What do I do if lots of customers are answering on the wrong end of the scales?

What do I do if lots of customers are answering on the wrong end of the scales?

If you have many customers choosing the wrong end of your survey choices, it might be time to update your survey theme.  While no survey will be error-proof, certain options can help reduce mistake by your respondents.  Remember, if someone does make a mistake, you can easily resend them their unique survey link so they can correct their error.  

To reduce mistakes, let’s look at your options.

1. If your survey choices use phrases only, check to see if both ends of the scale start with the same words.  For example, some of our earlier 5-phrase surveys used the phrases “Very Satisfied” and “Very Unsatisfied”, and “Very Likely” and “Very Unlikely”.  Customers reading too quickly might confuse one “Very” choice for the other. A simple solution to reduce customer mistakes is to ask us to update the wording of the most negative choices to “Not at all satisfied” and “Not at all likely”.  Customers moving too quickly, while they still may make a mistake, would be less likely to pick a choice that starts with “Not” if they in fact are happy.

 

1. Consider adding emojis, emoticons or graphics to your choices to aid respondents in quickly identifying the ends of the scales.  As you’ll see on our Survey Style page (Link) we offer a variety of scale choices.  Using emoticons may help customers quickly understand which end is positive, and which is negative.  
   
2. Consider using the numerical scale from zero to 10, called the 11-point scale.  This can be combined with emoticons or emojis, like a thumbs up or thumbs down as shown here (Link).  This scale runs from 0 to 10, and that zero choice is key to reducing mistakes.  Most people do not associate zero (0) as a good thing.  That is not the case if your choices were to start with the number 1.  It is easy for customers to confuse the number one as good, as in first place (1st place) and being a number one (e.g. “We’re #1”).  When using a number scale, it’s a good idea to have us append a parenthetical helper phrase to the end of the question.  For example, if the scale is the 11-point scale we’d append a helper phrase to the end of the question, like “(0=not at all, 10=very likely)”. 
   
3. If you use the 5-star scale, while it may be hard to believe, some people confuse 1-star as being the “best” or highest score.  If you see your customers making mistakes, consider adding emoticons with the stars, or add emojis on the ends (frown and smile, or thumbs up/down) to aid the respondent.
   

 

1. If you see mistakes, our suggestion is to make the slightest changes first.  Use the “Not” phrase variant for the most negative choice, add emoticons or emoji scale ends, or simply add a scale helper phrase to the question.  
   

In most instances, customer mistakes represent a small percentage of respondents. But it is still good to know your options. These options are also helpful if you're looking to refresh or update the appearance of your survey.

INFO: Check out all of the survey scale options here.  If you have a specific survey customization request, please reach out to our team and we'll be happy to better personalize your LoyaltyLoop account surveys.