Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

I don't think so. Each person has a different expectation, so they will be comparing perceived quality against their own expectation -- not against some ill-defined norm. Unless you have part 1, part 2 will be meaningless.

Much of your problem could be solved by asking the right question of your target audience.

"Ill defined norms" - as mentioned above - are just that. A well defined argument leads to easily defined norms and in turn gives crystal clear results. Put another way, if the results aren't crystal clear, you are asking the wrong questions.

This might not be the answer you wanted - only when it comes to service quality and customer loyalty you need to know what it is that they like about the business. No amount of complex analytical software will get you out of having to find out what that basic motive is. If the results you are getting are unclear, it isn't the software that is at fault.

I cannot offer any specific information or opinions on the specific techniques you are asking about, but I would like to offer a personal perspective.

I've been on both sides of the issue. I have conducted quality control interviews, and I have been the victim of quality control questionnaires.

In my opinion, when I have a strong opinion about the quality of service I received from particular product or company, the questionnaire I responded to had nothing to do with the issues or problems that I faced. I would typically stop in the middle of a survey if it was totally ignoring the real issues I was concerned about. Again, I am not at all familiar with the techniques you refer to above, and they might be much better than the surveys I have responded to.

As a result, when I have conducted customer support surveys, I have asked open-ended questions and let my customers talk about whatever was important to them. This approach worked very well yet and when I reported directly to the president of a client company, probably because they were most concerned about learning the truth about client perspectives. This open-ended approach worked poorly where ported to an intermediate such as a director of marketing, since they wanted to be in charge and be the boss and direct things and control things.