A service rep tries to game the system
2January 22, 2008 by Colin
Yesterday, I broke with habit, I abandoned a now-established tradition. I called a 1-800 number to make a reservation.
And the customer service representative tried to game me – and the system – twice!
One on the price, and a second time on the after-service quality survey.
Since I have such low standards for call centre CSRs, I expected to be bluffed with a higher room rate, even as I quoted from the website.
Once we had finished the call, though, she asked if I would mind taking a few minutes to answer an automated survey on the quality of her service.
Then she lays this on me:
“…If you thought my service was acceptable, you can just answer 5 to every question…”
Talk about skewing the results!
Ever the contrarian, I followed her instructions – but pressed 5 even before the automated voice had finished the question. My goal? to make sure the system knew something was wonky with their survey.
It worked. At the end of the “few minutes,” another automated voice noted that my answers had seemed unusual, and offered me the opportunity to leave a voice comment about my experience.
She may have been instructed to do that. i.e., her boss or her boss’s boss wants to show good results. The emphasis – much much further up the food chain than the CSR – is on the results, not the meaning of those results.
I think you’re right, Steve. In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to create some link between the data and her none-too-subtle direction.