thought that was unresponsive to his question and not at all in keeping with the survey. Clearly there is a difference between equal parts likely and unlikely, which is what a 3 meant to me and his choice of not knowing whether it was likely or not. I told him that if he could not be clear what his scale meant, that he needed to get me a supervisor so the the survey would not be compromised.

He hung up.

He was right, the survey did take 5 minutes.

[+ poolboy48220]

Required scripts drive me nuts. The number of times the rep says "I'm so sorry you've had this problem" is crazy. My best experience was years ago, when checking into adding a DVR to my cable service. The rep was informative, but kept breaking into "it's awesome, you're going to love it" during the spiel. It was so obviously genuine on her part that it sold me.

[+ FreshFluff]

The confusion between "don't know" and the neutral middle point is a major issue in research. A separate "don't know" option is usually a good idea, but some survey writers hesitate to include it because subjects with weak opinions often use it as an "out."

 

Required scripts are necessary to keep the survey items reliable. If the person who wrote the questionnaire decided to label only the endpoints of the scale, then that needs to stay constant across all participants. The last thing you want is for the phone survey takers to inject their own ideas.

[+ purplekow]

Yes but might they write the survey to say, for the next 10 questions please use the following scale. Once I told him I understood the concept of a 1 to 5 scale, shouldn't that end it. And really, who wants the opinion of someone who cannot understand a 1 to 5 scale

[+ Gar1eth]

Can't '3' mean either of those things depending on the question ask? And if you didn't have an opinion then wouldn't the answer to the question be equally likely?

 

Gman

[+ FreshFluff]

Yes but might they write the survey to say, for the next 10 questions please use the following scale. Once I told him I understood the concept of a 1 to 5 scale, shouldn't that end it. And really, who wants the opinion of someone who cannot understand a 1 to 5 scale

 

Typically, the phone surveyors read out the scale for each question. Some subjects might be feeding a child or texting at the same time, so it's best not to rely on their memories. (After all, the scale could go in the opposite direction too: 1 could be the most likely and 5 least likely."

 

In fact, questionnaire writers will sometimes reverse the scale every few questions to keep the subject from falling into a rut. ("4,4,4...")

[+ FreshFluff]

Can't '3' mean either of those things depending on the question ask? And if you didn't have an opinion then wouldn't the answer to the question be equally likely?

 

Ideally, you want to separate those who think the chances are 50% from those who truly don't know.

 

A Bayesian might see it differently.

[AdamSmith]

Required scripts drive me nuts.

Microsoft tech support has this problem in spades. Worst is when they don't know (or aren't allowed to acknowledge?) a bug in a new update. It's gotten to where I now call InMotion, my web hosting company, for help with MS Office 365 questions, which they're happy -- and competent -- to answer.

[rvwnsd]

Lowes does the dumb survey thing, but I always take it because the installers are usually very very good and I want to give them 5's. The survey? Not so much.

[+ glennnn]

Most of these "surveys" are robo calls that cost the company nothing. And that is what they are worth. I think the data is immediately dumped. I have given some dismal ratings ( Would you recommend us to a friend? NO!!!!!", and never received a follow up to find out why. This shows how much they care. .. zip! Its just cooperate jacking off

 

American business is as disgusting, corrupt, venal, rapacious and hateful as American government, media, education, religion, etc. They love to produce commercials (especially at Christmas Time), about how much their 'family' cares about your family, but they would see you all dead for a dollar. Afterall, the CEO needs ten more Maseratis to prove he will never have to die like the rest of us while his workers continue to be denied minimum wage. Oh I know there are a few enlightened companies out there, but most companies are run by overpaid, heartless fascists.. The U S is awash in wealth, but it all stays at the top. Just how many rooms does one need in a mansion to be happy? 100? 200? Ah, it all,depends on how many rooms the billionaire next do0r has, doesn't it? One must,keep up in order to get your picture in People Magazine and obtain immortality and what the FUCK is a Kim Kardashian??????

[rvwnsd]

Most of these "surveys" are robo calls that cost the company nothing. And that is what they are worth. I think the data is immediately dumped. I have given some dismal ratings ( Would you recommend us to a friend? NO!!!!!", and never received a follow up to find out why. This shows how much they care. .. zip! Its just cooperate jacking off...

 

I'm assuming by "nothing" you meant "they cost very little on a per-call basis." Companies actually pay a lot of money to survey their customers and attempt to use the data to make decisions on products and services. However, if they survey and then do not follow up on the results (or do not provide a way to provide contact information so they can) they will not get the information they want and will have wasted a boatload of money.

[+ glennnn]

I'm assuming by "nothing" you meant "they cost very little on a per-call basis." Companies actually pay a lot of money to survey their customers and attempt to use the data to make decisions on products and services. However, if they survey and then do not follow up on the results (or do not provide a way to provide contact information so they can) they will not get the information they want and will have wasted a boatload of money.

 

 

Yes, relatively a robo call to check 'for satisfaction' is pretty cheap. Just like the on line surveys, that never get answered whether you highly praise or bittterly complain. Its just some marketing employee justifying his/her job, and good luck to them trying to hang on to a 60k/ yr job while the CEO makes 600 million whether the company prospers or flops. My point is pay your employees,well and they will service your customers well. Dont bother us with some bullshit, pacifier survey that no one responds to.

[sincitymix]

Microsoft tech support has this problem in spades. Worst is when they don't know (or aren't allowed to acknowledge?) a bug in a new update. It's gotten to where I now call InMotion, my web hosting company, for help with MS Office 365 questions, which they're happy -- and competent -- to answer.

 

Most companies outsource a lot of these jobs to manila or India. The reps have to follow a script and are not allowed to deviate.

I had to call aol once and ended up banging my head into the wall in frustration over the scripted responses.

The company I used to work for outsourced some departments. You would think as a fellow employee that when I call them internally in order to close client files or to get them to do xxx or yyy, they give the same scripted responses. I had to call multiple in a row, and got the same girl over the same issue because her scripted responses did not fit or solve the situation. I finally badgered her enough that she admitted to me that even as an employee doing an internal call, she still had to say the same scripted responses that she had to give the clients. Me: "Okay I understand that the pharmacy program has a deductible, however xxx has met it 3 months ago, the claims statement on our end shows that its been met, but they are still being charged full price." Manila: "The plan has a 200 dollar deductible" me: I understand that. as I stated the client has met it. I can confirm that. Could you please check to see what code is being used on your end to calculate the deductible?" Manila: The plan has a 200 dollar deductible. Me: (thinking im going to approach it at another angle) Can you give me the override code that XXX system is using? Manila: I am not allowed to provide you with an override code. Me: I am sorry im not sure I heard you correctly. You can not give me the override code that the system is using? Im the designated representative client account services auditor. You are allowed to give me the override code. Manila: I am sorry but you must contact #### and ask to speak to a customer service representative. Me: That is a number for the client members employees. I am an employee of the company who is a direct liaison with the client company. The client employee calls the customer service rep, who if they can not resolve the issue, and the client employee complains to their employer, who then reaches out to ME to resolve this problem, so that number you provided me is useless. Manila: This plan has a 200 deductible.. me: I hang up the phone.. take a deep breath and call again.

Needless to say the company ended up loosing a lot of major clients because of these outsourced calls. Even when the clients had specific contracts that said all calls had to be taken by employees in the us, the company would still out source the call, then blame it on a "routing issue" or an employees transferring inappropriately problem when busted by the client. Funny when the client paid for 100 dedicated call takers, paying multi millions for this service, and they end up getting 10 people and all calls routed to India.

Ceos who gave themselves 40 million dollar bonuses at the end of the year with a 3 million dollar pay raise.. only to send out an email to the rest of the company saying how due to fiscal responibillity and growing the company, that no one would be getting bonuses, pay raises were on freeze, and departments xxx xxx xxx xxx would be taking a 20% pay cut.

and then prior to the Christmas they would lay off xxxx amnt of people. despite the fact of every quarter the company published NET profits in the near billion range. every quarter.. record net profits.. year after year after year..

 

Sigh :9

[+ Charlie]

I recently received a call about my TWC service, where the scale was 1-10, with 1 being the lowest. Every time I gave the answer "1," the recording would say, "A 1 is the lowest quality score. Are you sure you wanted to give a 1?" and I would have to affirm I was sure. Which I did.

 

I didn't realize that Gallup did polls for businesses. Of course, the IDs that come up on my phone are often misleading.

[+ FreshFluff]

I recently received a call about my TWC service, where the scale was 1-10, with 1 being the lowest. Every time I gave the answer "1," the recording would say, "A 1 is the lowest quality score. Are you sure you wanted to give a 1?" and I would have to affirm I was sure. Which I did.

 

I didn't realize that Gallup did polls for businesses. Of course, the IDs that come up on my phone are often misleading.

 

Phone polls are sometimes programmed to do this in order to avoid halo effects or the reverse. For example, those who hate TWC in general may keep hitting 1 without thinking about the specific question (how fast is your Internet, are you satisfied with the channels on basic cable, etc). It also applies in the other direction.

[+ glennnn]

I used to subscribe to product loyalty. You know, "We always use XXX at our house, because they are a good product". .Now I have no sense of loyalty whatsoever. I buy whatever is cheapest, because it is all crap anyway. No "Um, um good, that's what Campbell's soups are" at our house.

 

I got my first bank account 60 years ago at age 12 from a hometown owned bank. Since then, I have been sold off to new masters so many times I have lost track- at least a dozen. The products and the service have become steadily worse, they closed all of my local branches. I receive mail from them with my name misspelled and they keep thanking me for 3 years of loyalty. Do I care if this bank (Union Bank of California) shrivels? Would I walk across the street to piss on them if they were lying in the gutter in flames? Do I do any business with them other than a necessary checking account? (and most importantly) Do they care that I hate them and wish them nothing but failure? The answer in all cases is NO! AH well, American business triumphs again.

[+ purplekow]

My mortgage was recently sold for the fifth time. It changed hands at the same time the my local real estate taxes went up. What occurred with every other company is, they raised the escrow payment for two months to make up for any deficit and then established a new mortgage payment.

When I called my new company, after I called my old company and found out that my mortgage had been transferred, the new company denied that I owed them more money. I sent them $700 extra anyway. The following month, I received a statement that my account was in arrears.

When I called them, they said that my mortgage payment was now $6 dollars more than I paid, so the payment was not applied and I was deliquent. Turns out my payment was increased $706 dollars and the $700 I sent despite being told I did not owe it, did not cover it. After 2 months, the escrow should have been up to date and when I called as to why my mortgage payment had not gone down, I was told that I had not requested an escrow appraisal. Finally, now after 4 months, it is corrected. I have spent more time on the phone with this company in 5 months than with all the companies over the previous 19 years.

This company also falsely informed me that I would be charge $2100 for flood insurance since the government had just changed my zoning. Numerous calls to the local zoning boards, indicated that there had not been a zoning change in regard to flooding for 15 years. As annoying as it was to fight with them to get them to correct this, it was as annoying that all their letters to me indicated that I needed FOOD insurance.

When I mentioned this, I was told it was a typo. A typo of this kind in a form letter sent from a major corporation.

[+ Charlie]

Phone polls are sometimes programmed to do this in order to avoid halo effects or the reverse. For example, those who hate TWC in general may keep hitting 1 without thinking about the specific question (how fast is your Internet, are you satisfied with the channels on basic cable, etc). It also applies in the other direction.

I understand that reasoning, but in this case I was not giving the same score to each question. The only time I was asked if I was sure was when I gave a 1.

[+ glennnn]

My mortgage was recently sold for the fifth time. It changed hands at the same time the my local real estate taxes went up. What occurred with every other company is, they raised the escrow payment for two months to make up for any deficit and then established a new mortgage payment.

When I called my new company, after I called my old company and found out that my mortgage had been transferred, the new company denied that I owed them more money. I sent them $700 extra anyway. The following month, I received a statement that my account was in arrears.

When I called them, they said that my mortgage payment was now $6 dollars more than I paid, so the payment was not applied and I was deliquent. Turns out my payment was increased $706 dollars and the $700 I sent despite being told I did not owe it, did not cover it. After 2 months, the escrow should have been up to date and when I called as to why my mortgage payment had not gone down, I was told that I had not requested an escrow appraisal. Finally, now after 4 months, it is corrected. I have spent more time on the phone with this company in 5 months than with all the companies over the previous 19 years.

This company also falsely informed me that I would be charge $2100 for flood insurance since the government had just changed my zoning. Numerous calls to the local zoning boards, indicated that there had not been a zoning change in regard to flooding for 15 years. As annoying as it was to fight with them to get them to correct this, it was as annoying that all their letters to me indicated that I needed FOOD insurance.

When I mentioned this, I was told it was a typo. A typo of this kind in a form letter sent from a major corporation.

 

 

blushing in shame after my "Atlas Shrugged" tirade above.....Purplekow, please pm me,the name of the mortgage company with which you struggled so manfully. Im thinking of taking a loan on a property and want to avoid those assholes, so I can find my own assholes......ah, fuck it!

[mike carey]

Just like the on line surveys, that never get answered whether you highly praise or bittterly complain. Its just some marketing employee justifying his/her job, and good luck to them trying to hang on to a 60k/ yr job while the CEO makes 600 million whether the company prospers or flops. My point is pay your employees,well and they will service your customers well. Dont bother us with some bullshit, pacifier survey that no one responds to.

These polls are not intended to find out what you think, they are intended to find out the range of opinions people hold. The polls are random and anonymous, so the company won't know what any individual responder thinks. The polling organisation doesn't, indeed cannot tell the company that you, as a customer, have issues. That, rather than that they are ignoring you, is why the company doesn't contact you after you have made adverse comments in a poll.

 

Social media is providing interesting reading on company consumer relations. Qantas started a twitter competition, something like 'What is your dream Qantas service?' and was deluged with comments like 'I dream of getting actual service from Qantas'. Most of the comments were general rather than specific, but Qantas had detailed feedback and worse, the fact that the twitter campaign had backfired became news. A second thing I have seen is people tweeting their problem with a company and including, say #mytelco, and in no time at all, @mytelco is tweeting publicly 'Call me direct on this number' and as often as not the original tweeter goes public thanking them for fixing the issue.

 

In a similaar vein, I had an dead battery in my car and although the NRMA (our local equivalent of AAA) got me started to drive to my car dealer, they couldn't work out how to change the battery in my (uncommon) car. 12 months later, NRMA Battery Service went onto Facebook touting their services. I commented, recounting my experience (most of the other comments were positive). Very quickly they posted a reply wanting details so they could sort things out. I didn't follow up (yes, I told them I didn't want to take it further) but I got the strong feeling that if there had been a residual issue it would have been resolved, and quickly.

 

I think this is all positive. After aeons of being able to ignore complaints (if they chose to, not all companies do) because they were handled in private, social media is forcing them to handle them in public with all the reputational damage that can result!

[+ glennnn]

I hope you are right, Mike, but I have my doubts. When NMRA Battery Service starts getting involved with say 40 or 50 tweets about complaints daily, and there is no more news/publicity value, it will be ignore the customer as usual. Nothing short of a true boycott can scare the Heros of Business, and it had better be instantly and abidingly financially painful or it will be forgotten with little effect and replaced with someone else's bigger scandal tomorrow. "Live Rats Found in Cottage Cheese. Film at 11".

 

Major, "respected" companies know that someone, somewhere, on this consumption-mad planet will purchase whatever shit they put out even if you and I boycott it. I really cannot understand why they bother with satisfaction surveys unless they are seeking ways to make their products even cheaper while raising the price. I know there are a few honorable, ethical companies. Damned few.

[+ LIguy]

Poll takers usually hang up when I inform them that I charge 50 dollars per 10 minute poll.

[+ FreshFluff]

Major, "respected" companies know that someone, somewhere, on this consumption-mad planet will purchase whatever shit they put out even if you and I boycott it. I really cannot understand why they bother with satisfaction surveys unless they are seeking ways to make their products even cheaper while raising the price. I know there are a few honorable, ethical companies. Damned few.

 

Yeah, in this age of social media, everyone knows that some "unicorn" can come in and eat their lunch at anytime. Ask the taxi companies. If they acted as you suggest, Glennnn, then they're failing in their fiduciary duty to their investors.