More on Rewards Without CSAT Gains

Customer satisfaction is usually linked to some employee financial reward to help motivate employees to stay committed to the company's satisfaction efforts. Yet most companies only provide the rewards when there is an improvement in customer satisfaction, even though there are reasons to provide rewards when satisfaction goes unchanged. We presented three of these reasons a few days ago.

They include: Not knowing the upper and lower bounds that can be reasonably expected to change. The effects of random statistical noise causing numbers to appear lower. The morale of the employees often depends on some type of bonus.

These were not the only reasons that providing a reward for unchanged data may be valuable. Other reasons include: Employees Not at Fault Most changes in customer satisfaction come from the top. If the management is making changes to improve satisfaction, and satisfaction goes unchanged, the employees would be punished for the management's mistake.

This could be bad for morale, along with the moral issues that come from punishing your employees for a problem they didn’t create. Survey Methodology It's possible that the way your survey is sent, when it is sent, how it is received, and so on can actually affect the results of your survey.

For example, some research has found that surveys sent at different times over the course of the year yield different results annually, despite no actual change within a company. Something in your methodology could be affecting the numbers. Same Can Be Good As we mentioned, it's impossible to know with certainty what the upper and lower bounds are for satisfaction in your company.

That means that it's possible that staying the same could be extremely advantageous. Obviously your own financial records will indicate this, but punishing employees for the numbers staying the same may be nonsensical if the "same" is good for business.

The fairer your reward system for the employees within your company, the more involved they'll continue to be in customer satisfaction and the better it will be for employee satisfaction. That is why you should consider rewarding employees if the number stays the same. Perhaps offer a larger reward if it increases, but some type of reward for unchanged numbers may be to your company's benefit, and should be something you consider when you set the conditions for offering these rewards.