Gaming for a higher NPS
The lady on the phone from the power company closes the call; "Madam, you will receive an email with a questionnaire later. It also asks you to give a grade. This is for my personal review. What grade do you give me? Between 0 and 10?" I'm slightly bewildered, stammer 'a nine'. She doesn't ask any further questions about why this figure is made and we hang up. (this is not exactly what has been said, but certainly the gist)
Is this new? That the call center agent first asks for the grade? For me it was clearly the first time and I really don't understand it. From a CX point of view, I refer to these as weird practices.
Looking back, I recognize three instances of Gaming, which I have given my own name. (Gaming is influencing scores (NPS, CSAT, CES, and so on))
- The effect of asking for the grade and that this is important for her personal assessment. That's what we call bribery.
- The effect that I am surprised by this question and its personal does not waste so on the phone. So give a relatively high grade, while the conversation really wasn't worth it. We call this the effect of social desirability.
- Telling them first that I'm getting a survey and then asking me personally. We call this 'framing', with the effect that I fill out the survey. And so they get a higher response rate
What is most striking for me is that half a day after the interview, I have not yet received a survey.
I also wonder why I need to get another survey. Don't they have speech analytics that allow them to extract the number from the conversation? And what is of course even more striking is that the employee asks for the grade, but is not allowed to enter it into the system herself. Which, by the way, often also causes Gaming, because what is nicer than giving yourself a higher grade. Especially if it's accidentally low for once?
Of course, the most important thing when asking for customer feedback is curiosity about what I have experienced as a customer. Not the outcome in a number. That's where things go wrong. Sigh. Deep sigh.
Now I'm curious. What forms of Gaming have you experienced in recent weeks? Who weren't about curiosity at all, but purely about getting the highest possible grade?
** Nienke Bloem is an expert in Customer Experience (CCXP), both as a lecturer of a two-day CX Masterclass in preparation for your CCXP exam, as a Keynote Speaker and co-founder of the customer experience game. Do you want to read more blogs? Visit her website or sign up for her monthly CX Greetz. **
** Of course I'm curious about your reaction and please share this blog in your network! **
