Recognizing Opportunity 49

Despite the impressive nature of Fig. 2.2, even these figures dramatically understate the true extent of the problem. Complaints represent people who were not only unhappy, they were unhappy enough to report that dissatisfaction to the company. Research indi­cates that up to 96% of unhappy customers never tell the company. This is especially unfortunate since it has been shown that customer loyalty is increased by proper resolu­tion of complaints. Given the dramatic impact of a lost customer, it makes sense to maximize the opportunity of the customer to complain. Complaints should be actively sought, an activity decidedly against human nature. This suggests that a system must be developed and implemented to motivate employees to seek out customer com­plaints, ideas, and suggestions; to feel their pain. The system should also provide every conceivable way for an unhappy customer to contact the company on their own, includ­ing toll-free hotlines, email, comment cards, and so forth.

Once customer feedback has been obtained, it must be used to improve process and product quality. A system for utilizing customer feedback is described as follows:

1. Local managers and employees serve customers' needs on a daily basis, using locally modified procedures along with general corporate policies and procedures.

2. By means of a standardized and locally sensitive questionnaire, determine the needs and attitudes of customers on a regular basis.

3. Comparing financial data, expectations, and past attitude information, deter­mine strengths and weaknesses and their probable causes.

4. Determine where and how effort should be applied to correct weaknesses and preserve strengths. Repeat the process by taking action-step 1-and maintain it to attain a steady state or to evolve in terms of customer changes.

5. A similar process can take place at higher levels, using aggregated data from the field and existing policy flows of the organization.

Surveys In sample surveys, data are collected from a sample of a universe to estimate the char­acteristics of the universe, such as their range or dispersion, the frequency of occurrence of events, or the expected values of important universe parameters. The reader should note that these terms are consistent with the definition of enumerative statistical studies as described in Chap. 7. This is the traditional approach to such surveys. However, if survey results are collected at regular intervals, the results can be analyzed using the statistical control charts as described in Chap. 8 to obtain information on the underlying process. The process excellence leader should not be reticent in recommending that survey budgets be allocated for conducting small, routine, periodic surveys rather than infrequent "big studies." Without the information available from time-ordered series of data, it will not be possible to learn about processes which produce changes in customer satisfaction or perceptions of quality, or to verify progress towards improvement.

Survey development consists of the following major tasks (GAO, 1986, p .1S):

1. Initial planning of the questionnaire

2. Developing the measures

3. Designing the sample

50 C hap te r Two

4. Developing and testing the questionnaire

5. Producing the questionnaire

6. Preparing and distributing mailing materials

7. Collecting data

8. Reducing the data to forms that can be analyzed

9. Analyzing the data

Guidelines for Developing Questions The axiom that underlies the guidelines shown below is that the question-writer(s) must be thoroughly familiar with the respondent group and must understand the sub­ject matter from the perspective of the respondent group.

This is often problematic for the employee when the respondent group is the cus­tomer; methods for dealing with this situation are discussed below. There are eight basic guidelines for writing good questions:

1. Ask questions in a format that is appropriate to the questions' purpose and the information required.

2. Make sure the questions are relevant, proper, and qualified as needed.

3. Write clear, concise questions at the respondent's language level.

4. Give the respondent a chance to answer by providing a comprehensive list of relevant, mutually exclusive responses from which to choose.

5. Ask unbiased questions by using appropriate formats and item constructions and by presenting all important factors in the proper sequence.

6. Get unbiased answers by anticipating and accounting for various respondent tendencies.

7. Quantify the response measures where possible.

8. Provide a logical and unbiased line of inquiry to keep the reader 's attention and make the response task easier.

The above guidelines apply to the form of the question. Using the critical incident technique to develop good question content is described in the following section.

Response Types There are several commonly used types of survey responses.

• Open-ended questions-These are questions that allow the respondents to frame their own response without any restrictions placed on the response. The primary advantage is that such questions are easy to form and ask using natu­rallanguage, even if the question writer has little knowledge of the subject mat­ter. Unfortunately, there are many problems with analyzing the answers received to this type of question. This type of question is most useful in deter­mining the scope and content of the survey, not in producing results for analy­sis or process improvement.

• Fill-in-the-blank questions-Here the respondent is provided with directions that specify the units in which the respondent is to answer. The instructions

Recognizing Opportunity 51

should be explicit and should specify the answer units. This type of question should be reserved for very specific requests, e.g., "What was your age on your last birthday?-(age in years)."

• Yes/N 0 questions-Unfortunately, yes / no questions are very popular. Although they have some advantages, they have many problems and few uses. Yes/no questions are ideal for dichotomous variables, such as defective or not defec­tive. However, too often this format is used when the measure spans a range of values and conditions, for example, "Were you satisfied with the quality of your new car (yes/no)?" Ayes/no response to such questions contain little use­ful information.

• Ranking questions-The ranking format is used to rank options according to some criterion, for example, importance. Ranking formats are difficult to write and difficult to answer. They give very little real information and are very prone to errors that can invalidate all the responses. They should be avoided whenever possible in favor of more powerful formats and formats less prone to error, such as rating. When used, the number of ranking catego­ries should not exceed five.

• Rating questions-With this type of response, a rating is assigned on the basis of the score's absolute position within a range of possible values. Rating scales are easy to write, easy to answer, and provide a level of quantification that is adequate for most purposes. They tend to produce reasonably valid measures. Here is an example of a rating format:

For the following statement, check the appropriate box: The workmanship stan­dards provided by the purchaser are:

D Clear

D Marginally adequate

D Unclear

• Guttman format-In the Guttman format, the alternatives increase in compre­hensiveness; that is, the higher-valued alternatives include the lower-valued alternatives. For example,

Regarding the benefit received from training in quality improvement:

D No benefit identified

D Identified benefit

D Measured benefit

D Assessed benefit value in dollar terms

D Performed cost/benefit analysis

• Likert and other intensity scale formats-These formats are usually used to measure the strength of an attitude or an opinion. For example,

52 Chapter Two

Please check the appropriate box in response to the following statement: "The cus­tomer service representative was knowledgeable."

D Strongly disagree

D Disagree

D Neutral

D Agree

D Strongly agree

Intensity scales are very easy to construct. They are best used when respondents can agree or disagree with a statement. A problem is that statements must be worded to present a single side of an argument. We know that the respondent agrees, but we must infer what he believes. To compensate for the natural tendency of people to agree, state­ments are usually presented using the converse as well, for example, "The customer service representative was not knowledgeable."

When using intensity scales, use an odd-numbered scale, preferably with five or seven categories. If there is a possibility of bias, order the scale in a way that favors the hypothesis you want to disprove and handicaps the hypothesis you want to confirm. In this way you will confirm the hypothesis with the bias against you-a stronger result. If there is no bias, put the most undesirable choices first.

• Semantic differential format-In this format, the values that span the range of possible choices are not completely identified; only the end points are labeled. For example,

Indicate the number of times you initiated communication with your customer in the past month.

I few I D I D I D I D I D I D I D I many

The respondent must infer that the range is divided into equal intervals. The range seems to work well with seven categories.

Semantic differentials are very useful when we do not have enough information to anchor the intervals between the poles. However, they are very difficult to write well and if not written well the results are ambiguous.

Survey Development Case Study*

This actual case study involves the development of a mail survey at a community hospital. The same process has been successfully used by the author to develop customer surveys for clientele in a variety of industries.

The study of service quality and patient satisfaction was performed at a 213 bed com­munity hospital in the southwestem United States. The hospital is a nonprofit, publicly funded institution providing services to the adult community; pediatric services are not provided. The purpose of the study was to:

1. Identify the determinants of patient quality judgments.

2. Identify intemal service delivery processes that impacted patient quality judgments.

80 C hap te r Two

Demands

1.1. Simple install

1.2. Interactive tutorial

1.3. Printed documentation

1.4. Intuitive interface

2.1. Shortcut keys

2.2. Saved reports

2.3. Saved drill downs

3.1. Bank

3.2. 56K

3.4. Download reconcile

3.5. Manage portfolio

4.1. Excel interface

4.2. Word link

5.1. Internet upgrades

5.2. Free internet fixes

5.3. Easy self help

5.4. Good tech support value

Categories

2. Easy to use after learned

3. Internet connectivity

5. Easy to maintain

FIGURE 2.14 Customer demand model.

Voice of

customer