Recently, I had the fortunate or unfortunate pleasure of pulling my head out of the sand, and becoming more versed in another one of our internal surveys.

It comes in the form of a link, appended to an automated case response sent to end users when a service request case (think CRM) is resolved or closed. It is intended to provide voice of the business metrics, since most users are from the business that submit the types of tickets in which I refer.

On the front end, I was more than shocked to hear the current satisfaction score: 92%!

And I was thrilled…until, I had a need to open a ticket, and upon its resolution, was shocked to click through the link to what I can scarcely call a survey.

It did not offer 5 response options to customers, as inspected, since the reports of satisfaction stated ’Top 2 Box Score’. By definition, Top 2 Box infers the total number of respondents who gave a 4 or a 5 on a given question / (divided by) total number of responses.

If you offer only 4 options, where 4 if Excellent, 3 is Good, 2 is Poor and 1 is Bad, you are force fitting users into 1 of the 2 swings of this pendulum, without offering those “on the fence” an avenue by which to answer.

Typically, 3 would be “comme ci comme ça” (so-so) or neutral, which yields even greater accuracy by those taking a survey specifically because it deals with those “on-the-fencers” who don’t swing either way.

5 options is always best, and necessary to calculate Top 2 Box standard satisfaction %.

Top 2 Box is the standard survey score you hear about. Whether ASCI or Malcolm Baldridge award…check your surveys before you quote the statistic and walk the process before you drink the Kool-aid!