Do survey results just say happy water customers are happy?
Who will be the lucky winner today? Will it be you? Or you? Or maybe even you sitting over there? No no, sorry, it can't be you. You’re too angry.
The San Diego Water Department has let it slip that they give their customer service representatives “discretion” in choosing who to offer a survey. And by looking at the results, we think the Angry Sally’s of the world may be getting left out!
You get a nice recorded message before you even get on the line with the rep. The recording sings in your ear, “If you would like to participate, just let your representative know at the end of your call and they will be happy to transfer you!”
You have a fully honest conversation with the rep, without them ever knowing you were offered a survey, and then at the end you let them know that you would like to take the survey, or you don’t, and you go about your day.
Oh no, wait. That’s Wells Fargo's survey system.
The water department's survey, which was implemented in July 2010, is offered to you by the customer service reps themselves AFTER you have a conversation with them. And not offered to every third caller, or every tenth caller, but at the discretion of the rep.
When San Diego’s water department tells me that 90% of callers either agree or strongly agree that they are being provided high quality water and wastewater services, that the rep they spoke with was knowledgeable about people’s issues and was helpful and courteous, my first question is, “Who on Earth have you been asking?”
UCAN has begun its search for answers.
So far, it’s not looking pretty. One customer, for instance, has called at least a dozen times since September 2010 with issues regarding the water department and hasn’t once been asked to participate in the survey.
I, on the other hand, have called 3 times and was only offered the survey when I had a simple question regarding watering hours. The other two times, when the rep couldn’t answer my question, and his boss couldn’t answer my question, I was left out.
We ask you, as assistant consumer watchdogs, to keep an ear out! Help us in our collection of data and let us know if you had a positive or negative experience with a customer service representative and whether or not you were offered the survey. That way we can put out a little survey of our own to make the results more comprehensive and truthful.
Water: Customer Service - Fraud -
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