1. Should organizations let customers know that
they will be receiving a satisfaction survey?
Prepared by J. Scott Armstrong (details on him at jscottarmstrong.com).
Please inform Scott about errors and also make suggestions (armstrong@wharton.upenn.edu)
Scott has taken these slides from adprin.com, a site that he founded. That site contains interactive versions of these
slides, along with linked references, videos, and webcasts, all in PPT and PPTX format that you can download.

2. British Air Campaign
British Airways advertising campaign invited people to try its
business class. If not satisfied, they were told in the campaign
that they would receive free coach tickets for another trip. Was
that a good idea?
___ Yes ___ No Explain.
Adapted from AdPrin.com 2

3. No, those who expected to evaluate the product would be
expected to be less satisfied.
Evidence
People who expected satisfaction surveys were looking
for reasons to be dissatisfied – and they found them (Ofir
and Simonson 2001)
Also, the use of pre-announced satisfaction surveys is
unlikely to reveal the resons for dissatisfaction. (Lane &
Keaveney 2005)
The evidence is described in Persuasive Advertising p 135.
For a short discussion, see “How to Improve Service Quality and Satisfaction”

4. Alternative: Ask Customers About Good Service
In its “be a dazzle detective” campaign, Comfort Suites
hotel chain encouraged visitors to report on cases of staff
members “doing something right” (Persuasive Advertising p
135)
Many firms are now using “Above and Beyond Certificates.”
They ask customers to “help us deliver excellent service by
telling us when we get it right.”
Such an approach is consistent with the research on
consumer satisfaction.

5. Based on this exercise, write a small application step for yourself,
and set a deadline, preferably within one week. If you are
working with someone else, share your application plan and the
results of your application.
For example, reconsider whether you should use pre-announced
satisfaction surveys in your organization. They cost money and
get people upset. To date, we are not aware of a single
experiment study that would support the use of such surveys.
Alternative procedures, such as asking sales people to keep
records of complaints, an occasional small sample surprise
survey, or asking consumers to report on good experiences are
preferable.
Adapted from AdPrin.com