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What Good Are Stats if You Aren’t Honest With Them?
By JLP | March 23, 2007
Yesterday I went to Sears to pick up a pressure washer I had to order because they were out of stock when I originally purchased it. I walked into the pick-up area, scanned my receipt and started watching the monitor. The monitor shows a timer, the last name of the customer and the name of the employee getting the order. On the door next to the warehouse I noticed a white board with stats about the percentage of orders that were filled in under 5 minutes. They show yesterday’s number (100%) along with last month’s number (98%).
Meanwhile, I’m standing there watching the timer - 2 minutes, 3 minutes,… Finally it stops at 3:51 but still no order. Hmmm… Several minutes later someone came out to tell me that they were still “looking” for my order. So, my order wasn’t ready but the timer was stopped and the monitor showed that my order was complete (in under 5 minutes). I waited another 15 MINUTES before they finally came out with my pressure washer.
It wasn’t so much the fact that I had to wait that bothered me. I understand that things can get misplaced in a warehouse. I used to work in a grocery store and I remember looking for stuff that I knew we had but was misplaced in the backroom. What made me mad was the fact that they were sneaky in the way they handled my order. I mean, what good are these “customer satisfaction” stats if companies just make them up?
Something similar happened last year. I got a call from Buick. The lady told me that they were conducting a customer service survey and wanted to know if I would take part. I said, “Okay.” The lady then asked me if I was satisfied with my Rendezvous - a yes or no question. I said yes. Then she said, “Thanks a lot sir,” and hung up the phone! LOL! I wanted a chance to tell them about the stuff I didn’t like about my car so that they would have an opportunity to change things in the future. They weren’t interested in that. Instead, they just wanted a simple stat that they could use in a commercial. Is there any wonder why GM is suffering?
Okay, I’m done ranting for this morning.
Topics: Miscellaneous |
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:05 am
This is what happens when metrics determine your compensation.
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:32 am
You know my feelings on statistics. Our common Marketing professor had us use “How to Lie Using Statistics” as our business marketing stats course textbook. That was the most informative course I had in college. It made me somewhat cynical and untrusting…………….
March 23rd, 2007 at 10:34 am
Why do they display the stats and timer in front of the customer?
I believe your post would be a good letter to them. 1 copy to the store manager, cc’d to corporate offices.
Why? My thoughts are they, the employees, receive some benefit from good stats. They may be manipulating for personal reasons.
A letter to the editor of your local paper would be good to.
March 23rd, 2007 at 11:25 am
Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said:
“there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”
March 23rd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I agree. Sears (and any other company fudging the numbers) should certainly be informed.
True, the employees are fudging the number and probably getting compensated (or at least rated) higher than they deserve.
But think about it. If Sears think that their employees are doing a bang-up job, they’re not going to see the problem, and they’re not going to fix the problem.
JLP - if you don’t tell Sears, the next time I go to pick something up and complain about the 20 minute wait, they’ll be able to look at the numbers and tell me that my wait / displeasure is just an anomaly.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
We had something similar at a Toyota dealership. Really lousy service, they almost got away with a bait & switch…
Everywhere was posted HUGE that you will receive in the mail a lengthly questionaire about the service. The sign was essentially a blown up copy of the questionnaire with it all filled out with “excellent” ratings. They said below the picture that anything less than an excellent is considered a failure by Toyota, so to make sure you filled out excellent.
They certainly knew how pissed off we were at the service, because we walked out twice.
It’s been 7 months and no questionnaire. This column just reminded me to write both the dealership and the parent company to complain.
we do like the car, and we got a good deal on it in the end, though.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I definitely agree this can be extremely annoying / disappointing. At the same time, I also like the idea of metrics and subscribe to the notion that “if you can’t measure it, then you can’t fix it”…or at least fix it very well.
In this particular instance, it is not unreasonable to think the employee was fiddling with the results to improve their performance rating. However, I have often found that the measurement system itself is what is the problem. What are the “rules” that determine whether or something is “on time”? Is it automated / fool-proof or requires manual intervention (or manipulation). Is the measurement from the customer’s perspective (when you think the order is filled) or the providers (Sears)?
Anyway, in hindsight, you probably wish you nailed them on the spot (instant gratification). If you are still hot about it though, I like the idea of sending a letter, etc. You then just need to decide how to approach them - either the “Sears is a liar / poor service” or “Sears has the right intent (measuring / trying to deliver to my satisfaction), but do not think the process and/or measurement system is working”. Both can work - just depends on how mad you are.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I have to think like and agree with pfodyssey.
There is a problem, in that employees are not able to meet the expected wait time for customer’s pickup, but the company may have slightly unreasonale standards. And why do they set it at under 5, when people won’t necessarily care if they have to wait, say 10 minutes? Because it gives them bragging rights and attracts more customer is it’s under 5 mintues. If they actually took the time to see how long it would take the average order to be done, they could set a more reasonable goal, say 10 minutes if it takes about 10 minutes. But if the goal is 5 minutes, and it almost always takes 10 minutes, what’s an employee to do?
The correct thing to do would be let it take the 10 minutes to show the company, look, this is just how long it takes. BUT! People don’t want to lose their jobs, or lose opportunities for better pay, etc.
This also happens everyday where I work—-AT A PHARMACY. I don’t know about you, but I would like to think the pharmacist should be graded on how good of a job they are doing at preventing errors and helping people understand about their medications, but the CORPORATE retail companies, where $$$ is the bottom line, think that fast prescriptions = more satified customers = more $$$
So, they set unreasonable and sometimes unsafe (in my case)goals for things to be ready, and then they monitor everything you do with a computer and timer. If you stop to help a grandma pick out the right kind of eye drops, uh oh, that last prescription will turn red (yes they even color code your progress) I don’t want to lie, we have also found a way to cheat the computer.
Bottom line, the company may be unreasonal. AFM himself didn’t feel like it was a crazy long wait, but that the timer issue is fraudulant.
Sorry to get off on the tanget, and thanks AFM for the post, you may have just inspired one of my future blogs.
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Where I work, we’re encouraged to do the same sort of thing, to not start the “wait timer” until we’re ready to actually service the client in order to keep our wait times short. However, I prefer honesty, because if we do that and make our apparent wait time very short, then we don’t have evidence to support our valid argument that we are pitifully understaffed.
March 24th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I hate Sears for their high interest rates, their ripoff tactics and now for thier overblown stats. Thank you. My father will tell me “see, told ya they are a totally awful company.” He has been saying that for YEARS!!!
AKB
P.S. Please check out my site, it’s brand new and I need input.
March 24th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I had a similar experience with Sears last year. I had ordered a dust collector from their website, and got an e-mail notification that it had arrived. I showed up, and the TV screen showed my order and some others. My timer stopped at maybe three or four minutes, and I’m thinking it’s ready. Long story short, forty-five minutes later I left without my dust collector, because they couldn’t find it, but they still decided to stop the timer. I came back two days later, and after fifteen minutes, they finally found it. But at least their stats look good.
BTW, their website has a “Ready in 5″ guarantee; however, the link to the details of this seems to be broken for now.
March 24th, 2007 at 9:55 am
…this is very standard & inherent stuff in bureaucratic organizations — ‘gaming-the-system’ .
This Sears wait-monitoring procedure originated at distant corporate headquarters, probably by some pampered MBA … who was clueless how the real world works.
Top management at Sears would like prompt customer service at its stores, but does not want to spend the time or money analyzing real customer service problems … and actually ‘improving’ that operational ‘process’.
Instead, management’s gut-reaction assumed the basic ‘problem’ was lazy employees in customer-service. Thus, another management ’stick’ was “obviously” needed to poke all those slothful employees into action. That stick was this new waiting-time-reporting procedure, which undoubtedly floods Sears corporate staff meetings with impressive “statistics” on much improved waiting times — Sears top managers eagerly pat each other on the back.
Of course, back down at the retail store trenches, both the employees & customers see that nothing has changed — just an another worthless ‘reporting’ procedure to higher management… that does not improve the actual customer-service ‘process’ at all. A better logistics system & more trained employees are the actions that would really improve customer service — but empty cosmetic changes to the process are so much easier for top managemt.
Pencil-whipping/fudging reports & gaming the managment system is a way of life in bureaucracies. ‘Reporting’ procedures don’t add quality to any process
March 24th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
[...] On the consumerism front, JLP went to Sears lately and saw that they were fudging with their stats. If you’ve ever read Freakonomics, you probably aren’t surprised by this especially if there are incentives for coming in under time. [...]
March 25th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Micah and D are both correct. It is not the company that is playing with the stats. This all started with an MBA somewhere who wanted to improve service. They took the same operations class in business school that I did, in which the prof. beat into them that “if it’s not measured, it doesn’t exist” - largely a true statement.
The MBA then came up with the brilliant metric of timing the service time, and displaying it. He also thought to himself that a great motivational tool would be to tie compensation to the average duration or a service call.
Unfortunately, he did not take into consideration that the person starting and stopping the timer would be the same person who would be compensated based on what the timer showed. Hence the little fiasco you mentioned.
So, rather than malice, this is probably an example of the law of uninteded consequences. My dad always says, given a choice between malice and stupidity, always put your money on stupidity. It is human nature.
March 25th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
There should be some way to tie the timer to scanning the item or something. If management cared, they would realize that 100% performance is not realistic and something is likely off. I’m not commenting on whether this kind of metric is worth it but if the person who gains from good stats can control the stats arbitrarily, that is a pretty short sighted.
March 25th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Our local Home Depot does something kind of similar. On the store receipt they include a web address where you can go to give feedback.
HOWEVER, by the cash registers they have signs facing the customer that say something to the effect of:
“If you cannot report outstanding service on your customer survey, please call your the store manager at [phone number] instead.”
Now this is just a guess, but I suspect that the Home Depot stores are rated by the corporate office based in part on the survey results. So the stores “cheat” by trying to divert negative survey responses to the local store rather than letting the corporate office see them…
March 26th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
samerwriter, we also can not forget that the customers MOST likely to call in are the unhappy ones. So the store gets their feedback and reprimanded based on the fact that angry customers have the time to call; whereas, satisfied customers are too busy enjoying the new patio they built, etc.
flaws in the corporate system