• Purpose of this Questionnaire
• Who Would Benefit from Purchasing this Questionnaire?
• General Description of the Information Obtained by this Questionnaire
• The Printing Process
• The Questionnaire Distribution and Receipt Process
• The Analysis Process
• Documents You Will Receive
• Return Postage
• Pricing

Track satisfaction of grocery customers. Identify areas for improvement.

Who Would Benefit from Purchasing this Questionnaire?

Any grocery store owner or manager who wishes to keep customers coming back and spreading positive word-of-mouth advertising about the store.

General Description of the Information Obtained by this Questionnaire

• Date and time of visit.
• Overall satisfaction.
• "Attribute" ratings in a five categories, each comprising several attributes:
  • The store in general,
  • The store today,
  • Service at this store today,
  • Product freshness today,
  • The merchandise today.
  • Level of assistance provided.
• Length of time waited in line.
• Items desired, but not sold by store.
• Probability of recommending to a friend.
• Respondent comments.

The Printing Process

We have a working relationship with a printing specialist. Once we have modified our questionnaire to suit your business, our specialist will handle the printing. If you want to have the questionnaires mailed to you instead of to us, our printer will accommodate your need.

The Questionnaire Distribution and Receipt Process

There are two ways the questionnaires can be distributed. You will need to select one of the two methods. We highly recommend that whichever method you choose, you do not change from that method. The pros and cons of each method are outlined below.

1. Method #1: At the time of each sale, the salesperson should place a questionnaire in the bag containing the merchandise (if any), or should hand the questionnaire directly to the customer. While salesperson is doing this (either dropping the questionnaire in the bag or handing it to the customer), he or she should say something like "here is a short questionnaire; we would very much appreciate it if you could give us your opinion drop it in the mail. It only takes a couple of minutes."
2. Method #2: Prominently display the questionnaires by the cash register. It is crucial that questionnaires always be displayed if this method is chosen.

Method #1 will give you a more accurate reading of the true level of satisfaction felt by your customers, because more people will complete and return the questionnaire, which will minimize what we call "non-response bias." This method also has two positive impacts on the customers. First, it ensures that customer satisfaction is at the top of the employees' minds, since they are forced to think about it during every sale. Second, this method makes a positive statement about the store to the customer; that is, "they care enough about their customers to make sure that I have an opportunity to comment on their service." There also are disadvantages to this method. The first is that, in an unsupervised environment, employees can forget to give a questionnaire to a customer, or worse yet, could intentionally not give questionnaires to customers who they feel might rate them poorly. The second is that, in an unsupervised environment, an employee might try to coerce a customer into giving him or her a good rating. The last disadvantage is cost related, as many more questionnaires will be distributed.

Method #2 will give a less accurate reading of the true level of satisfaction felt by your customers, because fewer people will complete it, resulting in a larger "non-response bias." The net impact of this likely will be that the questionnaire will have more of a tendency to be picked up by people who thought the service was very good or very bad. Therefore, the answers you receive will not be as reflective of the true opinions of a random sample of your customers. The questionnaires will have a tendency to become torn and tattered, which would have a negative impact on the general impression customers have of your business. Customers who are mistreated and who notice the questionnaires may feel that management does not have its heart in customer satisfaction; that management is only "going through the motions" by providing customer satisfaction questionnaires. One of the two advantages to this method are that it is less likely (although not impossible) that a particular employee will withhold a questionnaire from a customer who they believe is dissatisfied. A second advantage is the lower cost of printing the questionnaires, since fewer will be distributed. The cost savings from this last "advantage" probably are greatly outweighed by "opportunity cost" of not having employees hand questionnaires to every customer.

We have designed the questionnaire so that it must be mailed back to us (or, if you prefer, to your office) directly. This eliminates the possibility of store employees sifting through completed questionnaires in search of negative comments, which they could then withhold.

The Analysis Process

We will collect completed questionnaires until whatever time cut-off you specify. We will enter all data and provide a report summarizing the quantitative results. All comments will be transcribed verbatim and included in the report. Our price includes one analysis, for any time period you define. If you contract with us to provide reports for different time periods, we will show quantitative trends in the data.

You Will Receive Copies of the Following

• Questionnaires, customized with your company's name.

Return Postage

Our price includes return postage. At your choice, questionnaires can either be returned to your place of business or to ours. In either case, your customers should incur no postage costs, so the postage must be pre-paid. If you want the questionnaire to be returned to you, your return postage fees would be paid to the US Postal Service instead of The Business Research Lab. If you choose to have the questionnaires returned to you, we will adjust our price accordingly.

Pricing

For a bid, call us via our toll-free number, 1-866-960-9824. Or, if you prefer, contact us by email.