ADM 4326 – Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
Assignment #2 – Customer Comment/Response Cards
Date: November 24th, 2016
Charbel Saad 3269232
After reviewing multiple comment cards and researching multiple articles written by authors with focus on the best practices of comment card design and administration, the following is what I found to be most effective and most repeated designs. The comment cards were primarily within the hotel industry and the restaurant industry, however also pulling from other industries. After addressing best practices and administration, I will than create and recommend a comment card of my own.
Best Practices of Comment Card Design
The Five Dimensions of Service Quality
Normally, customer comment cards are regularly intended to recognize five measurements of service quality that applies to an extensive variety of administration organizations: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. (Wisner and Corney, 1997) Having consumers distinguish these five measurements through their viewpoint while getting services, helps management to better their organization by providing more value and increasing satisfaction to the consumer. See Table 1 – The Five Dimensions of Service Quality. There are numerous angles to consider when outlining comment cards to address and get input on either the service quality measurements of the firm or other particular inquiries management would like the consumer to address. Depending on the questions management wants to ask; the plan of the comment card within a firm is hesitant to change. Although this holds true, a few perspectives are essential and ought to be institutionalize to all client remark cards
Seven Design Principles
Clarity and precision is the one of the seven design principles that cites to the significance of creating questions that have an unambiguous meaning to both the consumer and management. (Wisner and Corney, 1997) Though contingent upon what questions management is hoping to address, all inquiries should related to the service received. Cautioning not to over sum up a service sector by including questions that may just be important for a specific issue or time. For instance, the question "Did the server recommend the lunch specials?" is not question you should ask the consumers requesting breakfast or dinner in a restaurant. Therefore, it gives no helpful information to administration.
The second element of design principles is Mutual exclusivity. This principle is very important to comment cards because it plays a part within clarity. Establish a proper rating scale within the comment card thus proving no overlapping while staying exhaustive. (Wisner & Corney, 1997)
The third and fourth principles really go together because it consists of the language aspect. Generally us familiar language and avoid words or phrases that show bias. This standard ensures that the comment card is simple to consumers to make their assessments. Also, all questions should be non-gender specific with no built-in assumptions. (Wisner & Corney, 1997)
The fifth design principle set forward is: no double-barrelled questions. A double barrelled question is when a question touches upon more than one issue, but only allows for one answer. These types of questions can cause confusion and difficulty to consumers to answer. (Wisner & Corney, 1997)
The sixth design principle presents that once customers are asked to pick out an alternate in response to a question, the alternatives are logically applied to the question being asked. Therefore, stating specific alternatives within customer comment cards may also improve clarity. (Wisner & Corney, 1997)
The final design principle is validity and reliability. This principle is very vital to management because it indicates that the question ought to truly measure what the firm is making an attempt to measure which responses is replicated over time. (Wisner & Corney, 1997) True validity and reliability are troublesome to capture, partly because of aspects touching this principle such as: open-ended questions. Open-ended responses are tougher to assess during a standardized fashion and will not provide adequate levels of validity and reliability. Different literature reveals that open response questions provide the customer the chance to elaborate or specify a concern more precisely. (Ogle & Fanning, 2013)
Multiple literature reading on comment card reviews have lead Maine to believe that open-response questions ought to be avoided. Although, a section within the end of the comment card ought to enable customers to jot down a paragraph of any noteworthy problems and/or concerns relevant to the organizations performance. If open-ended questions are necessary, organizations ought to allot enough space for customer to write down up to a paragraph.
Ease of Availability & Use
Ease of accessibility of getting a comment card directly affects the kind of feedback that management will hope to get. (Wisner Corney, 1997) As an example, Boston Pizza’s comment card is simply available online, and may solely be accessed if you retain your receipt with the correct access code (see Table A – Boston Pizza) As for easy use, filling out the comment card is already a task for the customer and an organization ought to try to keep this task as straightforward as possible to keep customers happy and frustration-free. Correct use of each these aspects can aid the speed of participation and completion of the comment cards. (Ogle & Fanning, 2013) Additionally, a private request from an employee or alongside an incentive may increase the speed or participation and completion. (Ogle & Fanning, 2013) Furthermore, return instructions are helpful and ease the return process.