Monopolies are seldom subject to satisfaction surveys. However the market is about to open and the Belgian railways have been hit by a few scandals (among them security infringements and casualties) which have probably motivated the management to ask an agency to conduct a survey.

I filled the satisfaction survey in and noticed some mistakes. Let’s use this example to avoid the same mistakes the next time you want to survey your customers’ satisfaction.

First, the satisfaction survey was a full 4-page questionnaire made of 50+ questions.

Lesson #1: lengthy questionnaires will be the source of bias just because a customer’s motivation to answer thoroughly will decrease with the number of questions. Focus therefore on the essence (see lesson #2)

The questionnaire was full of metrics to rate. For instance, rate on a 10-point scale the cleanliness of the parking lot. How important is the cleanliness of the parking lot for the overall customer experience?

Lesson #2: make sure that the KPI’s you want to measure really contribute to the customer satisfaction. In the case of the railways company I guess that having trains arriving on time is a lot more important than having a clean parking lot