Weird Survey from Walt Disney Parks & Resorts

[Bairstow]

It's not like Walt didn't believe in studying guest behavior to improve the parks.
A common story I've heard is that he would hand out hard candy to people and kids and then watch them as they walked away so that he could notice how many steps they took before dropping the wrapper. This is what lead him to place his trash cans 27 paces apart.

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

It's not like Walt didn't believe in studying guest behavior to improve the parks.
A common story I've heard is that he would hand out hard candy to people and kids and then watch them as they walked away so that he could notice how many steps they took before dropping the wrapper. This is what lead him to place his trash cans 27 paces apart.

Everyday I learn something new on this forum. Thanks!

 

[disneyeater]

That is weird. The first thing that came into my mind with AK and day was "AK is a half-day park."

...in the same way all the other parks are.

 

[Magenta Panther]

It's not like Walt didn't believe in studying guest behavior to improve the parks.
A common story I've heard is that he would hand out hard candy to people and kids and then watch them as they walked away so that he could notice how many steps they took before dropping the wrapper. This is what lead him to place his trash cans 27 paces apart.

I've also read that he would buy himself a hot dog or ice cream cone and stroll around the park, then, when he finished eating, look to see if there was a trash can nearby. If there wasn't, he'd have one installed there the next day.

 

[cbsav]

And that is where the problem comes in. You are actually putting some thought into it and giving out what most perceive as accurate scores.

(1) is an experience that makes me want to reach through the phone and punch the person on the other end.
(3) is a person doing their job correctly, but not any more.
(5) is a situation where I want to praise going above and beyond.

This is why I was completely dumbfounded when I found out how nearly every company (I have yet to hear of one that does not do it this way) reads the results of the surveys. It makes them completely pointless for actually measuring the quality of a customer service rep. All they really do is give the company ammo or getting rid of someone or denying them a promotion, raise or bonus.

Usually a interval scaled survey question should have anchors so a respondent knows what a "5" means vs. "1". Most of these customer experience surveys will anchor the 5 as "satisfied" and the 1 is "dissatisfied", or some similar variation. That being said, a score below a 5 would indicate that the sales person did something that is was not fully satisfactory, hence why the interaction would get flagged. If the survey just gives numbers without indicating the scale, it's a poorly developed survey and really wouldn't provided any useful feedback because it is open to too much interpretation.

 

[Master Yoda]

Usually a interval scaled survey question should have anchors so a respondent knows what a "5" means vs. "1". Most of these customer experience surveys will anchor the 5 as "satisfied" and the 1 is "dissatisfied", or some similar variation. That being said, a score below a 5 would indicate that the sales person did something that is was not fully satisfactory, hence why the interaction would get flagged. If the survey just gives numbers without indicating the scale, it's a poorly developed survey and really wouldn't provided any useful feedback because it is open to too much interpretation.

That is my point. I have yet to see a company that uses these reports for anything that could remotely be considered useful in terms of research.

The majority of surveys I have had have (5) as "extremely satisfied", which IMHO means a customer service rep going above and beyond. If I call AT&T just to pay my bill, what would constitute "extremely satisfied"? Is a rep doing his/her job by processing a payment going above and beyond? I would say no. It would be a 4 or even a 3 depending on how the survey words the responses.

My big gripe is at AT&T, anything below a 5 might as well be a 1 in the eyes of the people reading the results. This is why reps will say something along the lines of "Please rate me extremely satisfied" when sending you to a survey.

The only purpose I can see surveys done in this manner would have is to get rid of employees and/or deny them compensations or promotions.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

That is my point. I have yet to see a company that uses these reports for anything that could remotely be considered useful in terms of research.

The majority of surveys I have had have (5) as "extremely satisfied", which IMHO means a customer service rep going above and beyond. If I call AT&T just to pay my bill, what would constitute "extremely satisfied"? Is a rep doing his/her job by processing a payment going above and beyond? I would say no. It would be a 4 or even a 3 depending on how the survey words the responses.

My big gripe is at AT&T, anything below a 5 might as well be a 1 in the eyes of the people reading the results. This is why reps will say something along the lines of "Please rate me extremely satisfied" when sending you to a survey.

The only purpose I can see surveys done in this manner would have is to get rid of employees and/or deny them compensations or promotions.

I don't get that either. You can sell me something and make me a customer for life and I'd still answer '3' on all questions. 3 is what I rate a salesperson who gives me the direct, relevant answer to any questions and who does not mess up the paperwork. Maybe I'm just too rational, or too detached from sales. To me less than five does not mean a salesperson acted below top standards, simply that there wasn't any specific need that needed to be adressed.

 

[Ralphlaw]

To truly make this fun, let's fill it out:

At Hollywood Studios I stood in line forever.
I went to Animal Kingdom on the hottest day of the year.
Epcot gives me bladder control problems.
It's hard to stay sober at Epcot.
There's too many white people at Epcot.

This is fun. Join in. But keep it clean. I know, it's tempting not to.

 

[danpam1024]

Epcot and white- no one associates the fact that SSE is HUGE and WHITE?

 

[JEANYLASER]

Very strange!

 

[dhall]

Epcot and white- no one associates the fact that SSE is HUGE and WHITE?

dunno -- seems more of a medium grey to me

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

Epcot and white- no one associates the fact that SSE is HUGE and WHITE?

Doesn't look white to me. It looks silvery gray.

To truly make this fun, let's fill it out:

At Hollywood Studios I stood in line forever.
I went to Animal Kingdom on the hottest day of the year.
Epcot gives me bladder control problems.
It's hard to stay sober at Epcot.
There's too many white people at Epcot.

This is fun. Join in. But keep it clean. I know, it's tempting not to.

I'd stay at my hotel forever instead of bothering with Hollywood studios.
I spent half a day at animal kingdom and the other half at the hotel pool.

No, your Epcot ones are perfect, I'm not gonna screw with that, lol

 

[CDavid]

You would be shocked at how some of those surveys are done. In most cases, any response below the highest one available will go against the employee. If you were given 5 questions on a survey and told to rate the level of service on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best and you answered with (4) 5's and (1) 4, the survey would flag exactly the same as (5) 1's.

What I was once taught was that survey responses which are all 5's (on a 1-5 scale with 5 being the highest score) or all 1's should be discarded and not even counted as part of your results. The idea being that the survey respondent is either trying to make someone or something look really good or really bad; It is not actually possible for any individual to be "extremely satisfied' about everything in every circumstance, and all the time.

So, I never mark any survey with all 5's no matter how pleased with the service i really am. Nobody is perfect, and if we're honest there is going to be one category where they did well, just not as outstanding as another area. Of course, many surveys are so poorly constructed they either don't tell you anything anyway, or else the questions are so poorly correlated with with the event being surveyed respondents have no idea how to score the items.

In trying to be honest with survey responses, then, we may as well be giving all 1's. Indeed, that doesn't tell the company analyzing the results a solitary thing beyond the fact that the survey instrument was completed.

 

[Master Yoda]

In trying to be honest with survey responses, then, we may as well be giving all 1's. Indeed, that doesn't tell the company analyzing the results a solitary thing beyond the fact that the survey instrument was completed.

This is why I have stopped doing them unless the person was really good or really bad. If the companies are not interested in accurate information that could help them to improve their service then there is no point. I do not want to be the reason that a 15 year employee who is making a little too much in management's eyes gets dragged into a treatment meeting.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

This is why I have stopped doing them unless the person was really good or really bad. If the companies are not interested in accurate information that could help them to improve their service then there is no point. I do not want to be the reason that a 15 year employee who is making a little too much in management's eyes gets dragged into a treatment meeting.

Depressing thoughts. Bah, it's a rubbish world.

 

[Disvillain63]

That's not really true many animals sleep during the hot parts of the day and are very active at night. Problem is good luck seeing what they are doing.

We rode Kilimanjaro Safari on 9/14 around 11:20 am. The animals were extremely active and there were lots of them out. The lions were very visible and the giraffes were playing chase. It was actually our best visit to the safari in years.

 

[awoogala]

Epcot looks like a graveyard with grayish white tombstones in front of it?
You will wait forever to go on Toy Story in HS..
It's amazing how much you pay for a day at ak, that ends at 5 pm.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

With all these exhibitions of futuristic technology only the 1% can afford, it's no wonder Epcot is full of white people.

If you try very hard, you can almost imagine that Test Track at Epcot is a worthwhile use of your time.

A good experiment at Epcot would be to give some people pickled yak sweat, while a control group drank Beverly, and see who got sicker.

I'm eagerly awaiting the day at Animal Kingdom when all the primates take a quick evolutionary leap forward, slaughter the Cast Members, and establish an ape empire founded on using poop as currency.

We can only hope that Hollywood Studios lasts forever, so future philosophers can ponder the question "Is the day half-full, or half-empty?"

Man, I wish I had gotten this survey...

 

[pupster]

You would be shocked at how some of those surveys are done. In most cases, any response below the highest one available will go against the employee. If you were given 5 questions on a survey and told to rate the level of service on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the best and you answered with (4) 5's and (1) 4, the survey would flag exactly the same as (5) 1's.

Oh so thats where ebay got the idea from. I used to sell on there all the time until they introduced the star ratings to decide your position in the search , to avoid a nervous breakdown I don't sell anything there now.
Good business model