Ahhh...and you are proving my point:
It's
trends and patterns that can be seen. When you have to take into account subjective data and "outliers", then it cannot be an exact measurement. Why? Because it's based on OPINION. You cannot "scientifically" measure opinion. Not when it varies from person to person and can be dependent on anything (and that anything could have nothing to do with what they're giving their opinion about). Yes, you can get an idea and see how a company is doing well based on the trends and patterns of the guests. But that cannot be actually measured because what is great customer service to one is poor customer service to another. Take me for example...I hate it when a store's employee won't let me shop on my own. If I need help, I'll seek it out. But until then, I want to be left alone. I know many people who feel the exact same way. On the other hand, I also know many people who feel that if an employee does that, it's terrible customer service. So how do you scientifically measure
that? You can't. It's subjective. You cannot measure subjective opinions. And when it comes to customer service, while you might be able to spot trends and patterns, you ultimately cannot specifically measure anything that is subjective. Another example: we have secret shoppers that come into our store. Supposed to be a measurement of how we do, right? Well we marked low if we don't greet the person within a few
seconds of them coming into the store. It doesn't matter if we're extremely busy, it doesn't matter if we're dealing with an emergency (and yes, that has happened...also experienced us trying to deal with known shoplifters so our attention had to be on that)....nope, if that person isn't greeted within
seconds (there is NO room for exception), our score is marked lower. Which is funny, because half the time we greet people, we get snapped at with remarks of "I'm just looking!!!" Good grief, I'm just saying hi.
(note, I'm not saying we shouldn't greet people, just showing how varied it is in how our greetings are responded to and treated, to the point where we're graded lower if we greeted a guest 10-15 seconds rather than 5-10 seconds...I mean
seriously....). Not to mention that whenever we get our secret shopper form back, half the information is wrong. Case in point, she listed me by name (since I'm the only Mary that works in the store) and said I was under 5'4" with brown hair. I'm 5'7" with red hair. She listed our manager as not wearing glasses...he is never without his glasses. If she can't get those
facts correctly, then how are her subjective opinions of how we operate to be measured? And this seems to be a problem all the time with secret shoppers, and not just with our company. A friend who works for Cingular hates them because there are things he KNOWS he does and the shopper says he doesn't. So he's scored low. This is why many people hate the secret shopper program...because once it comes to them rating our store, they don't always remember half the things we did, so many times they mark it as saying we didn't do them (or do them correctly). So much for "measurement".
But anyway, yes, you CAN spot a trend and pattern for how a store (or any place else) operates (or even get an idea of how something should be in order to be considered acceptable) . But that's as scientific as it gets.