Feedback Frenzy: Are Rewards Ruining Your Reviews?

Recently, I visited my car dealership for regular maintenance of my car. After the regular discussion, the maintenance advisor said the car would be ready for pickup in the evening. In the evening, the customer service team called to inform me that it was ready for pickup. When I paid the dues, there was a small feedback form with a few questions and a question related to the advisor, which had a score range from 1 to 10, with 10 being good, 9 being ok, and anything from 1-8 being bad. This was like the Net Promoter Score or NPS, where 10-9 is a promoter, 8-7 is passive or neutral, and 6 or below is a detractor. This company had taken it to the next level by making it 10 for a promoter, 9 for a passive, and 8 or lower as a detractor.

The service advisor, the relationship manager, and the call center agent informed me that their variable salary would not be paid if they did not get the perfect 10.

I had a similar experience with a banking relationship manager, and their call center asked me for the same. The delivery person from one of the shopping apps also asked me to rate them 5, the rideshare driver asked for a 5, and even e-commerce purchases kept asking me for feedback. I realized that we have a bias for higher scores built into us due to the education system's constant focus on success.

I wondered if customer satisfaction's purpose had anything to do with how the customer felt and how the organization could improve its process, people, and tools. ?

Most of the surveys or the 5 stars don’t have the suitable description providing any meaning. The age of social media and the disengaged customer proves that companies fail to do anything about feedback.

Review blackmails by customers for getting free food (delivery apps), free hotel nights, or other freebies are forcing the agents to go beyond the call of duty to sometimes engage in unfair practices to ensure that they are not under-reviewed.

Positive reviews posted by customers or partners in exchange for free gifts or favors are frequent occurrences. Orders on E-Commerce platforms or a food delivery app sometimes accompany a message the company sends saying rate us 5, and we will give you an X% discount or a freebie.

This led to me studying the harmful effects of customer satisfaction surveys and how they get misused by organizations and their employees. The HBR article “Where Net Promoter Score Goes Wrong” was the starting point. Further studies led to some good articles by?Nick Pistentis on the “All 10s fallacy” and Roberto Porta’s “The feedback fallacy.”

These articles show the shift in focus from feedback for improvement to feedback for rewards. Managers and employees use rewards or punishment that can incentivize inauthentically positive responses, thereby skewing data. Moreover, the feedback surveys are either too short or too long, leading to insufficient or inappropriate data. The term “Earned advocacy score” attempts to correct the NPS skew.

I am currently gathering more data on Surveys, focusing on the present challenges, how inauthentic feedback limits customer understanding, and possible solutions.

Let's discuss your experiences with customer satisfaction surveys.? Have you ever felt pressured to give a high score?? How can companies gather more honest feedback to truly improve customer experience?

Instead of just a number rating, what if feedback surveys included follow-up questions to understand the "why" behind the score?? Would open-ended prompts about positive or negative experiences be more helpful?

Is the Perfect Score Myth Hurting Us All?? Can a system focused on achieving perfect 10s hinder genuine customer feedback and a company's ability to improve?? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

References:

LinkedIn article by Nick Pistentis. "The All 10s Fallacy"

LinkedIn article by Roberto Porta. "The Feedback Fallacy"

Harvard Business Review. "Where Net Promoter Score Goes Wrong"

Harvard Business Review. “Net Promoter 3.0”