Know the “Don’t Know” Answer Frequency

When you ask your shoppers for their attitudes and they answer they don’t know or have no real opinion, that’s not an agree or a disagree.
     Here’s why I consider this a timely reminder:
     Findings from the 2010 “American Express Global Customer Service Barometer” are out. The findings—based on work by the Echo Group—were nicely formatted in one summary covering American consumers and in another summary covering consumers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, in addition to the U.S.
     But even with the nice formatting, I’m coming across retailers distorting what the findings mean. Some of the distortions arise from the sort of thing retailing analyst Marshal Cohen of the NPD Group calls “the thinning middle.” The American Express project summary presents mean averages. However, when it comes to customer service ratings and expectations, the consumer’s standards for luxury retailers are almost surely different from their standards for budget-oriented retailers. And the trend in retailing has been for a thinning of the middle between luxury and budget-oriented. The overall mean average is not representative enough.
     The American Express survey finds that 58% of U.S. consumers say they’ll spend more with companies they believe provide excellent service, and those 58% are willing to spend 9% more. But that 9% is an overall mean average. When dealing with luxury retailers, consumers might be willing to spend 19% more for superb customer service. When dealing with budget-oriented retailers, they might be willing to spend 0% more.
     The available summaries don’t allow us to slice the data well enough to know, so I wasn’t shocked when I encountered retailers using the 9% figure in discussing how to turn the statistics into profit-making tactics. They’re using a best guess.
     I did experience shock, though, when I overheard an influential retailer say, “Okay, so 58% of the people tell us they’ll spend more when there’s excellent service. That means 42% won’t.” This retailer hadn’t acknowledged the 17% in the chart. That’s the percentage answering, “Don’t know.” The percentage saying they wouldn’t pay more for excellent customer service was closer to 25% than to 42%.
     When interpreting survey statistics, certainly bounce off the numbers. Just be sure you’ve a good foundation before bouncing. Always know the “don’t know” answer frequency.

Click below for more:
Use Consumer Attitude Survey Findings
Look at Mean, Median, Mode, and Range
Interpret Survey Results As a Retailer