Voices: the CMB Blog

Last week, my family and I enjoyed a trip to Orlando.  And with two girls (age 4 and 5), of course we visited some theme parks. While there I had the good fortune of being asked to complete a customer feedback interview at not one, but TWO, of the parks. Good fortune? To be stopped at an amusement park on a hot day with tired kids? Definitly. As someone who focuses on customer feedback research, I look forward to every opportunity to learn more about how people experience the process and  how companies apply the results to improve performance.

And just as I hoped, it was very enlightening. I could write a hundred blogs on the interview experience, but the one thing I want to focus on here is the timing of the interviews. Timing is a frequently discussed and debated topic among market researchers, and I want to add a more personal twist. As I mentioned above, the folks at each park intercepted me on premises, but at Park 1, the interviewer asked me a couple qualifying questions and collected my email address: I received the email about a week later, and completed the lengthy questionnaire online. 

At Park 2, the staff member asked me to complete an online interview at a computer in an office on-site.  So, this amusement park was getting my “immediate” reactions to the questions.  Which was better?  Well, it depends.  Really, the two experiences made me think of some great research, books, and ideas occurring in the field of human emotions and behavioral economics.  Daniel Kahneman is always a great resource in this area, and a popular TED video describes the two instances very well.

 “Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness]

David McRaney gives a nice summary of the video’s theme on his blog

“The psychologist Daniel Kahneman has much to say on this topic.He says the self which makes decisions in your life is usually the remembering one. It drags your current (experiencing – sic) self around in pursuit of new memories, anticipating them based on old memories.

The current self has little control over your future. It can only control a few actions like moving your hand away from a hot stove or putting one foot in front of the other. Occasionally, it prompts you to eat cheeseburgers, or watch a horror movie, or play a video game.

The current self is happy experiencing things. It likes to be in the flow.

It is the remembering self which has made all the big decisions. It is happy when you can sit back and reflect on your life up to this point and feel content. It is happy when you tell people stories about the things you have seen and done.”

Kahneman’s delineation between the “Experiencing Self” and the “Remembering Self” really resonated in the two customer feedback studies I described.  To put it in terms of Kahneman’s theory: at Park 1 (off-site survey), when I was asked a few preliminary questions and later sent an email invitation, I evaluated the visit from my “Remembering Self.”  At Park 2 (on-site interview), when I was asked to evaluate the visit while still experiencing my park visit, I evaluated the visit from my “Experiencing Self.”

This has big implications for the data and information the parks will gain from the feedback.  The evaluation from my Remembering Self is closer to my decision frame of mind; it gives a better read on the aspects of the visit that lead to my choice to select/return to the park.  For the evaluation of Park 1, I had already viewed pictures of my girls enjoying themselves and begun concluding whether I would want to return again in the future. 

Of course, I could not recall many specific feelings or problems during the visit, yet the questionnaire (one week later) asked about a wide range of things, from cleanliness to security (which presents a big disconnect between the Experiencing and Remembering selves, as feelings of security/fear in-the-moment quickly dissipate).  Sure, we had a chatty restaurant server looking to up-sell us on every dish – a big annoyance as I work hard to remember every moment of the visit – but if Park 1 (off-site survey) is looking for problems to fix, it will not find them (beyond the glaring items). 

Therefore, we shouldn’t dismiss the timing of the interview at Park 2 (on-site interview).  In fact, Kahneman’s example of pain experienced during a colonoscopy is not that much different from what I experienced at that park.  For instance, a long wait for lunch at a restaurant was quite frustrating, especially with two hungry children, and I was very open about the frustration when completing the questionnaire onsite.  Park 2 would not have received such open comments if I hadn’t given them “in the moment.” 

On the other hand, I was also less glowing in my overall satisfaction ratings, saying I was less likely to return.  I was hot, tired, and worried about my kids melting down. The interesting thing about it is this: I would be more likely to return to Park 2, where the interview was on-site.  Now that my Remembering Self has reflected on the experiences – and had the “fog of battle” clear from my head – I realize that my family gained a lot more cherished memories from Park 2, and I would be far more likely to return compared to the other park.

Therefore, if the purpose of the interview is to understand the experiences, memories, and drivers of choice, it’s critical to time the interview for my “Remembering Self” to respond.  If the purpose is to find specific points of pain or joy (regardless of their role on choice), then it’s critical to time the interview for my “Experiencing Self” to respond.

Posted by Jeff McKenna who will be chairing the Action Planning track and leading discussions around the getting the most out of your voice of the customer program at the Total Customer Experience conference October 3-5. 

Are you planning on going to Total Customer Experience? CMB is an event sponsor. Feel free to use the code: TCEL11CMB when you register for a discounted price. We hope to see you there.

Here at CMB we do quite a bit of work around customer satisfaction programs. In fact, we recently released a CMB Consumer Pulse on the topic. It’s one of my favorite topics because it’s so easy to relate to as a consumer and as a marketer I have a real appreciation for those “stand out” experiences.

After a long weekend basking in the Nantucket sun, a few friends and I decided to take a break from the Cape Cod traffic and stop for some dinner at Not Your Average Joes. After a delicious meal and way too much bread and oil dip, we asked for the check. To our surprise, not only did we receive the check, but it was given to us on a miniature cutting board with an iPod touch attached to it! No, we didn’t win a prize for best customers, (although if such a prize existed, it definitely would have been ours) but what we did receive was a survey via iPod touch. Instantly, all of our attention was switched over from the bill to the survey (good job Joe’s!). As we huddled around the iPod touch and went through the ten question survey together, it was amazing how much we were all enjoying the experience, dare I say even having fun with it. We are all used to seeing surveys in our daily life, but for some reason seeing one so conveniently displayed to us on an iPod touch-embellished cutting board was somehow more exciting.

Think of how many times you receive a survey at the bottom of a receipt, and if you’re like me, more times than not that receipt never makes it out of my pocket or purse. This survey experience was so different. It got me thinking how having a great customer experience from beginning to end is so important.  Not only did we have a great meal, but we finished the meal having a positive interaction with the brand while completing a survey…crazy right?! 

Not Your Average Joe's rolled this Survey on the Spot system out to all of its stores in January 2011 and since then, in the words of their CEO “it has changed the way we do business”. In an interview with Stephen Silverstein, CEO of Not Your Average Joe's, he mentioned their success:  "We're probably getting about 400 surveys per week per store on this system,” and "About a third of the people taking the survey join the e-mail club, the surveys have helped us be more aware of every single table, in every single restaurant”.

With all the technology available today,it is refreshing to see a restaurant that is utilizing it in new creative ways and, in turn, helping their brand look more appealing. I left thinking that Not Your Average Joe’s was a smart, savvy, cutting edge restaurant that I wanted to spread the word about. And what’s better than some good ol' word of mouth? Not Your Average Joe’s has embraced technology and gained a few more customers along the way…including me!

Our Consumer Pulse study: Customer Satisfaction Programs: The opportunity to engage, interact and improve takes a closer look at Download here.

Posted by Stephanie Kimball. Stephanie is CMB’s Marketing Operations Manager and loves any and all sports, the beach, traveling, marketing, being challenged, good food, nightlife, and Saturday afternoon naps. You can follow her on twitter @SKBalls