Measuring Satisfaction
The desk's satisfaction score was 4.7 out of 5, reported monthly. It came from eleven responses out of four hundred and twelve closed tickets. Nine of the eleven were from people who had been delighted and two were from people who had been furious. The four hundred and one people in between were not represented at all. They had received adequate service and had better things to do than rate it. The score was reported as if it described the desk. It described the mood of eleven people with strong feelings and a spare thirty seconds. That is a different thing, and a useful one, if you read it that way.
This series is about reading it that way. It covers what a satisfaction score actually measures and the silent majority it does not. It covers surveys people actually answer: one question, asked at the right moment, with no login. It covers response bias and how to read around it, especially in a month with nine responses. Then comes acting on the feedback, starting with the low score followed up by a human within a day. It covers cuts by category and, carefully, by agent, with a minimum sample before any number means anything. And it covers hearing users beyond the score, because the user who stopped raising tickets never fills in a survey. The score is a thermometer held by volunteers. Read the comments.
Articles in This Series
- What a Satisfaction Score Actually Measures
The moment it is asked, the scale, the person answering, what it does not measure (the silent majority, the user who gave up), and the definition card. - Satisfaction Surveys People Actually Answer
One question, asked with the resolving reply, no login, no nagging, an optional comment. Covers the response rate and what a good one looks like for a small desk, and the survey text. - Survey Response Bias and How to Read Around It
Who answers (the delighted and the furious), the small-numbers problem, reading comments over scores, the month with nine responses, and the bias checklist. - Acting on the Feedback: Low Scores First, Then the Patterns
The low score followed up within a day by a person, the pattern review, and closing the loop with the requester. Also covers the thank-you for the high score, and the follow-up message. - Satisfaction by Category, and Carefully by Agent
The cuts, the minimum sample before a number means anything, and coaching rather than ranking. Covers the agent whose score is low because they get the hard tickets, and the cut table. - Beyond the Score: Other Ways to Hear Users
The quarterly conversation with a department, the manager round, the silent-user check, the walk-around, and the listening plan.
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This series is part of the QuerySolv helpdesk topic library. It covers the foundations, processes, communication, knowledge, tooling, metrics, classic ticket domains, people and strategy behind a support desk that works. The library pairs well with the software we build: QuerySolv. It is a self-hosted help desk that runs as one Windows service on your own network. It is licensed once per installation, not per agent per month.