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Press Releases & Articles
March 2008
As An Effective Management Tool, Satisfaction Sucks
by Martin R. Baird
(Print,
PDF)
For those of you who haven’t met me, it’s important to know that I’m
not a big fan of sugarcoating things to make them palatable. I’m
more known for brutal honesty. My friends at Hogan Assessment
Systems found that my personality-assessment score is very low for
“prudence,” so that means I don’t always regulate the flow of ideas
from my brain to my mouth.
Just wanted you to understand that because I’m about to be blunt.
Also, keep in mind that what I discuss in this column is backed by
research. OK, here it is – guest and employee satisfaction sucks! As
an effective measuring rod and management tool, it simply sucks. Yet
tribal casinos gauge guest and employee satisfaction all the time,
wasting their time, energy and hard-earned money.
Why do I dislike satisfaction surveys? Here are two clues – action
(the lack thereof) and fickle.
It’s important that we are clear that it is critical for casinos to
have actionable data regarding guests and employees. Notice the word
“actionable.” Focusing on employees, it’s maddening to me when
casino general managers tell me they just completed an employee
satisfaction survey. The fact that a satisfaction survey was
conducted is tragedy enough. The real damage occurs when nothing is
done with the data. The casino has all this information and fails to
take action.
I’m repeatedly told that casino employees all want the same things:
better wages, improved communication, respect, recognition,
differential pay, etc. That’s what the survey says. OK casino GM,
what did you do with this data? How did you act on it to improve
your employees’ work experience? Did you share the data and let
everyone know what you were going to do for your employees?
Please don’t say the information went to a terms committee. I just
read a blog that said, “A committee couldn’t create a successful ham
sandwich.” Yes, you need to work with a variety of departments at
different levels, but most committees only create meetings, not real
improvement or progress.
Taking action is a serious issue. Without action, data is of little
or no value. Did it matter that the captain of the Titanic knew the
ship had struck an iceberg? I don’t think so because not much was
done initially, based on the knowledge. The Titanic was billed as an
unsinkable ship and the captain believed it. So knowing that it had
hit an iceberg was not important.
There are casino “captains” who believe their property can’t be
sunk. Thus, knowing that employees don’t like working there is of
little importance. They know that if people leave, human resources
will just hire more. (FYI, hiring more people to replace your
departing ones is not taking action. That’s a reaction.)
Enough on the word action. Now about that word fickle and this time
let’s focus on your guests.
Research shows that measuring satisfaction does not lead to
improvement. Why? Because guest satisfaction is fickle. Think of the
average satisfaction survey. It’s scored from 5 to 1 with 5 being
“extremely satisfied” and 1 being “extremely dissatisfied.” But how
does a person define “satisfied” and what value does it have to him?
I was in London last November at a conference and someone told me
that when people there dine out, they tell the restaurant that their
meal was “very nice.” Then they step outside and gripe about how
awful the food was. No doubt the restaurant thought they had a
satisfied customer. But was that the case? Was the diner satisfied
but wishing the meal had been better? Or was the diner very
dissatisfied and not likely to return? The answers to these
questions are vital to the restaurant’s success but management would
be clueless even if it had done a brief satisfaction survey.
When you ask people if they are “satisfied,” the answers you receive
are of little value because the question doesn’t require them to
risk anything when they give their opinion. This a very basic point
with major impact. As William Shakespeare wrote, “… he that filches
from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and
makes me poor indeed." I think William was spot on when it comes to
reputation and that is the key.
When you ask a person if they are “satisfied,” you miss the meat of
what has real importance to them. But if the London restaurant asks
a diner if he would recommend the establishment to a friend – if you
ask a guest if he would recommend your casino to a friend – then the
person being surveyed must put his reputation on the line in order
to give an answer. Suddenly, the answer matters and you have good
data. Actionable data, I might add.
When you shift from satisfaction to measuring what affects a
person’s “good name,” you now are measuring what’s important and
that means you have moved from fickle to rock solid. People have no
vested interest in satisfaction, but when they invest their
reputation, they put a high value on their answer.
What you are doing is measuring their level of advocacy for your
casino, not their satisfaction with it. The more advocates you have,
the more successful your casino will be. This works for employees as
well as guests.
Now let’s take this one step further. When you measure satisfaction,
you have data that is suspect at best and it’s difficult to take
effective action based on the information. But you work hard and do
act on the results of your research. I hope you see where this is
going. You are now putting even more time, energy and money behind
data that has little or no correlation to future results because it
doesn’t drill down to what your guests and employees value. This can
create a huge waste! Programs are developed, training is done,
meetings are held and it’s all based on information that measures
something that is fickle. That’s no way to run a business.
Now you understand why satisfaction sucks.
I won’t ask if you are satisfied with this article. What would be
the point? But please drop me an e-mail and let me know if you
risked your reputation and shared my thoughts with your GM or a
colleague. That is something I would value.
Martin R. Baird is author of “Advocate Index™: An Operational
Tool” and chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a
customer service consulting firm for the gaming industry. Robinson &
Associates helps casinos determine their Advocate Index, a number
that indicates the extent to which properties have guests who are
willing to be advocates, and then implements its Advocate
Development System to help casinos create more guest advocates. The
Advocate Development System uses the proven methodology of Advocate
Index in combination with best business practices to chart a course
for growth and profitability. More information about the Advocate
Development System and Robinson and Associates is available at the
company’s Web sites at www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com and
www.casinocustomerservice.com. A copy of “Advocate Index: An
Operational Tool” may be obtained by calling 206-774-8856. Robinson
& Associates may be reached by phone at 480-991-6420 or by e-mail at
mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com. Based in Annapolis, Maryland,
Robinson & Associates is a member of the Casino Management
Association and an associate member of the National Indian Gaming
Association.
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