#Employee surveys

Survey employees to improve the customer experience

Apple Store employees are surveyed every three to four months to see how the store experience can be improved and if they would recommend the store a great place to work. This program is called the Net Promoter for People (NPP).

Employees review the results together at their pre-shift huddles and determine which issues are most important to that store's success. Over the coming weeks new solutions are tested out and successful ones are rolled out to other stores. Each solution is then evaluated in the next NPP surveys.

Have staff give feedback to their managers

At Google, employees provide feedback to their managers on a semi-annual basis through an anonymous survey called the Upward Feedback Survey. The questions were developed using data from annual surveys and performance evaluations that helped Google define the 10 behaviors that made quality managers.

The aggregated results are shared with the manager and managers are then encouraged to:

• Choose the most important theme and create an action plan on ways to improve
• Discuss the results and action plan with the team
• Follow up with clear commitments to action

The goal of the survey is not to directly impact a manager's performance rating or compensation, but to provide them with valuable developmental feedback.

Survey staff on more than engagement

Google believes that engagement surveys alone "don’t tell you precisely where to invest your finite people dollars and time." Instead, Google's annual employee survey, Googlegeist, asks employees 100 questions around three key categories:

• Innovation: Is Google's culture focused on taking enormous, visionary bets and does their strategy value the improvement of products?
• Execution: How do employees feel about the quality of Google products?
• Retention: Are employees engaged and do they feel valued?

Questions are scored on a five-point scale with some free-response follow-up questions. Employees choose whether their responses are completely anonymous or confidential, where only general information is collected.

All data is shared with the entire company within one month of the survey, and every manager with more than three respondents receives an indvidualized report. Individualized reports of vice presidents, that had over 100 respondents, are shared with the entire company.

Constantly evolve your Gold Standards

If something is detracting from the guest experience, The Ritz-Carlton improves upon it...even if that means changing their Gold Standards.

Before 2006, The Ritz-Carlton lived by the 20 Basics of Service. These guidelines were meant to create a consistent guest experience but became more of a script than an empowerment tool. Employees began using suggested phrases like 'My Pleasure' in the wrong context and felt compelled to escort guests to where they were going even when they were asked not to.

With significant input from the Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton, the 20 Basics became today's 12 Service Values. By starting each value with the word 'I,' they offered staff 'ways of being' as opposed to 'ways of doing' which has resulted in more personalized guest experiences.

Even today, The Ritz-Carlton continually polls their employees to gauge the relevance and helpfulness of their Gold Standards.

Measure engagement, not satisfaction

High satisfaction scores only tell you if customers are happy, not if they are loyal to your brand. So, The Ritz-Carlton began measuring customer engagement with Gallup's CE11 survey and employee engagement with Gallup's Q12 survey. By measuring both employee and customer engagement holistically, which Gallup refers to as HumanSigma, The Ritz-Carlton started to see the direct effect that employee engagement had on the customer experience.

Follow-up and listen to your new hires on Day 21

After their first three weeks on the job, The Ritz-Carlton holds a six-hour forum for new hires called Day 21. For The Ritz-Carlton this is a pivotal time to: fill in any gaps not covered in training; review the Gold Standards; and identify and resolve any problems that may cause employees to disengage or become toxic to the culture.

By providing a safe space for staff to speak openly, new hires discuss their experiences and provide comments on:

• If they have all the tools they need to achieve success
• The quality of their training coach
• The camaraderie between departments and how it can be improved
• Their preparedness for their role
• The company culture and if what was described during orientation is present in their day-to-day experiences

All information is collected (with specific comments being kept anonymous) and provided to the guidance team at the hotel to take immediate action on. Leadership follows up directly with all new hires to let them know how their issues were resolved.

Let your employees monitor leadership

Former CEO, Howard Schultz created a 'Mission Review Committee' as a way for staff to voice their concerns through surveys about any company policy or leadership behavior that they feel opposes Starbucks' mission or core values. This opened communication with employees and helped hold leadership to higher standards resulting in improved policies like paid leave for adoptive parents.

Perform culture audits, and then do them again, and again

Throughout the year, Starbucks will continually perform culture audits to measure the cultural health of their company. This 10 question anonymous survey is sent to staff asking questions like:

• What makes you proud to work here?
• How does Starbucks support your professional development?
• Is risk-taking encouraged? What happens when you fail?
• How do you as a manager (or how does your manager) support and motivate your team?
• What are some of the ways the company celebrates success?
• What role do company values play in hiring and performance reviews?
• What's one thing you would change about the company if you could?

Measure the quality of your service

To prove to themselves that they are continually improving in service, Umpqua Bank began measuring customer and staff service quality. The scores are calculated each month, teams are ranked, and the results are posted for everyone.

The goal is to reward team performance, not individual accomplishment. The winning store and department both receive a crystal trophy that they proudly display until it moves on to the next winner the following month. Any store or department that ranks poorly for some time is asked to develop an improvement plan and then is held accountable for implementing it.

Store Return on Quality (ROQ) Measurements

• Sales Effective Ratio (SER) measures the average number of bank products and services sold to new customers at each sales session.
• Customer Account Retention measures the number of deposits closed as a percentage of all accounts.
• Customer Service Surveys measure the quality of service that customers receive.
• New Account Surveys measure the average score of new account holders.
• Telephone Shopping Reports are done three times per month by outside vendors. They measure whether the phones are answered correctly and if the associate asks if the customer needs additional information.
• New Deposit & Loan Accounts / Full-time Equivalent measures the total number of deposits and loans divided by the number of employees working in the store.

Department Return on Quality Measurements

Departments at Umpqua each have developed service-level agreements (SLA) with one another. These agreements include standards such as turnaround time. Every associate who interacts with a specific department provides both positive and negative feedback to that department with an SLA survey.

Always have a customer survey available on your website

Zappos is constantly looking to hear feedback from customers regarding their shopping experience. The Zappos online survey located in the footer of their website asks visitors to offer suggestions or ideas on how to improve the site. Answers are scaled on either a 1 to 7 or 0 to 10 scale and the questions include:

• How likely are you to recommend Zappos.com to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10)
• How can we improve Zappos.com? (free-form)
• I feel that the Zappos website is personalized (tailored) to me. (0 to 10)
• Please rate your overall experience with Zappos.com. (0 to 10)
• Overall, the Zappos website is easy to use. (1 to 7)
• Finding products is easy. (1 to 7)
• Zappos always has my best interest as a customer in mind. (0 to 10)
• Which of the following best describes you? (Multiple choice)
• Which of the following options best represents your age?
• Would you like to be contacted by a Zappos customer service representative regarding this matter? (Yes/No)

Measure employee happiness in 5 seconds

It might not literally take 5 seconds, but the Zappos Five Second Happiness Survey comes close. Every month Zappos employees are surveyed to measure their happiness levels. Zapponians answer these five questions with a response of either 'definitely,' 'sometimes,' or 'not at all,' along with an option to leave comments:

1. I believe that the company genuinely has a higher purpose beyond just profits.
2. My role in the Zappos Family has real purpose—it is more than just a job.
3. I feel that I am in control of my career path and that I am progressing in my personal and professional development within the Zappos family.
4. I consider my co-workers to be like my family and friends.
5. I am very happy in my job.

The survey is anonymous but anyone who chooses to sign their name is personally responded to by the Zappos leadership team. With an average response rate of 60 to 85%, results are calculated within a week. All scores and comments (good and bad) are shared with the entire company. Included in the report, Zapponians are updated on any changes that came about as a result of past surveys.