Q - (Via voice mail) We are thinking of having a group meeting for customers to tell us if they’re happy. Sandwiches and non-alcoholic drinks and stuff like that. Truthfully, we want to gain testimonials that with their permission we can put online. However I’ve got this nagging feeling that we should let sleeping dogs sleep. The thing is, I’m the person who has got to organise this. My manager’s on some sort of ego trip and wants to impress his manager. What do I do please?
A - Okay, I’m going to tell you a story. Maybe, just maybe you can point your manager to this online answer while taking care that you aren’t identified as the person raising the question.
A large, albeit anonymous, car manufacturer in the USA called a test group of customers and asked them if they were happy. Presumably these were people who had not completed and returned a satisfaction questionnaire and therefore whose views were unknown. Many replied that they were not happy – and not surprisingly asked the company what they were going to do about it.
The reported response from the market research person, if true, was inexcusable. Something like ‘I’ll take your name and pass it back on to the company.’ No doubt these names went into some filing ‘black hole’.
Subsequent analysis showed that the people who had been called were on average 6% less well disposed to the company than the people who hadn’t been called at all. Think about it. And then please think about this once more. Shocking isn’t it?
Obviously the company had opened a wound in end-users and then did nothing about it. And, to their detriment, they ignored a simple fact.
Unless prompted to do so, people rarely volunteer a complaint.
Those called would certainly have a higher percentage of dissatisfied customers than those not called, merely because had they been happy they might well of returned a questionnaire. That action would have disqualified them from the called group.
NB: Howard Popeck can be contacted directly on 07870 192618. Please leave a voicemail and your return phone number if he can’t take your call there and then. Thank you.
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