What you do with the results of this survey is look inside the
four walls of your business to see the big picture, and the many
smaller pictures that make it up. These surveys should be broken
down to give a total score for each store, if you have more than
one outlet. Within the store, they should be broken down by
category. In the food service business--the largest employer in
America, with 12 million people working--you want results tabulated
for back-of-the-house (kitchen staff), front-of-the-house (dining
room and bar), and management.
In an auto dealership, you'd break it down by service
(garage and service desk separately!), parts, sales (used and new),
accounting, and so on. Be creative and look inside your four walls
to see who your internal customers are, what categories they
naturally fall into, and how they can be surveyed.
If you run a professional service business, such as an
architecture firm, you've got a front-of-the-house in your
receptionists; you've got back-of-the-house internal customers
in your design and drafting staff; you've got your sales
executives, legal advisors, subcontractors, billing and accounting,
and so on.
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We often see these surveys produce fascinating and divergent
results. You'd be surprised how many management surveys show
zero percent recommending their own business as a place to either
patronize or work. Guess where a business with that result needs to
start in its marketing? If your managers hate your business, you
need to figure out how to get them excited, engaged, or on their
way to another job!
In a chef-driven restaurant, we often see that the
back-of-the-house scores are better than the front. And if it's
a business where there's a lot of customer contact and service,
the scores in the front of the house will tend to be better.
Here's an important survey question, and the answer will be
one of the most telling you get. Ask your employees if they see
your business as a place they would recommend to friends or
associates--either to patronize or to work. If your employees would
not recommend you, you're missing a huge opportunity for
improvement. Your staff, as your internal customers, should be
among your most powerful marketing tools.
Pay close attention to how likely your staff are to recommend
your business as a place to work. If only one out of four employees
does so, you need to address that before you start any external
marketing program. Otherwise, you're wasting your efforts and
driving customers to a bad experience, the opposite of the result
you seek.
Sample Survey Questions
Even if you hire a company to administer the survey to your
employees, you may want to have them include the following
questions:Rating System: 1 = I do not agree, 3 = somewhat agree, 5 = fully
agree
___ 1. I use my talents well at work; my skills and abilities
are being fully utilized.
___ 2. I get along well with my supervisors.
___ 3. I am comfortable expressing my true feelings to others in
a safe way.
___ 4. I view my employment here more as a career than as a
job.
___ 5. There are things about working here that encourage me to
work hard.
___ 6. There are work standards in place that enable me to judge
my own job performance.
___ 7. Management is concerned with each individual
co-worker's long-term goals.
___ 8. I look forward to going to work.
___ 9. I am asked for input when marketing programs are being
evaluated; I feel I am an integral part of any marketing
program.
___ 10. I am satisfied with my chances for getting ahead in this
organization in the future.
___ 11. Would you recommend our business/establishment/service
as a place to work?
___ 12. Would you recommend our business/establishment/service
to your friends and family?
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