Starbucks tries something new to get people to fill out customer-satisfaction surveys

In the past, the incentive to complete the survey was the possibility of winning $1,000; I'm told that beginning next month, a free tall beverage is the reward for filling out the form. I long ago gave up on winning the grand and stopped completing the surveys; the free coffee is enough to get me to fill them out again.

Comments

[CD]

And you were previously only allowed to complete one survey a month...for those like me who visit Starbucks multiple times a day, that means many ineligible survey receipts - and a lot of feedback gone missing.

On a related note, the surveys waste a lot of the customer's time. They begin by asking multiple questions about what was purchased. Shouldn't Starbucks already know that information? If you have me engaged and completing a survey, don't ask information that you should already have access to - instead ask questions that will help propel your business.

[ex-sbuxmanager]

In 2005, we test marketed this survey thing at my store in NYC. The reward for filling out the survey was a free any size beverage.

I got one the last time I was in a store and I was initially pleased until I read that filling out the survey only got me a "chance" of winning some money.

Good move changing it to a free bev. I think they'll get more surveys filled out.

[Smalrus]

ROFL Jim. The sardonic wit drips again-

You mean the free tall coffee that my neighborhood barista would possibly give me anyways because I'm there nearly as much as they are (and because I'd like to think of myself as a good guy)? Ahem... *that* IMHO, is what creates customer satisfaction and store loyalty.

Methinks these guys need to go back to basic marketing fundamentals on how to incentivize customer survey responses.

[Lor]

yes!!!! it's about time! The chance that getting a free tall beverage is another reason to order from starbucks and get a receipt.

Treat receipt AND a survey?! that would be a great combo. :D

~lor ♥

[Aaron]

We tested the surveys in Minnesota too. Back then it was a free beverage, any size. The problem, of course, is that's too expensive. People go all out. But a chance to win some money is just not enough. A tall beverage is a good compromise. I wrote in a mission review suggesting it, or a similar give away, a while ago.

[PhillyBarista]

I dont understand why a SM is judged by the results of these things. I constantly get a 60% on Store Cleanliness from the CV results, but my eco-sure and county health inspections both put me at the 95%.

Boy, my condiment bar is dirty, I wonder if it was dirty before you dumped your coffee all over it and missed the cup with at least half of the sugar you were pouring into your extra vanilla Caramel Macchiato.

They hope this will improve the number of customers responding, but if they're like me when I get these surveys at other places, if the service was what I expected, why should I fill out a survey saying just that. If the service is bad, I'll complain to the manager on duty, not wait till i get home and can hide behind the anonymity of the internet to slam a place.

Also, customers don't seem to understand that the survey is about your CURRENT visit, not your experience at the starbucks down the street. I constantly get negative comments saying things like "Things here were good, however THE STARBUCKS DOWN THE STREET IS AWFUL AND SHOULD BE CLOSED BLAH BLAH BLAH...". Also, dont hold it against ME that my store doesn't have a lot of parking (its the CITY, why are you driving!), that homeless people use the bathroom (JUST SAY YES!), or that we're super busy when there's a parade a few blocks away (you honestly think you were the ONLY one who decided to go to starbucks during the parade?) feel free to SLAM me if my partners treat you rudely, butcher your drink, or are picking their nose on the floor, those are things I can control and would be to blame for.

Also, no one seems to have mentioned that the switch to the free tall drink is also going to make the receipts print out less often. I believe the quote was to "significantly reduce" the number printed every day.

Sharing the Brotherly Love,
PhillyBarista

[barristerbarista]

Funnily enough, back when the receipts first started, my manager realized that nobody was filling them out because a promise of maybe winning $1000 wasn't enough. So he started telling people that if they brought back their completed survey, they'd get a free drink. Corporate called and told him to stop. Not 7 months later....

[javabuz]

I live in a pretty diverse college town, without A LOT of cultural diversity. Previously, non-US citizens were not allowed to fill these out, will this change with the new ones? This elements a decent percentage of our customer base.

[javabuz]

Forgive my typo. I meant it eliminates not elements.

[yo]

we used to do this at our store for months....then our DM made us stop....

nothing really makes sense anymore.

[sbux barrista]

Grr. No one ever likes taking the receipt because it's too long and once I tell them it's a survey, they throw it out. I don't know if a small beverage will make the people I serve to do it. They are all rich business people who hate freebies. Whenever samples are out they look at me like I'm crazy and say, "I don't need a hand out, thanks."

As a writer, it kills me how much paper we waste.

[ICLover]

The free tall is a great idea. Even our most patient regulars balked by the time they got their Nth survey. And I agree with the others, the *chance* of winning $ isn't as much incentive for most folks as a more instantly (or later-that-day) gratification of getting anything for free.

[e]

this will go over well at my store.

[sneaky]

When Customer Voice was tested in Los Angeles for a year in 2006/07 a free drink was the reward. It was a huge success. No problem at all getting responses. When the program rolled nationwide fro fiscal 2008 it was changed to the cash drawing based on feedback from hundreds of thousands of questionaires sent out (3 other options were charitble contributions, a trip or nothing). The cash drawing was overwhelmingly picked as that is what the vast majority of other retailers/restaurants are doing. The free drink was reported to be way too expensive. Hmm - wonder what changed?

The biggest problem is Sbux demands that the stores get 30 responses per month - or else! The average in L.A. (in the busiest stores) is between 0-15 pre month this year. I had to provide corrective actions to several managers, as directed by my boss, even though these managers had no way of forcing people to fill them out. Managers were breaking all sorts of policies out of fear trying to get custoemrs to fill them out.

One week into each fiscal month, if you are not on track with the number of responses that will get you to 30, the register is programmed in Seattle to just start pumping out surveys to every other customer. The number of complaints from regular customers was, as yu would expect, overwhelming. However, less than 30 responses and the results don't really reflect the "norm". With less than 10 responses per month, one frustrated customer affects the percentages by as much as a third.

Since managers are being rated for promotions, raises, etc. on these surveys it really sucks.

Maybe all the laidoff SM's, DM's, RD's and SSC support are paying for the free drinks. . .?

[Nerfebarista]

the customer voice is flawed because no one bothers doing them unless it's to bitch. I trust what i see in my store every day, not some dumbass report that only calculates the assholes of the world. thanks =)

[just asking]

Is it just a tall drip or is it a tall anything?

At my store we have people really abusing the "free tall beverage with a pound of coffee while paying with your starbucks card" benefit.
One customer just yesterday ordered a five shot tall extra whip soy milk white chocolate mocha (I'm not kidding, seriously).
Sure! Just say yes. Of course you can have a drink for free you would never ever order if you would have to pay for it. I doubt it tasted even halfway decent. But hey, it was free!

Maybe they should put a dollar amout towards the next drink instead of calling it any tall beverage. Or just make it a specific tall beverage, maybe the actual promo drink.

Well I guess the majority likes it and doesn't abuse it, but the people who do drive me crazy. Especially since these are the ones with the worst attitude.

How about a 12 shot tall americano with your next visit???

[Bill]

I think people have a pre-conceived notion of what tehy think about the store. In a lot of cases a friendly barista can overcome the perception of slow service or dirty tables, while on the other hand if the barista was rude, people wouldn't be likely to cut the store slack on these issues.

They shouldn't be issues, but since thee is no way to prevent a customer from giving a bad result, it is. Since there are only 30 completed surveys a month, one customer with access to multiple puters, can fill out 5 or 6 and truly doom an excellent store because he doesn't like them, or conversly reward a poor one because the barista comped him a couple of freebies.

If I was an SM, I would keep my eyes peeled for leftover reciepts in the trash and heve my friends respond about how wonderful I am,

[Zipy]

Yeah these things are a bit silly. Our last one had everything at 90ish%. Likeliness to return, quality of drink, speed, friendliness, etc etc -- everything was in the 90s expect for overall satisfaction was at 60% and our DM wasn't pleased. How does that make sense, when, overall everything is 90% people just aren't satisfied?

[sneaky]

One of my stores, a kiosk in a mall in a predominantly hispanic non-english speaking neighboorhood, was getting no responses at all each month. Absolutely none. I stood there with the SM for hours and watched the Baristas make real geniune connections and hand out the receipts in an ernest way. Nothing. Nobody had internet access. None of them.

So I got creative and sat with my company laptop and a translator (at my own expense) and let them fill them out right there.

I was RAKED over the coals. They can track your IP address on the survey and they thought I was trying to fake the results. So much for entreprenurial spirit and owning my business.

My advice - don't save the receipts and have you or your friends do them. It will come back to haunt you.

[me]

The problem with these surveys are, they only reflect the personal view of this single customer.

The result for one and the same visit depends immense on your personal mood and your expectations. What might be perfect service for me (no questions asked, drink made right, handed over quickly and a thank you is enough) might be considered too rude by a chatty person. I don't mind sugar spills at the condiment stand, but I hate coffee spills. Someone else might be the other way around. etc.
Some questions are even plain stupid (drink temperature? really? Ever had a customer asking for a 190 Latte and complain it was too hot?)
I personally preferred the customer snapshots. Of course they where very situational as well, but at the same time the standard was at least always the same, temperatures where taken with thermometers and not tongues. It was a check if standards were kept. Customers don't know or care about our standards. They care about their personal experience (which isn't wrong), but unfortunately this isn't really measurable.
How on earth can store managers be held reliable for customers not answering the surveys? Only solution to avoid stress with your DM is: collect all surveys, fill them out yourself, let your partners do them or friends and family. This way your results will be wonderful, you will have enough responses and everyone will be happy. I wonder how many stores are already doing this.
Unfortunately my store manager is too afraid she might get caught by tracking of IP addresses. So NO we are not doing this (yet, anyways :-) just in case someone is listening).

[me]

wouldn't it be illegal for a company to identify people behind IP's? It's not a criminal investigation. They can block you from entering more surveys, they can decide to not use the results coming from one source (IP). But identify you and track you down and get on your case for doing that? I would love to hear Melodys opinion on that, since she is a lawyer.

[Mike]

I've been doing this in my store for the last three months -- one free beverage of any size with a copy of the final screen -- as have many stores in my area who either figured it out on their own or took my idea and ran with it (I also had a written supplement to hand off at my POS explaining the survey)...
The problem with it is that it will get old soon enough. In my store I finished Q3 with a pultry 30 responses for the entire quarter. In doing it this way I jumped out to a whopping 85 responses in fiscal July. Fiscal August only brought in 27 responses so the novelty wore off quickly. I'm sure the company overall with see similar jumps with this incentive...

[Coffee Mistress]

I would like to see a phone alternative. Not all of our customers have internet access or aren't web savvy. I have one customer who is in her 70s and has asked for a way to call in her survey. The response was that she could always fill out a comment card. Wow. In the end she is not getting the reward because she isn't comfortable using a computer. Let me also state that, while she is a very loyal regular, she doesn't hesitate to let us know when we blow it. I'll take her verbal feedback any day over someone who may be simply having a bad day.

[david]

Yeah, at my store we were giving away a free drink if you completed the survey, printed out the final confirmation sheet and brought it back to us...we were told to stop about two weeks ago, I believe by our district manager. Oh well.

[Douglas]

I've pretty much had it with surveys.

We're just wasting money on a bunch of people with no imagination that ask stupid questions and create fluff reports for people sitting in offices.

Just go to the damn stores, work there for a while, order some coffee and use the smarts that you're paid for.

[spence]

I LOVE THE CUSTOMER VOICES. Mostly, because I often get mentioned kindly. One of my co-workers doesn't even pass them out. (Mostly, because she's been mentioned unkindly.) Do you see a pattern?

[Argentius]

That was long in the coming. Who actually WON those thousand dollar giftcards? It's like the 1984 lottery, only less exciting.

This would make ME fill one out, anyway.

[Argentius]

@Just Asking

SRSLY? They bought a pound of coffee, what else do you want? What's the cost differene (to the company, not retail) of the extra 4 shots?

please, how many drinks does a busy store throw AWAY in the day.

And maybe they will decide they LIKE a 5 shot tall white mocha, and buy one.

Of all of the system abuses, treating yourself to a fancy drink with a coupon is not a big deal...

[Ken]

I have a problem with this. Rewarding people for something like this, is just going to get a bunch of people filling out surveys just to get a free drink, and I would bet most most won't give a crap about what they are saying, or filling out. It would be like paying people to vote.
If you let people do it becuase they take the time to do it, they you will be getting honest feedback, be it bad or good. If there is a free drink in it for people, they are just going to fill it out, who cares how, just to get a free drink. THey need to understand its not the number of customer survey's you get, its the quality info that you get on the ones that you do get.

[P.R.I.D.E.]

Wow, bitch bitch bitch sums up this entire thread almost. I am really surprised- when I read the news about this I was genuinely happy to hear that we made a change in the right direction, even as I was leaving the company. Sure, you've been doing this and were told to stop. Sure, you all went to a lot of trouble to make it happen, using your entreprenuerial spirit. That is exactly why we are making the change. Enough people found it to be successful, and it's been pipelined up to Seattle and they've finally got it. This is organic solutions in the making. You should feel PROUD that your efforts have been recognized.

And yet, we still bitch. I just don't get it- what did you want to see happen?

One more point- everyone posting here is treating our customers like morons, and it's out of control. Seriously, if you don't want to listen to your customers, any and all of them, then how do you expect to function in a customer-facing business? Do you think the independent cafe would fare well if they refuse to be receptive to hearing feedback? If you have that many regular customers that have it out for you, why don't you step back and reconsider why they would come back time and time again, only to be so pained by the visit? You might want to consider yourself lucky that they're willing to come back- we've lost 50 customers/day in each of our stores, and maybe it's because we just weren't willing to listen. Think about it.

[former sm in ca]

"The average in L.A. (in the busiest stores) is between 0-15 pre month this year. I had to provide corrective actions to several managers, as directed by my boss, even though these managers had no way of forcing people to fill them out."

I suppose that you took no leadership courage to point out this fact to your boss, and instead, blindly did "your job". Wow...and we wonder why the Company has struggled? It would be one thing for you to sit in the cafe and perhaps observe partners not giving these out to guest, or throwing them away....that's a coaching conversation that needed to be had if that's the case. Rather, you took the easy way out to provide CAs to managers only to encourage them to break more policies?

In regards to this customer voice...We already had a "system" in place to gather customer feedback. These are called customer comment cards, and phone calls. Creating another vehicle to collect these comments is not only a waste of time out time(It's pretty clear that it hasn't worked the way it was intended to) but also go against our Mission Statement in contributing positively to our environment(paper waste).

All this report does is allow DM/RDs to coach those stores after the fact, rather than being in the store and provide the necessary leadership that is needed DAILY to coach/celebrate partners in the stores. You can't do that sitting behind a desk...

[cndsbux]

We blow kazoo's and pretend it's there birthday when pople get the survey. My store has 50-75 entries a month and we do 2200 customers a week.

[curious]

I love it and am hoping to get real feedback. Everyone gives fantastic comments, but our scores are in the gutter. I just don't get it.

[Christin]

"Customers don't know or care about our standards. They care about their personal experience (which isn't wrong), but unfortunately this isn't really measurable. "

that is exactly the point of moving from snap shots to Customer voice! We wanted to get the customer perspective. And yes, it is all now relitive to the customer. Which is why my DMs (I have had two since we started customer voice) have not been down on my store even though our scores area all over the place. We are supposed to be looking for trends. Not focusing on ever little catagory every single month.

One customer may in fact be more concerned with a coffee spill and another cusomer more concerned with a sugar spill. Point being neither spill should be there in the ideal Starbucks! 10 minute lobby slides!!

It doesn't matter if there is an excuse or if it is reletive. All the customer knows when they walk through the door is what the expereince in those usually short few minutes. Did they get the drink, did they like it, did they get the service they wanted? That is what we are trying to find out.

[marc]

No one really won those $1,000 prizes.

[Melody]

Argh, I could ramble forever about the Customer Voice Receipts. Up until about 8 weeks ago, the free form section of it was limited to 250 characters. It is flat out impossible to describe what happened in a store in that few characters. Especially if you selected the option "there was a problem, I brought it to their attention, and it was resolved well"
^ You can't say all that you need to say in literally just 250 characters.

I complained right and left about the character limitation - wrote to Starbucks, complained on MSI, and I explained that the surveys really only collected demographic data and had no meaningful free form section.

After a tremendous amount of complaining, an idea partner at mystarbucksidea.com contacted me and let me know that the 250 character limitation had been lifted ... It's like heaven now having that restraint gone.

I'm definitely doing more than one a month, despite the disincentive that you're disqualified for the prize drawing.

But as to IPs, Starbucks does seem to collect IP data. Just recently, coincidentally, over lunch I got a voice receipt with a PTL, and filled it out at my desk right after lunch. In the evening I got a short Zambia Kasama, and surprisingly yet another customer voice receipt. I went back to my desk to work just a little longer and filled out my second survey that day.

Somehow, Starbucks remember that I'd been to the website twice in one day, and there was a little text warning upon starting the survey that reminded me that I could only enter once in a month.

Starbucks can legally collect all kinds of data on their customers. An IP address is sent with posts made on message boards, and there's no reason why Starbucks can't take a look at that and see if a disproportionate number of survey responses come from one IP.

At least under the old contest system, they'd print out in waves. I might go 2 to 3 weeks and not get one, and then all of a sudden get 3 of them in two days. Just the way coincidences go, I suppose.

Another voice receipt survey complaint that I have it that it is designed to ask you questions about ONE beverage. You start by selecting a hot or a cold beverage, and narrow it down to a group (a tea, drip coffee, and so on ...) So the questions you're asked about the quality of the drink pertain to the one drink ... but what if you bought 2 drinks? I would think that Starbucks would at least be interested in that data, if someone is buying multiple drinks.

Spence, I've seen baristas look like their not going to give me the voice receipt, and start to look like their going to rip it off and toss it out. I immediately turn into a snippy customer and say "I want that receipt!" and then I will always comment on the free form section that the baristas wasn't going to give me the receipt. I've only had the happen just a couple of times, but what you've described has happened to me.

It's also my pet peeve when baristas start to tear off the portion of the receipt with what you bought on it, from the top portion which has the survey code and information. Since you need to know what you bought to do the survey, it's easier if everything is kept all together.

I realize that I'm rambling with this post, and you know opinions are just opinions but one more thing ... At least for me, it's more important that the baristas are friendly, genuine and sincere than even if there was a mistake with my drink.

The other day I got a voice receipt on a black tea lemonade, and I went to drink it and realized something was wrong. The lemonade had floating lemon stuff in it. I went back to the shift (whom I knew since I'm always at that store), and she explained that the barista was new and used the wrong lemonade, and then immediately re-made the drink. Voice receipt survey: I responded with all perfect results. I know that store well, and I'm there all the time, and it's much more important to me how wonderfully nice the barista are on a regular basis than if you happened to grab the wrong lemonade once. There's no point in calling out such a little thing when you know the store is already wonderful.

If this post is too much of a random ramble, just disregard ... LOL

[Pat Nerr]

Feedback is one thing... actually doing something about it is another. If you write the word "monkey" a million times, eventually you'll misspell it... and that's money...

~ The Karate Man

[topher]

Customer voice is a wonderful thing if used properly. We'd love to know what they think! The problem is in the computing system of it all. If someone responds that everything was perfect(overall satisfaction) then that is fantastic. If they respond that everything was not absolutly the most wonderful thing ever(anything below perfect) then you get nothing as a store for this catagory. An example would be that if a store has 4 people respond in a month, and one of them says that you are the best rating in their opinion, and the other three that respond say that you were fantastic, but not perfect, again, in their opinion, then you get a 25 percent overall satisfaction rating. This is not a true representation. I realize that our goal is to enrich peoples daily lives, and to provide an experience that makes them feel fantastic when they leave, but to assume that every customer knows this, and will reflect that in their survey is not going to work. When 4 people say that you are doing your job and make them feel great when they leave is amazing considering the number of these surveys that print out, thanks for even taking the time to do it! But when we are held accountable for those three that said we were amazing but they wish that starbucks would do XXX, (have more parking, stay open later, play Snoop Dogg instead of Allison Krouse, make frappuccinos with more ice so they are "thicker" (meaning chunky and unmakeable in any way), or provide a speaker in their car so they can enjoy our music in the drive thru, it really hurts us. Having a rating of 25 percent satisfied when all respondants said you were meeting their needs is not a true representation. What we need is...who knows? I'll bet someone on this post does, and perhaps they will share it.

Thanks!

[Catherine Cochrane]

I got a receipt once with the survey for a free tall drink, but I forgot about it.

[PhillyBarista]

That is my issue exactly. If you have 10 customers and 3/10 say you did a perfect 5/5 job and 7 out of ten say you did a 4/5 job, you get a 30%. You recieve the same score if those 7 say you did a 4/5 job or if they say you did a 0/5 job. Its cooky!

[Smalrus]

Pat Nerr strikes again!

[Patty O'Brien]

We've completely done away with even mentioning the $1,000 drawing at my store. "This is an invitation to take a survey! Complete it and it lets us know how we did, and you're entered into a drawing for $1,000!" Their eyes glaze over...their hand jerks out..."wow, thanks," they say....and there it goes into the trash can by the door. Customers seem more inclined to comment if they know it really helps you and the store, rather than some flimsy prize. I never liked to drawing idea when it first came out last year. It doesn't seem real to people. Also, I disagree with the stock the management puts in these things. "Only 13 responses last month, guys! Hand out those survery receipts!" Okay, what was a doing already? Eating them? People just aren't intrested most of the time. It also doesn't seem statistially accurate to form a picture of a store where 10,000-12,000 customers visit monthly from only 30 survey responses anyhow. What is that...0.25% of your customers? That's a good sample!

[Lawyerista]

Personally, I have mixed feelings about the surveys. I work primarily in the mornings and 80% of our customers are repeat business clientele who can't be bothered with extra paper. Even when I tell them that we rely on those to gain feedback. After awhile the recital of what it is gets old. I'll usually offer the receipt, but generally once they see how long it is, they decline. These are people who have money clips with several $100s and other assorted bills so I don't think free drinks or the promise of $1000 will inspire them and some have told me as such. And really, if I weren't a partner, I probably wouldn't take it either.

We've also had people who filled it out once for us and then feel like they've done their "customer duty" and decline.

And I agree that generally they're for venting purposes, or people disregard the "Tell me about your experience at THIS Starbucks" and they rant about not having any other coffee choice, or some other thing. One customer said we should have 4 coffees going at once, of all different varieties. *sigh*

So, in a sense, they're good, and I love it when we get the occasional "the morning crew rocks" but generally people aren't all that interested. Even when we were clandestinely offering free drinks, we only had 2 people bring it back.

We will see. Personally, I liked the snapshot better, myself.

[BCbarista]

Surveys are lame, in my opinion. A lot of companies have this internet directed stuff, and it just feels like a scam. I can't just flip the cap off my bottle of diet coke and win another one anymore, now I have to enter a secret code into a website and so on...which I'm totally not going to do.

However, getting something free seems kinda decent to me. I'd be more motivated to explain it to customers, since they're actually getting something out of it. As long as it's not just a free drip, which would also be lame.

[StLouieDrip]

Has anyone ever given an explanation as to why 4/5 is being calculated into the percentages as if it's the same as 0/5?

[Victoria Barista]

StLouieDrip,

My thoughts are that either Howard has never taken a Stats class before...
or
the simple explanation that Starbucks feels that you should be giving 5 star legendary service all the time. I mean come on, should they expect anything less from us? ;-)

[pet]

I have been a lurker for awhile now. (Heck, I was on maternity leave during the Pike's Place roll out and found out all the info here before it was trickled down to my fellow partners, anyways...)I am glad they are bringing back the free drink. My customers have been asking for them. We were also a test market when we gave the free drink away. I am sure our numbers will go up some. Last month we had 6 responses. And our results were blech! I want to have the highest scores in the district! (not that I am competitive..lol)

Btw, congrats Melody!

[sneaky]

HEY FORMER SM IN CA - Are you kidding me??? What an amazingly rude assumption.

You have NO idea what type of leader I am. Should I assume by your screen name that you were fired for complete incompetence or that you didn't have enough courage to hold on and you abandoned your partners? No. That would be a rude and inapproriate thing to do. Geez. Thanks for jumping immediately to the negative.

Is it possible that I spent 8-10 hours a day in my stores observing, coaching in the moment, providing appropriate recognition and rewards, working behind the counter in dress code side by side with my partners to help them achieve something they can be proud of?

Is it possible I stood so firmly on my convictions that I got to a point that I was written up for insubordination for refusing to write corrective actions on my managers behavior because I witnessed their sincere efforts, but I worked for people who only valued statistical results not the effort put in to achieve them?

Is it possible that instead of "sitting behind a desk" I did all my administrative work at home AFTER my 10 hour day and on my one day off (which I, as a salaried person was not compensated for) so that my administrative responsibilities did not got in the way of my providing support, coaching and rewards to my team in their stores at a time when no matter how hard you try the economic conditions we are in will almost certainly guarantee you will not hit any of your statistical expectations?

The real reason "why this company has struggled" has nothing to do with whether or not I "blindly did" my job. It is in the irrational assumptions based on limited information and then reacting to those assumptions that invariably happens by senior leaderhip of any company - just like you did.

[MillbraeManager]

Yes, it is finally time for them to hand out free drinks as a reward for the survey... now if they would start giving us credit for "satisfied" results along with "very satisfied," even if it was half a point per response, I would be completely satisfied with the system.

Either way, it beats the heck out of snapshots!

[former sm in ca]

Sneaky:

I simply quoted what you wrote previously, and responded to YOUR decision to provide CAs to managers because your RD told you so. No assumption there...you said, you did it.

A wise person once told me that CAs should not be given as punishment, rather as a means to correcting the behavior that violates a standard, procedure, policy, etc. So, please explain to me how providing those CAs modified those SM behaviors to the desired result ? The result: " Managers were breaking all sorts of policies out of fear trying to get customers to fill them out." Again, you wrote this, I didn't assume anything.

You are the one who assumed that the rest of my post was directed at you, when if you reread it, you can see that it's not. So, rather than continue this back and forth, I will just simply apologize. There problem solved...=)

As for me, you can assume that I was the worst partner ever..LOL. Won't bother me a bit. After 10 yrs, it was time for me to find greener pastures.