Customer Satisfaction

After a recent customer satisfaction survey was conducted, Baskin Robbins only received an 8% rating. This is the lowest of any company surveyed by the Harris Poll. As a result of this, Baskin Robbins has been placed on their list of worst brands they have ever studied. The majority of customers who rated them at just one out of five stars claimed that some items are either not made well or do not taste good.

This survey also revealed that customer service is a major factor considered by consumers when rating other companies products and services in particular when it comes to ice cream shops and restaurants like Olive Garden and McDonald's as these businesses had very low satisfaction ratings due to lackadaisical service.

The survey was conducted on 1,000 customers over the age of 15 and had a margin of error of about 3 percent. The survey results came from a combination of online and paper based responses.

Satisfaction Rating works as follows: essentially, consumers are being asked to rate a service or product on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score possible. This score is then compared to other scores whomever have recently been given that rating in question. Since no company conducts an ongoing survey every time they provide their product or service, they can only measure people's satisfaction with their particular service or product at that point in time.

The Harris Poll provides another example of how the satisfaction rating is determined:

1. Survey a random sample of customers from each of the competitors in question. For example, to do a satisfaction rating on airlines, survey a random sample of United Airlines customers and a random sample of American Airlines customers.

2. Survey the companies' best customers (those who are most satisfied). Why? Because they have been with the company longer, they have less reason to leave, and they are more likely to be influenced by competitive offers. For example, target frequent fliers only!

3. Survey as many customers as possible. This can include any company's current clients (if available) and perhaps a large number of consumers who would be considered one of the most satisfied customers.

4. After you have surveyed a sample of competitors' customers, survey a sample of your own customers to get an accurate rating on the service or product in question.

5. Calculate the average score for each competitor, including your own company's score, from all the responses you have collected from each competitor in question. The overall rating is that which has the lowest average rating (or one of which has the highest – if there is a tie).

6. This rating can be used by the company in question to determine how to improve their product or service.

7. After implementing improvements, repeat steps 1-6 and update your ratings accordingly.

8. As a curiosity, ask customers who have just received a follow-up survey (of those sampled) how they feel about their company's performance at that time and compare the results with the satisfaction rating you got from previous surveys they participated in. If their satisfaction rating has increased significantly, you can conclude that your company's service or product has improved to a significant degree and use these findings as an opportunity to advertise this fact heavily to your current client base.

9. Do not forget to add a brand or service new to your country to the table. Newer entrants into a market may have significantly lower satisfaction ratings than more established competitors.

10. In the last few years, companies like Hewlett-Packard and Apple have begun to conduct regular surveys of their customers. The results of these trends are still getting under way and are not yet available for general use.

11. The results of these surveys can be used to adjust a particular product's advertising strategy and its image. For example, if customers are truly not satisfied with the taste of a particular product, then it would make sense for a company to include an advertisement for that product highlighting its supposed good taste. Also, if people are satisfied with the initial service but not with the subsequent service – perhaps because they have to wait too long after they call – then they should advertise their immediate response to customers' calls or visits. In general, satisfaction ratings can be used to determine what exactly is going right and wrong with a certain brand or service in question by doing some thorough analysis before implementing any changes.

12. Any company can conduct this survey by themselves, including the one in question. A good idea would be to ask for a few of your customers (if you have any) to do a survey for you and then to compare their results with those conducted by outside sources. This will also allow you to compare your preferred methods of collecting surveys with other companies' methods and judge which seems most effective.

13. Any company can create its own satisfaction rating scale and get started on collecting data immediately. You can simply use the satisfaction rating above if you would like to make up your own scale based on a company's existing one.

14. For example, you can use the existing scale and just add a 0 for the least satisfied and 5 for the most satisfied of each company. 

15. Any company should conduct its own satisfaction survey to at least collect data on its current customers. This will allow any business to compare itself and its competitors in question. It will also allow the best customers (those who are most likely to shop with your competitors or switch to them) to see how their opinions differ from those of their peers.

16. Any company should also do a satisfaction survey on new products it has recently launched to determine whether these new products are meeting consumer's expectations or not. In other words, if people are not satisfied with a new product they have purchased and they have no reason to buy another one from your company, then you just lost a large amount of potential business.

17. Any company will eventually want to use their data on their customers' satisfaction ratings to determine whether a particular employee is deserving of or not receiving any raises, promotions or bonuses. This can be done by surveying these individuals themselves and then correlating the results with those obtained by external sources such as customer surveys or competitor ratings.

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Conclusion:

A company should conduct a satisfaction survey and collect data concerning the level of customer satisfaction with its brand or service. This data can then be used to determine whether any changes need to be made to the brand or service in question. Satisfaction surveys are a good overall way for companies of any kind (especially those trying to do business in foreign countries) to gauge their standing as far as customer satisfaction and reputation goes. In addition, these surveys can also be conducted on companies new to the market and on companies whose products have changed significantly in recent months.