Are you satisfied with the survey that you filled out after your
visit to a doctor, or after your phone call to a help desk?

- It used to be that waiting "forever" in a doctor's office
was a universal experience. I figure that the reasons that /my/
delays disappeared 15 years ago is that all /my/ doctors fall
under UPMC health administrators, and every visit is followed
by a questionnaire that includes questions about how I long
waited before being seen (or in the middle). Questions exist
about 'satisfaction', too.

So I do see the 'up' side of having these surveys. But they
don't ask, "Are you satisfied that this survey has conveyed
what you want us to know?"

Yesterday, I talked for 18 minutes with someone from Amazon,
in order to learn the answer to a simple question.

"If I get a package sent to me from Amazon and the only
clues to who sent it are the Amazon Return address and
the Order number, can I find out from Amazon who it was
that sent it?" - No. Because, privacy. Simple answer.
Not 18 minutes worth, if you want to be critical.

But I had finished the phone call feeling fairly satisfied; I got
an answer to my question, despite how long it took. However,
I filled out the survey that showed up in my email box by giving
accurate responses, culminating in an overall 'negative.'
The questionnaire somehow does mis-represent my overall
reaction.

I related this to a friend, who gave his own example from three
weeks ago. He got an email survey after he visited an emergency
for stitches (his dementing dog bit him). He was very pleased
with the doctor; he was very displeased that the visit took 6 hours.
The survey wanted the experience to be summed up with one
rating.


I think it was a nice advance, umpteen years ago, when the
surveys started asking about whether you were satisfied with
the service, and gave concrete deficits to be avoided by the office.

I think it might be a slight advance for the /ratings business/ if
they add a question about how much you like the survey.

Most of the surveys do have some Boxes provided for explaining
yourself. Being an old data analyst, I know that comments
can be valuable, but data are easier to draw conclusions from
if 'comments' aren't available to confuse the issues.

Hmm. Paper forms had an advantage over electronic surveys
in that you could write in the margins, but no one collected
the comments from the margins, so the comment-boxes are
probably an improvement. (I wonder how much they are read?)

--
Rich Ulrich

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