3 September 2014 473 words, 2 min. read

Mistakes to avoid when measuring in-store satisfaction of customers

By Pierre-Nicolas Schwab PhD in marketing, director of IntoTheMinds
Measuring the satisfaction of customers in a point of sales has always been a challenge for retailers. Paper-and-pencil initiatives are usually launched to measure at a given moment, but until recently nothing was available to measure customer satisfaction continuously. Fortunately […]

Measuring the satisfaction of customers in a point of sales has always been a challenge for retailers. Paper-and-pencil initiatives are usually launched to measure at a given moment, but until recently nothing was available to measure customer satisfaction continuously.

Fortunately new devices were introduced on the market (look for instance this example of satisfaction measurement in Heathrow airport) that allow a simple measurement.

The advantages of customer satisfaction measurement devices

The advantages are obvious : first of all, the effort to collect the data is very limited in terms of workload. You just have to install the device, make sure you capture the data, and that’s all. The web interface will automatically create the graphs for you and let you evaluate the results.

Second, as we anticipated before, this type of device enables a continuous measurement and not a spot check, the results of which are then extrapolated.

The risks of the method

Unlike in a paper-and-pencil survey where all customers are asked to answer a satisfaction survey, the use of the device is here reserved to those who want to give their opinions. One can therefore expect that consumers given their opinions will be either the more unsatisfied or the more satisfied. Extreme states of (un)satisfaction usually are a driver to speak up. The risk here is to get biased results.

Another risk (that we recently observed at Delhaize) is to misuse the device. The satisfaction measurement device should be used to ask a simple and precise question to the consumer. But in a retail environment it must be used at the right place, i.e. where asking the question makes sense.

What we saw was a device placed at the exit of the store asking a question about a given department : “are you satisfied by the product range in department X ?”. Not only is this question not relevant to all customers existing the supermarket, but the question asked requires that it be answered immediately. It’s only when you are in the department and form an opinion about it that you can answer that question.

Advices for your customer satisfaction strategy

If you are about to measure how satisfied the visitors of your store are, you should pay attention to the method. In-store measurement devices are really good if they fulfill those two criteria : 1) they help answer a simple question, and 2) they are installed at the place where the question makes sense.

These advices are also valid for online satisfaction surveys. You have probably been faced already to pop-ups asking 15 to 30 minutes of your time to answer a survey. The response rate is extremely low because of the time required. You can achieve better results by asking one question (see also our articles on NPS – Net Promoter Score) where you need to get quick and precise feedback.



Posted in Marketing.

Post your opinion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *