Bealls Outlet pushing ratings

[cjd]

Not sure if this is a trend or not but I’ve noticed lately stores pushing their ratings. For example, I’ve been to Walmart and using the self checkout, it asks you to rate 1-5 stars based on your experience in the store today. I’ve had some attendants come over after scanning all items and encourage to give a rating, but I haven’t noticed them demand five starts.

Bealls Outlet also does these ratings from 0-9. Usually the question is either “How was the selection of brands available today?” or “How was the service today?”

I’ve never been told to input a specific number, I’ve been encouraged to rate, but nothing specific.

Well today I was! The question was “How was the service today?”

The cashier was awful IMO. Didn’t say anything, just started scanning items, and then kept saying “push nine!” “press nine!”.

She didn’t even say thank you or have a nice day. After I paid, she just threw the receipt in the bag and said “next.”

If I knew she was going to be so inept I should have responded “I’ll be the judge of that” and pressed 5 or fewer!”

[ClownLoach]

Too many retailers create bonus structures that primarily are only for upper management. Other than that they use these surveys to beat the store managers over the head which quickly turns into gaming the system in whatever way is allowed under company policy. They have such low response on these surveys these days that they start to cook up schemes like this new one of asking for ratings on the PIN pad. I laugh because Walmart usually asks if the staff was friendly on the Self checkout PIN pad.

At my last company I determined that the actual response rate for surveys was as little as 0.001% of transactions in some stores. It was even worse in areas where English is less likely to be the primary language. It was amazing that the alleged opinion of 0.001% of the customers could determine if a Manager was kept or fired, and could affect their annual bonus by as much as 20%. I've heard some retailers are even worse and will give zero bonus regardless of store profit and sales if the survey score is too low... I would never work for one of those companies.

These survey firms do a great job of selling their services to the greedy C-suites of retailers who are always looking for new ways to claim that they've helped the company achieve dubious "performance objectives" beyond sales and profits, and portray the "first hand data" their surveys capture as essential so the execs buy them and then set their new objectives so low that they justify fat bonuses. What they don't mention is that anyone who has taken introductory statistics in junior college can quickly tell you that the low response rates mean that the "data" these surveys collect is not relevant or accurate in any manner. Furthermore the strategy most chains use of incentivizing surveys skews the results even further in a polarizing manner based on how "good" or "bad" the store is, but the problem is that these incentives are more effective with the low income customers versus high income and thus once again the results are of low relevance due to the inequity that the demographics bring into the situation. I found that mysteriously the better the incentive was (usually a cash reward), the better scores were in stores that serve low income communities. Higher income communities generally had customers who were less likely to take a survey over a small cash prize. It just shows the whole thing is BS. Stores that served a hundred thousand transactions or more sometimes had only a couple hundred surveys total. The sample sizes are just too small.

The only value these surveys have in my mind is the open text comments customers can write about their experiences when they take a survey on their smartphone or computer, and even then about a third of the surveys come in with such maddening stupidity that you want to put your fist through the computer screen when you read it (like "Highly dissatisfied score: comment - why doesn't this location have fitting rooms?" when the store doesn't even sell clothing!) But usually I could read a list of a couple dozen comments and find a few concerns that ring true and then we would fix them immediately.

[storewanderer]

I keep getting pinpad surveys when I shop at Safeway. It wants a 0-10 rating then if you rate low it asks what they can do better- has things like "good value" "fresh products" "friendly employees" "fast checkout" and a couple other options. I let them know what I think of their terrible prices every time. So far the prices keep going up, so it appears these surveys on the pinpad are useless.

Wal Mart also gives a survey after you use self checkout- it wants a 1-5 star rating about "your shopping experience." Interestingly down in AZ I was so satisfied with the condition of the Wal Mart units I went into, I actually gave them 5 stars every time. Back in Reno I typically give them 1-3 stars.

The Kroger survey has been running for a long time and it gives you 50 free fuel points (approximate retail value 50 cents assuming you do 10 gallon fill ups at redemption and +/- 5 cents for gallons over/under 10 gallons) if you complete it. They get a pretty high response rate and in Smiths, the surveys are discussed whenever the District Manager visits the store with the individual departments and text comments are read and discussed in detail in a civil manner. Down at Ralphs years ago I observed a "discussion" about the receipt surveys which was the store director belittling her employees in the deli about a low survey and it was right out on the sales floor. Disgusting behavior.

I notice the Rite Aid pinpad asks random questions and I got one that said "how would you rate the level of in stocks today 1 to 5 stars." Bad question to ask right now... really bad question to ask.

I've left CVS a few negative surveys on store issues and was actually contacted by the store manager to correct the issues. This motivated me to leave them positive surveys when they did a good job, knowing that they actually do care about the surveys. But leave a negative survey about the pharmacy and it is crickets.

[cjd]

I don’t mind the surveys, and do use them. I just don’t appreciate being told to press the highest rating as if it’s required to make the purchase and isn’t even in response to a question.

Especially when the person doing so can’t even give proper greetings and departures.

I’ve never seen any employee at Bealls Outlet just push your stuff at you and say nothing but “press nine and insert your card”.

[Alpha8472]

There are some retail chains where the survey score is definitely tied to the store manager's bonus and the district manager's bonus. The conference calls constantly are about getting the best survey score possible.

This leads to managers calling customers trying to right all wrongs and begging them to come back to the store in hopes of a perfect survey in the future.

I was buying a car at Honda and the salesman said anything less than a perfect star rating on the survey would be a failure on his part.

These companies put so much pressure on employees to get those survey scores up that it has caused employees to go out of their way to do things just to get a perfect score.

Sometimes things are beyond your control including prices set by the corporate office or out of stock items due to manufacturer shortages.

[Super S]

There are some retail chains where the survey score is definitely tied to the store manager's bonus and the district manager's bonus. The conference calls constantly are about getting the best survey score possible.

This leads to managers calling customers trying to right all wrongs and begging them to come back to the store in hopes of a perfect survey in the future.

I was buying a car at Honda and the salesman said anything less than a perfect star rating on the survey would be a failure on his part.

These companies put so much pressure on employees to get those survey scores up that it has caused employees to go out of their way to do things just to get a perfect score.

Sometimes things are beyond your control including prices set by the corporate office or out of stock items due to manufacturer shortages.

GM dealers do the same thing in the service department. When COVID hit, I had a warranty issue, and the local dealership basically ended shuttle service and did not offer any assistance with a rental car, I had to bypass the dealer and contact GM directly, who reimbursed me for the rental. GM gets high marks, but I left a low service rating for the dealer with an explanation why. (If dealerships had better pay plans and didn't pay people based on commission or flat rate instead of a fair hourly wage, which encourages half-hearted repairs and trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of customers, they probably would not get as many bad surveys to begin with. And the dealerships wouldn't have different service writers on every visit. But that's a subject for another forum.)

At stores, I sometimes will fill out the survey but not every time.

[mjhale]

GM dealers do the same thing in the service department. When COVID hit, I had a warranty issue, and the local dealership basically ended shuttle service and did not offer any assistance with a rental car, I had to bypass the dealer and contact GM directly, who reimbursed me for the rental. GM gets high marks, but I left a low service rating for the dealer with an explanation why. (If dealerships had better pay plans and didn't pay people based on commission or flat rate instead of a fair hourly wage, which encourages half-hearted repairs and trying to squeeze every dollar they can out of customers, they probably would not get as many bad surveys to begin with. And the dealerships wouldn't have different service writers on every visit. But that's a subject for another forum.)

At stores, I sometimes will fill out the survey but not every time.

Curious, did the dealer ever follow up with you over the low ratings on the survey? I had similar issues at the dealer for my car brand - different service writer every time, appointments not being held, etc. I expressed my feelings in the survey they sent after each repair and it was crickets every time. I wasn't really expecting a response, to be honest. However, I thought even a cursory response would mean they might of cared a little. Anyhow, I ended up going to an independent shop which I have been very happy with. The owner is very responsive and is in touch with customers if there are any issues.