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ASP Forum
Do survey scales affect the accuracy of customer
satisfaction scores?
"Our current customer satisfaction questionnaire asks people to rate us
on a five-point scale--5 is the best, and 1 is the worst. A friend tells
me we'd get more accurate results if we used either a ten-point scale or
school-style grading--A, B, C, etc. Would this really make a difference?"
—Mavis from Mattapan
Dear Mavis:
We asked Fred Van Bennekom, a survey design expert and author
of "Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service Managers", for
his advice:
"The traditional argument for using 10-point scales is that you
get finer measurement. However, I'm skeptical about this theory.
My experience is that few respondents ever select 6, 7, or 8 as
answers, because they get hung up trying to pick the answer that
accurately describes their feelings. Finally, they just gravitate
toward the end points, usually 9 or 10. In other words, more scale
points can lead to worse measurement! On a paper or Web form survey,
moreover, the 10 points take up a lot of territory, leading to more
line wraps for the questions and the appearance of a longer survey.
(The alternative is to have respondents write in the answer on a
paper survey or use a pull-down box in a Web survey, both of which
I dislike.)
"The 'School Grade Scale' is an interesting one. I've tested
various scale types in a telephone survey, and I've found that this
scale is easy to use and promotes a good dispersion of responses,
unlike the 1-to-10 scale. Respondents have a lot of experience with
how this scale measures performance, moreover, so they seem to have
an easier time translating their feelings into points on the survey
scale.
"Here's another option: a 6-point scale. This forces respondents to
commit to one side or the other, no fence-straddling allowed. One of
the hardest problems in survey design is figuring out how to describe
a completely neutral midpoint anchor. But with a six-point scale, you
don't have to agonize over this question. That's one reason I often
lean toward this scale type."
—Fred Van Bennekom fred@greatbrook.com
Great Brook Consulting www.greatbrook.com
978/779-6312
[Other comments and suggestions about this topic? Send me an
email and we'll post your
feedback.]
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