And they said......... “Um, well, I’m not sure really. I mean they don’t complain as much for a start. I suppose you could always do a workplace satisfaction survey of some kind, but what sort of questions would you ask? And do they really tell you anything useful anyway?”
OK, so I admit the opening part of this blog is somewhat fabricated, but it is a situation that many FMs will recognise. The consensus of opinion seems to be that surveys are a good idea in principle, but the results don’t often tell you that much. I disagree. What the results usually tell you is how well the survey was planned out before it was published.
The whats, whys and wherefores
The problem is that most surveys start life in exactly the way described above. Someone makes the decision that we need to find out how happy our customers are, someone else suggests a survey, then everyone starts brainstorming the questions, someone writes them down, they get circulated and a load of junk comes back.
For a survey to be an effective tool, you need to break the process before the brainstorming, wind it back a few notches, accept a few universal truths and put a little thought into the whats, whys and wherefores.
The truth? You can’t handle the truth!
One of the first things you need to establish is why you are measuring satisfaction. It sounds obvious, but it’s not. If we’re honest about it, many surveys don’t set out with the altruistic objective of simply finding out how happy people are, cynically, many are sent out as a way of trying to prove that a certain standard is being delivered. If your objective is more cynical, you should be warned that it could well back-fire. The people most likely to respond are those who have something to complain about.
Of course if your goal is to find out what is wrong so you can try and fix it, well..... you’ll rarely have a problem finding people who will tell you what is wrong. Fixing these things of course is down to you and you should be aware that if you’re the one asking the question, then you’ll be setting an expectation that you will act on the information you’ve asked for.
Great expectations
Sometimes there is an assumption that survey results can tell you how well the service is being delivered. Usually they can’t. The customer’s response to the survey depends on how well their expectations are being met. But expectations are a slippery business and they should not be confused with truth or fact. They’re not always fair, logical or reasonable and they can change based on experience. You may be delivering gold-standard service, but if the customer expects platinum-standard they will mark you down.
A survey can be a useful way to gage and measure your customer’s expectations and as we’re all fond of saying in the world of Facilities Management: if you can measure it, you can manage it. Expectations are no exception. My recommendation is that you actively invite comment and welcome discussion. The information and engagement you get in return will often teach you far more about service performance than the actual statistics. It also shows you customers that you value what they have to say.
iPads and holidays
Something very important to understand about your workplace satisfaction survey, is that the only people really interested in it, are you, maybe your boss, and everybody with an axe to grind. Think back to the last survey you filled in – it was a pain right? Why did you do it? Oh that’s right, you wanted to win an iPad ..............
I’m presuming your facilities survey budget probably doesn’t even stretch to a year’s supply of post-it-notes, so do try to accept the fact that most people will not want to fill it in. Sorry - that’s just how it is. But if you do want to maximise your returns, the most effective way is to make it really quick to do and really, really, easy. Think pretty hard in advance about the format and agree a few principles up front. Here are some of my suggestions:
Keep the number of questions to a minimum
If you can, aim for less than ten. If it takes more than 60 seconds, most people will be turned-off from doing it.
Use a simple scoring system.
I like 1-to-4 rather than 1-to-5. It stops people sitting on the fence – Is it good or not? If you do use 1-to-5 then personally I suggest you treat 3 or below as a failure. Are you content that your customers are satisfied with your service? You shouldn’t be: the golden rule of is to keep your customers happy, not satisfied.
Phrase your questions exactly the same way
Keep your question and answer format the same for every question. If you know that 4 is always the top score and 1 the lowest, it’s much easier to answer the questions. If your question change polarity half way through, people often won’t notice and will score it in the same manner as the one above. You may have to rephrase a question to switch it from positive to negative to do it (i.e. instead of how dissatisfied, how satisfied). If you don’t you may get anomalous results in your data. Remember most people are just scanning through it as quickly as possible to try and win that iPad.
Use simple language
Use everyday language and avoid jargon. This is true of all good communications and your survey is no exception.
Be realistic
Finally, be pragmatic about what you can realistically learn from your survey. It’s a useful tool for continuous improvement and gauging the general feeling, but if you want to know the ins and outs of how your service is performing or perceived to be performing, well I’m afraid you’re just going to have to do it the old fashioned way: get up from the desk every now and again, take a walk around the building and ask your customers what they think. And to be honest, if you do that, your survey statistics will look a lot friendlier too.
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