Customer Satisfaction
© BananaStock
Jeff Anderton, marketing assistant
- Has worked at the Prestigio for three months
- Roles include marketing of meetings and conventions to professional groups and tracking customer satisfaction
- Graduated a year ago with a marketing major and statistics minor
© Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Blend Images LLC
Andrea Garcia, general manager
- Has worked as general manager for one year
- Started at the Prestigio nearly nine years ago in a position similar to Jeff’s marketing assistant position
- Expects thorough data and analysis before making decisions
The Situation
The Prestigio is a four-star hotel that gains much of its business from conventions and meetings. In recent years, it has lost revenue in nearly all areas. In particular, for each of the past two years, the Prestigio has lost between 5 and 10 percent in revenues for conferences. Thus, Andrea wonders if they need to reevaluate their strategy on meetings. She is concerned about the drop in business and wants good research to understand how to move forward.
Andrea recently asked Jeff to work on three marketing research projects. She expects him to complete them in roughly three months.
For the first project, she wants Jeff to analyze guest satisfaction at the Prestigio compared to its three chief competitors: the Grand Swan, Great Falls, and Wyatt. She wants Jeff to use an online hotel rating system to conduct the analysis. Andrea also wants to know if satisfaction ratings have improved in relation to two recent initiatives: increasing the guest-to-staff ratio and increasing the amount of customer-service training. Jeff determines that he can best gather the data with primary research, through a survey he will develop.
For the second project, Andrea wants Jeff to conduct a survey about guest satisfaction among conference attendees. She is particularly interested in guests for three-day conferences. One issue she wants to address is their purchase of and satisfaction with Internet service in their guest rooms. As with the first task, Jeff decides that the best way to address Andrea’s research objectives is to develop a survey.
For the third project, Andrea wants Jeff to gather information about eco-friendly or green meetings. Traditionally, the Prestigio has not focused on green meetings. However, in the past year, Andrea has noticed that meeting planners and other guests frequently inquire about green meetings. She wants to know if the Prestigio should invest more resources in such options. Jeff will use a combination of primary and secondary research to address the research objectives for this project.
| Task 1 Gather and analyze guest satisfaction ratings for the Prestigio and its competitors. |
Task 2 Conduct a survey of recent conference attendees to evaluate conference satisfaction. |
Task 3 Gather information about best practices in green meetings. |
Analyzing Your Audience for Business Reports
The planning stage for many types of business reports—especially those based on research—often takes months, even years. Like other communications, you can apply the AIM planning process to develop your message based on good ideas that meet the needs of decision makers.
The first step in developing research-based business reports is identifying what decision makers want to accomplish. In many cases, they will commission the reports and have clear goals in mind. In other cases, they do not have clear goals. In all cases, you should spend time with your target audience of decision makers to carefully consider their primary business goals, research objectives, and expectations.1
During the research and report writing process, consider updating decision makers and involving them in the process. This increases the likelihood that you will develop a report that is useful to them.
Developing Your Ideas with Primary Research
With a clear understanding of what decision makers want from reports, you are ready to begin research. For important business decisions, gathering data can take weeks, months, and even years. Since many reports are intended to aid high-stakes decision making, getting the right information, analyzing it correctly, and making related recommendations needs to be done carefully and completely.
Business research can be broadly categorized as primary and secondary. Primary research refers to the analysis of data that you, people from your organization, or others under your direction (i.e., consultants) have collected. Secondary research refers to the analysis of data collected by others with no direction from you or members of your organization.
Primary research is generally most reliable and useful for your business reports because you can focus it to meet your specific research objectives and get feedback directly related to your organization and its needs. However, conducting primary research is often time-consuming, intrusive, and expensive. In some cases, primary research might suffer from a bias toward preexisting opinions and beliefs. For example, a marketing director who is convinced that a new product will be successful when it hits market may misinterpret consumer research to fit his/her preexisting opinions. Common types of primary research include analysis of internal data, survey research, focus groups, interviews, and case studies.
In this chapter, we focus on one of the most common types of primary research: surveys. Survey research is increasingly common because of the ease with which online surveys can be administered (see Technology Tips on page 361). Generally, survey research involves administering written questionnaires. Most survey questions are closed questions: They restrict respondents to certain answers (rating scales, multiple choice, etc.). Some survey questions are open-ended questions, allowing respondents to answer in any way they choose. Closed questions can be more easily quantified and analyzed. However, open-ended questions allow you to understand an issue in more depth.
Developing Research Objectives
LO12.2. Create research objectives that are specific and achievable.
Once you have identified what your audience of decision makers needs, you will carefully define your research problems. Defining research problems involves stating your research objectives in specific, targeted, and achievable statements. Notice in Table 12.1 how Jeff develops research objectives for two of his research projects.
| Less Effective | More Effective |
| Determine how satisfied our conference guests are. | Determine guest satisfaction among conference attendees for key conference amenities and services. |
| This objective is not specific enough. The statement does not lead to a focused approach to research. | This objective is specific. The statement leads to a focused approach to research. |
| Understand green meetings. | Identify key trends impacting the market demand for green meetings held at hotels. |
| This objective is not specific. It is too broad and lacks context. | This objective is specific. It focuses on a context that is relevant to the Prestigio. |
Creating Surveys
With online survey technology readily available and easy to use, you will likely have many opportunities to use it in the workplace. Surveys are particularly useful because you can quickly get the responses of dozens if not hundreds of colleagues, current or potential customers, or members of other groups of interest. Online surveys are a nice tool because you can automatically dump all the data you collect into a spreadsheet. Of course, online surveys are not always convenient or possible, so you will sometimes use traditional paper-and-pencil questionnaires.
LO12.3. Explain principles of effective design for survey questions and choices.
Principles for Survey Questions
- Simple to answer
- Non-leading
- Exhaustive and unambiguous
- Single idea
Ideally, you will have opportunities to learn about effective survey design, data collection, and analysis in some of your university courses. If you don’t have this opportunity, many excellent books can help you develop your survey research skills. However, to develop your survey skills, you will need more than how-to knowledge. You also need to practice several times; there’s no substitute for conducting several surveys and using the data to solve business problems in the workplace.
Generally, surveys should be short. Rarely can you get accurate data from surveys that take longer than five minutes to complete. Most consumer research questionnaires contain fewer than five or six questions. If the survey takes too long, respondents may become impatient and provide less-than-accurate responses or skip questions. The exception is when you pay respondents to take a survey. The obvious drawback is the high cost.
Another key to getting reliable data is designing the survey questions effectively. Survey questions should be (a) simple to answer, (b) non-leading, (c) exhaustive and unambiguous, and (d) limited to a single idea.
Survey Questions Should Be Simple to Answer
As you design most surveys, envision respondents who are eager to complete the items quickly and who will spend minimal time thinking about any given item. Survey questions should contain short questions and response options. Thus, respondents should be able to read the entire question in 10 to 20 seconds and select a response that matches their true opinions and feelings within just a few seconds. In Table 12.2, you will notice how Jeff is developing survey questions for his research about guest satisfaction.
Survey Questions Should Be Non-Leading
Be sure the questions in your survey are non-leading. A leading question is one that suggests an answer. Often, the leading question is designed to gain a preferred response from the survey designer’s perspective. Sometimes, leading questions are phrased to imply how a respondent should answer. For example, the following leading question would likely lead many respondents to provide insincere answers: As a citizen in the country with the most per capita carbon emissions in the world, how interested are you in learning about green meeting options? Leading questions often do not allow respondents to provide their genuine thoughts or impressions. So, leading questions in surveys can produce unreliable and unusable information (see Table 12.3).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
To show my support for the green meeting movement, I would recommend the Prestigio as a good site for a business conference.
|
I would recommend the Prestigio as a good site for a business conference.
|
| This survey question is leading. It suggests to respondents a correct or right answer. It would not provide reliable or useful results. | This survey question is non-leading. It does not suggest or manipulate a response. It would likely provide useful data. |
Survey Choices Should Be Exhaustive and Unambiguous
Survey choices should be complete. Being exhaustive means that all possibilities are available, and being unambiguous means that only one choice is appropriate (see Table 12.4).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
Age:
|
Age:
|
| These choices are neither exhaustive nor unambiguous. They are not exhaustive because respondents who are 65 and over would not have a choice to select. They are not unambiguous because two of the choices overlap (C and D); in other words, a person who is 50 could select either option. | These choices are both exhaustive and unambiguous. Any respondent of any age would find just one correct response. |
Survey Questions Should Contain One Idea
Survey questions that contain more than one idea are difficult for respondents to answer (see Table 12.5).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
How much do you know about green meetings and possible savings on these meetings?
|
How much do you know about green meeting options for your business?
|
| This question contains two ideas: (1) what the respondent knows about green meetings; and (2) what the respondent knows about possible savings on green meetings. This is confusing to the respondent and impossible for the researcher to interpret. | This question contains one idea. As a result, the question is easy for the respondent to answer and easy for the researcher to analyze. |
Furthermore, they are impossible to correctly analyze. Notice Jeff’s completed survey in Figure 12.1.
Analyzing Your Data
Once you’ve conducted your surveys, your next step is to analyze the data. This job may feel exhilarating. Or it may feel overwhelming and even daunting. Even small sets of data from relatively few survey questions can be analyzed and configured in nearly limitless ways. As you develop your primary research skills, consider the following advice:
- Learn as much as you can about forecasting and other forms of statistical and quantitative analysis. Unless you apply good principles of analysis, you can easily get flawed results. Furthermore, unless you are careful, you can without any intention of doing so allow your preconceived ideas and biases to affect how you interpret the data.
- Learn as much as you can about spreadsheet, database, and statistical software. You likely will have a course in spreadsheet software (i.e., Excel). Make the most of this training and continue experimenting with it to feel comfortable analyzing data. Also, develop a basic understanding of databases. All companies store tremendous amounts of information in databases. If you understand basic database design, you will know what types of information you can extract to answer your research questions. Finally, statistical software (i.e., SPSS, SAS, SYSTAT) can help you conduct analyses far more rapidly and efficiently than can spreadsheet software.
- Rely on others in your analysis. You will likely work with colleagues who have quantitative analysis skills in certain disciplines and for certain types of business problems, and you can turn to them for technical help. Also, you can turn to others for analytical help, because when you analyze data in a group, you are less likely to inadvertently misinterpret the data.
- Stay focused on your business problem and look for the big picture. Often, company databases or survey data contain so much information that you can easily be overwhelmed by the many ways to use it. As you discipline yourself to focus on your key research problems, you are less likely to get bogged down looking at tangential issues.
Communicating with Charts and Tables
Nearly all business activities and goals are measured and quantified: profit and loss, operating expenses, marketing expenditures, employee turnover, performance evaluations, market share, budgets, customer behavior, quality, and so on. Simply put, business executives and managers communicate with numbers. Some management experts even describe the ability to communicate numbers as a core managerial competency. Thus, in this section, we’ll focus on using charts and tables to communicate numerical information.
After conducting survey research or other forms of business research, you typically have many statistics and figures that you could include in reports to decision makers. However, presenting this information effectively is challenging. In fact, most managers are poor at communicating numerical information. Also, while business managers tend to like numbers, few listeners and readers can absorb a lot of them at one sitting. As one communication expert mentioned to managers, “The chances are good that you love numbers a lot more than most of your audience members do. … Overloading your audience members with data is a sure way to guarantee they’ll forget almost everything you say.”2 Although most managers communicate with numbers with the intention of persuading and inspiring, they most often end up confusing or boring their audience.
The most fundamental mistake that executives and managers make when communicating with numbers is failing to focus on the main message, which tends to be nonnumerical. Phrases such as, “I’m going to spend a few minutes going through the numbers,” or “Let me give you some background by running through the numbers” can cause your audience to tune out.3 As you will learn in more detail in the next sections, your presentation’s takeaway message should be your first and primary consideration when communicating with charts and tables. As you read through the next few pages, notice how Jeff designs charts and tables for his research at the Prestigio Hotel. In particular, pay attention to how these charts and tables are useful for Andrea, who is the general manager and primary decision maker.
at the Prestigio HotelWho’s Involved
© BananaStock
Jeff Anderton, marketing assistant
- Has worked at the Prestigio for three months
- Roles include marketing of meetings and conventions to professional groups and tracking customer satisfaction
- Graduated a year ago with a marketing major and statistics minor
© Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Blend Images LLC
Andrea Garcia, general manager
- Has worked as general manager for one year
- Started at the Prestigio nearly nine years ago in a position similar to Jeff’s marketing assistant position
- Expects thorough data and analysis before making decisions
The Situation
The Prestigio is a four-star hotel that gains much of its business from conventions and meetings. In recent years, it has lost revenue in nearly all areas. In particular, for each of the past two years, the Prestigio has lost between 5 and 10 percent in revenues for conferences. Thus, Andrea wonders if they need to reevaluate their strategy on meetings. She is concerned about the drop in business and wants good research to understand how to move forward.
Andrea recently asked Jeff to work on three marketing research projects. She expects him to complete them in roughly three months.
For the first project, she wants Jeff to analyze guest satisfaction at the Prestigio compared to its three chief competitors: the Grand Swan, Great Falls, and Wyatt. She wants Jeff to use an online hotel rating system to conduct the analysis. Andrea also wants to know if satisfaction ratings have improved in relation to two recent initiatives: increasing the guest-to-staff ratio and increasing the amount of customer-service training. Jeff determines that he can best gather the data with primary research, through a survey he will develop.
For the second project, Andrea wants Jeff to conduct a survey about guest satisfaction among conference attendees. She is particularly interested in guests for three-day conferences. One issue she wants to address is their purchase of and satisfaction with Internet service in their guest rooms. As with the first task, Jeff decides that the best way to address Andrea’s research objectives is to develop a survey.
For the third project, Andrea wants Jeff to gather information about eco-friendly or green meetings. Traditionally, the Prestigio has not focused on green meetings. However, in the past year, Andrea has noticed that meeting planners and other guests frequently inquire about green meetings. She wants to know if the Prestigio should invest more resources in such options. Jeff will use a combination of primary and secondary research to address the research objectives for this project.
| Task 1 Gather and analyze guest satisfaction ratings for the Prestigio and its competitors. |
Task 2 Conduct a survey of recent conference attendees to evaluate conference satisfaction. |
Task 3 Gather information about best practices in green meetings. |
Analyzing Your Audience for Business Reports
The planning stage for many types of business reports—especially those based on research—often takes months, even years. Like other communications, you can apply the AIM planning process to develop your message based on good ideas that meet the needs of decision makers.
The first step in developing research-based business reports is identifying what decision makers want to accomplish. In many cases, they will commission the reports and have clear goals in mind. In other cases, they do not have clear goals. In all cases, you should spend time with your target audience of decision makers to carefully consider their primary business goals, research objectives, and expectations.1
During the research and report writing process, consider updating decision makers and involving them in the process. This increases the likelihood that you will develop a report that is useful to them.
Developing Your Ideas with Primary Research
With a clear understanding of what decision makers want from reports, you are ready to begin research. For important business decisions, gathering data can take weeks, months, and even years. Since many reports are intended to aid high-stakes decision making, getting the right information, analyzing it correctly, and making related recommendations needs to be done carefully and completely.
Business research can be broadly categorized as primary and secondary. Primary research refers to the analysis of data that you, people from your organization, or others under your direction (i.e., consultants) have collected. Secondary research refers to the analysis of data collected by others with no direction from you or members of your organization.
Primary research is generally most reliable and useful for your business reports because you can focus it to meet your specific research objectives and get feedback directly related to your organization and its needs. However, conducting primary research is often time-consuming, intrusive, and expensive. In some cases, primary research might suffer from a bias toward preexisting opinions and beliefs. For example, a marketing director who is convinced that a new product will be successful when it hits market may misinterpret consumer research to fit his/her preexisting opinions. Common types of primary research include analysis of internal data, survey research, focus groups, interviews, and case studies.
In this chapter, we focus on one of the most common types of primary research: surveys. Survey research is increasingly common because of the ease with which online surveys can be administered (see Technology Tips on page 361). Generally, survey research involves administering written questionnaires. Most survey questions are closed questions: They restrict respondents to certain answers (rating scales, multiple choice, etc.). Some survey questions are open-ended questions, allowing respondents to answer in any way they choose. Closed questions can be more easily quantified and analyzed. However, open-ended questions allow you to understand an issue in more depth.
Developing Research Objectives
LO12.2. Create research objectives that are specific and achievable.
Once you have identified what your audience of decision makers needs, you will carefully define your research problems. Defining research problems involves stating your research objectives in specific, targeted, and achievable statements. Notice in Table 12.1 how Jeff develops research objectives for two of his research projects.
| Less Effective | More Effective |
| Determine how satisfied our conference guests are. | Determine guest satisfaction among conference attendees for key conference amenities and services. |
| This objective is not specific enough. The statement does not lead to a focused approach to research. | This objective is specific. The statement leads to a focused approach to research. |
| Understand green meetings. | Identify key trends impacting the market demand for green meetings held at hotels. |
| This objective is not specific. It is too broad and lacks context. | This objective is specific. It focuses on a context that is relevant to the Prestigio. |
Creating Surveys
With online survey technology readily available and easy to use, you will likely have many opportunities to use it in the workplace. Surveys are particularly useful because you can quickly get the responses of dozens if not hundreds of colleagues, current or potential customers, or members of other groups of interest. Online surveys are a nice tool because you can automatically dump all the data you collect into a spreadsheet. Of course, online surveys are not always convenient or possible, so you will sometimes use traditional paper-and-pencil questionnaires.
LO12.3. Explain principles of effective design for survey questions and choices.
Principles for Survey Questions
- Simple to answer
- Non-leading
- Exhaustive and unambiguous
- Single idea
Ideally, you will have opportunities to learn about effective survey design, data collection, and analysis in some of your university courses. If you don’t have this opportunity, many excellent books can help you develop your survey research skills. However, to develop your survey skills, you will need more than how-to knowledge. You also need to practice several times; there’s no substitute for conducting several surveys and using the data to solve business problems in the workplace.
Generally, surveys should be short. Rarely can you get accurate data from surveys that take longer than five minutes to complete. Most consumer research questionnaires contain fewer than five or six questions. If the survey takes too long, respondents may become impatient and provide less-than-accurate responses or skip questions. The exception is when you pay respondents to take a survey. The obvious drawback is the high cost.
Another key to getting reliable data is designing the survey questions effectively. Survey questions should be (a) simple to answer, (b) non-leading, (c) exhaustive and unambiguous, and (d) limited to a single idea.
Survey Questions Should Be Simple to Answer
As you design most surveys, envision respondents who are eager to complete the items quickly and who will spend minimal time thinking about any given item. Survey questions should contain short questions and response options. Thus, respondents should be able to read the entire question in 10 to 20 seconds and select a response that matches their true opinions and feelings within just a few seconds. In Table 12.2, you will notice how Jeff is developing survey questions for his research about guest satisfaction.
Survey Questions Should Be Non-Leading
Be sure the questions in your survey are non-leading. A leading question is one that suggests an answer. Often, the leading question is designed to gain a preferred response from the survey designer’s perspective. Sometimes, leading questions are phrased to imply how a respondent should answer. For example, the following leading question would likely lead many respondents to provide insincere answers: As a citizen in the country with the most per capita carbon emissions in the world, how interested are you in learning about green meeting options? Leading questions often do not allow respondents to provide their genuine thoughts or impressions. So, leading questions in surveys can produce unreliable and unusable information (see Table 12.3).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
To show my support for the green meeting movement, I would recommend the Prestigio as a good site for a business conference.
|
I would recommend the Prestigio as a good site for a business conference.
|
| This survey question is leading. It suggests to respondents a correct or right answer. It would not provide reliable or useful results. | This survey question is non-leading. It does not suggest or manipulate a response. It would likely provide useful data. |
Survey Choices Should Be Exhaustive and Unambiguous
Survey choices should be complete. Being exhaustive means that all possibilities are available, and being unambiguous means that only one choice is appropriate (see Table 12.4).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
Age:
|
Age:
|
| These choices are neither exhaustive nor unambiguous. They are not exhaustive because respondents who are 65 and over would not have a choice to select. They are not unambiguous because two of the choices overlap (C and D); in other words, a person who is 50 could select either option. | These choices are both exhaustive and unambiguous. Any respondent of any age would find just one correct response. |
Survey Questions Should Contain One Idea
Survey questions that contain more than one idea are difficult for respondents to answer (see Table 12.5).
| Less Effective | More Effective |
How much do you know about green meetings and possible savings on these meetings?
|
How much do you know about green meeting options for your business?
|
| This question contains two ideas: (1) what the respondent knows about green meetings; and (2) what the respondent knows about possible savings on green meetings. This is confusing to the respondent and impossible for the researcher to interpret. | This question contains one idea. As a result, the question is easy for the respondent to answer and easy for the researcher to analyze. |
Furthermore, they are impossible to correctly analyze. Notice Jeff’s completed survey in Figure 12.1.
Analyzing Your Data
Once you’ve conducted your surveys, your next step is to analyze the data. This job may feel exhilarating. Or it may feel overwhelming and even daunting. Even small sets of data from relatively few survey questions can be analyzed and configured in nearly limitless ways. As you develop your primary research skills, consider the following advice:
- Learn as much as you can about forecasting and other forms of statistical and quantitative analysis. Unless you apply good principles of analysis, you can easily get flawed results. Furthermore, unless you are careful, you can without any intention of doing so allow your preconceived ideas and biases to affect how you interpret the data.
- Learn as much as you can about spreadsheet, database, and statistical software. You likely will have a course in spreadsheet software (i.e., Excel). Make the most of this training and continue experimenting with it to feel comfortable analyzing data. Also, develop a basic understanding of databases. All companies store tremendous amounts of information in databases. If you understand basic database design, you will know what types of information you can extract to answer your research questions. Finally, statistical software (i.e., SPSS, SAS, SYSTAT) can help you conduct analyses far more rapidly and efficiently than can spreadsheet software.
- Rely on others in your analysis. You will likely work with colleagues who have quantitative analysis skills in certain disciplines and for certain types of business problems, and you can turn to them for technical help. Also, you can turn to others for analytical help, because when you analyze data in a group, you are less likely to inadvertently misinterpret the data.
- Stay focused on your business problem and look for the big picture. Often, company databases or survey data contain so much information that you can easily be overwhelmed by the many ways to use it. As you discipline yourself to focus on your key research problems, you are less likely to get bogged down looking at tangential issues.
Communicating with Charts and Tables
Nearly all business activities and goals are measured and quantified: profit and loss, operating expenses, marketing expenditures, employee turnover, performance evaluations, market share, budgets, customer behavior, quality, and so on. Simply put, business executives and managers communicate with numbers. Some management experts even describe the ability to communicate numbers as a core managerial competency. Thus, in this section, we’ll focus on using charts and tables to communicate numerical information.
After conducting survey research or other forms of business research, you typically have many statistics and figures that you could include in reports to decision makers. However, presenting this information effectively is challenging. In fact, most managers are poor at communicating numerical information. Also, while business managers tend to like numbers, few listeners and readers can absorb a lot of them at one sitting. As one communication expert mentioned to managers, “The chances are good that you love numbers a lot more than most of your audience members do. … Overloading your audience members with data is a sure way to guarantee they’ll forget almost everything you say.”2 Although most managers communicate with numbers with the intention of persuading and inspiring, they most often end up confusing or boring their audience.
The most fundamental mistake that executives and managers make when communicating with numbers is failing to focus on the main message, which tends to be nonnumerical. Phrases such as, “I’m going to spend a few minutes going through the numbers,” or “Let me give you some background by running through the numbers” can cause your audience to tune out.3 As you will learn in more detail in the next sections, your presentation’s takeaway message should be your first and primary consideration when communicating with charts and tables. As you read through the next few pages, notice how Jeff designs charts and tables for his research at the Prestigio Hotel. In particular, pay attention to how these charts and tables are useful for Andrea, who is the general manager and primary decision maker.
