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Please write responses to the following post. One page each post. #1 J.D. Power and Associates conducts a survey that is sent out to customers that have owned a vehicle anywhere between 12-18 months, it measures the customer satisfaction with vehicle quality and dealer service. The survey is 8-pages long with over 70 questions to measure the customers satisfaction. In the survey the customer is told to rate the car on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 meant “unacceptable” and 10 meant “outstanding”. They are rating the car based on mechanical, interior, exterior, performance, dealer service, ownership cost, ect. The weight of different aspects of satisfaction can skew the overall rating for customers because they could have particular expectations for the vehicle. In the case shared an example where a mini-van was “dinged” for having small cupholders. This will skew the overall results because even though this might be a great car the costumer had a high expectation for a small detail and therefore the rating when down. In order to try and avoid skewed results they should make sure they have many survey questions so if there are small problems it would not make the rating of the car drop too low. They also might wats to consider having open ended questions were the customer could write in what expectations they might have had or would like to have seen differently. This would allow J.D Power and Associates the ability to research if many customers have the same expectation about a product and update it. #3 Demographic information in the survey would be a very beneficial tool. This could consist of questions about age, gender, income, family size, ect. This would help researchers analyze the target market for each vehicle. Questions about income and family size would show if the price and type of car fits in with the target market along with better understanding the consumer. It would be useful to researchers to monitor the demographic process with statistical features like graphs and file reports. This would be a way to clearly show the target market. After they know the target market they could use the statistic data to focus on how to advertise for the vehicle. --------------------------------------------------------------- #1. J.D Power & Associates uses a 70 questioned survey that covers 124 models covering customer’s likes and dislikes about their carat 12 to 18 months of ownership. The measurement scale used to measure customer satisfaction is based on a 1 to 10 scale, therefore making it a interval scale. 1 means unacceptable, while 10 means outstanding. The results are incorporated into scores in 8 categories. Weighting different aspects of satisfaction can skew the overall rating because each customer values different characteristics. What may be important to one customer, may not be important to the other. As the case mentioned, the car got “dinged" for having small cupholders, which then skewed the overall satisfaction rate. Having that happen can give an inaccurate rating because of details like that, or rating one characteristic over another that the company feels to be important. What the company thinks should be weighted more may not much up to what the customer thinks should be weighted more. Not using surveys that have less than fifty responses is helpful to have a valid and reliable measure. By having little responses, the overall rating is skewed because it is not based off a wide variety of answers. Skewing in the overall rating is not something that J.D. Power & Associates can avoid. Every customer is so different that they would have to do all combinations in order to satisfy what would be accurate to each person. Instead of J.D. Power & Associations deciding what is scaled the highest, they should ask their customers. By putting this in the survey, they are able to see what characteristics are most important overall to the customers. #2. Reliability and validity of the customer satisfaction can be measured through placing spefific questions in the survey. Reliability can be measured through a respondent answering very similar to identical or near-identical questions. By having questions that are the same or about the same, J.D. Power & Associates can see if they are receiving reliable answers or not. That as well can help with not having skewed ratings related to question one. Validity is the accuracy of the measurement, which is difficult to measure. It can be difficult to determine if a respondent is not being truthful about their responses. Having questions that are identical may help J.D. Power & Associates see if they are being truthful, or having the question be an explanation. By having people explain, the company may get a better idea if the respondent is being truthful.