Working Hard for a 10

At a recent hotel stay in New York, I received this card in my check-in folio. Many of you will instantly recognize this for what it is: a way to game the customer feedback system to maximize this property's score. This is a common trick among auto dealers as well, who pressure you to give them the top score on the follow-up sales or service survey sponsored by the manufacturer.

None of these "gamers" are considering the impact of this practice on customer experience. This kind of communication transmits the following message:

"We don't really care about your experience; we care about getting a good score because it's money in our pockets. Now, it just so happens that to get the money we need you to either (a) feel good about your experience or (b) feel personally responsible if that doesn't happen, so your guilt makes you give us a top score. It doesn't really matter to us. So if you don't take the time and energy to speak up and ask us to fix whatever it is that prevents (a), then it is obviously not our fault, and (b) is your only option."

What's sad is how easy it is to avoid this. What kills the "Working for a 10" card is the opening sentence, which screams, "This is not about you, it's about us." The rest of the card almost works as-is (I'd get rid of the references to a "10" and use language that focuses on the customer benefit). Without that self-serving introduction, the card would have the same--possibly even a better--effect on motivating guests to speak up if they have a problem. And it would send a completely different message: we actually care about what the customer experience is for you (and we're going to trust that will show up in our scores).

Some of this stuff is so simple.