On a Scale of 1 to 5 ...
Perhaps you’ve found yourself in a situation similar to the one I found myself in the other day. My wife and I were in a local Honda dealer, finalizing our lease agreement on a new car. We’ve been driving Hondas for years, have always been impressed with their performance, and regularly receive courteous and helpful service.
As the salesman handed me the keys, he noted that I could probably expect to receive a customer survey satisfaction survey by phone in the following weeks. “You’ll be asked to rate a number of statements from ‘1’ to ‘5,’” he explained. “Anything less than a ‘5’ on anything and I fail the entire survey.”
We’ve all seen enough Willy Lomans and Gil Gundersons in our time to feel guilty about giving that poor working-for-commission shlub less than a 5. But that negates the whole idea behind the questionnaire, doesn’t it?
Having gone through the Honda-purchasing process before, I was already familiar with the company’s “5 or else” policy, but this time it got me to wondering. While the survey is understandably designed to get the salesmen to give their very best, it also leaves itself open to all sorts of traps: what if the salesman had a too-dry sense of humor, or (worse, for me anyhow) none at all? Do I give him a “4” for personality, and ruin his score? What if I’m having a particularly bad day when the phone call comes, and I give him a “1” just to spite the whole system?
What does Honda do with this data, beyond presumably punishing the non-5s? I’m assuming that someone who consistently rates below a perfect score is given directions to the used Zastava Koral dealership (that’s the Yugo to you, bub) down the street, but what’s the cutoff point? One non-5 score and you’re out? Ten? A hundred?
Does your company employ a similar rating system, either for measuring customer satisfaction or some other aspect of the business? And if so, are the results looked at in a “Perfect score or bust” manner?
Doesn’t it make more sense to institute an aggregate scoring methodology rather than paying lip-service to having a rating system, when really all you have is a pass/fail system?
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