The Grand Survey

It's not going to happen because some people just leave it on No Opinion regardless. Especially new people who have not yet learned how to work the system.

A number of people don't actually bother to rate surveys... they would have to change their ways.

I suspect someone would vote against it just to spoil it

Someone would rate it "No opinion" or "Bad" just to be spiteful. Nobody likes perfection.

Week after week I struggle to come up with such a question, but so far - no luck.

Anything is possible.

Good question, but I think it's impossible.

Bill, how about "If *everyone* who reads this survey selects a rating of "good" I will give each respodant (or the charity of their choice) $250"?

Actually, I bet there would still be spoilsports.

jefff... let me give you my address ;)

nah... too many people don't bother rating surveys, and "no opinion" drags the rating down from 100%. I consider the 0% survey just as impossible, though we come closer to it for reasons I suspect make Bill sad.

jefff -- actually, I'd probably feel compelled to rate it "no opinion" and add a comment saying that if everyone who reads the survey sends me $10 I'll change my rating to "good"... just because of the amusingly perverse nature of the subsequent snarl.

NO NO NO! I didn't mean *I'd* be giving out $250 checks! It was in quotes, it was a hypothetical, I wasn't there, I didn't inhale!

hey dpolicar, what would you do if all the respondants *did* send you $10? Would you honor your offer and change your vote?

jefff - absolutely! I wouldn't even be lying -- any survey that nets me a few hundred bucks is a good survey in my book!

I'd like to see people *just* *get* _*over*_ this rating thing. It's not important, period. As it is, we get only 3 options and a lot of people, myself included, just don't touch the rating -- no, we're not lazy, it's just that, on average, surveys _are_ average and the only rating in between "bad" and "good" is "no opinion". The survey has to be pretty good for me to rate it good, and pretty bad (actually irritate me somehow) to deserve a bad rating. It might be more meaningful if we had something like very bad/bad/fair/good/very good/no opinion. For the record, I like it as it is.

Also, for your information, surveys are much more complicated than just the rating. We have no idea of how many people didn't even care to vote and/or even read the survey past the subject. People may or may not see an old survey. (It's 5/24/1999 as I write this, and the survey is from 02/17/1999)

It's repeated way too many times in "customer satisfaction" training (nothing to do with sexual harassment and/or prostitution, btw ) that "service providers" should not be mad at "clients" who complain, quite the contrary. Why? Because only about 1 in 10 clients who aren't satisfied will ever bother to tell you -- they will, however, tell 20-40 people not to use your services. That 10% is actually bothering to help you because, somehow, they liked you enough to tell *you* what was wrong and that they probably would come back if you just fixed the problem.

jefff, dpolicar: if more than a couple of people try to extort, it'd be just cheaper/faster/easier for the person offering $250/vote to give the money to charity and leave the ones extorting alone in the dust. Now, _that_ would be mean and at the same time make Miss Manners proud!

pcpr: You've never made a survey. Go make a survey and you may very well understand why getting all the way over ratings is easier said than done.

I've made 30 plus surveys and I agree with pcpr...It's not about the ratings....at least not for me....

I think anonymous has a point here. I've made hundreds or surveys, but I'm still sensitive about my ratings. Most everyone is I think. How can we be unemotional about an idea we had, something we worked on, something we presented and shared with others. If people tell us it's not good that's going to hurt.

I'm sure that what pcpr says about complaints is true (though I think this is a little different from customer support-like situations), but I still think it's pretty hard not to be effected by it. I have known many customer support workers who have gotten burned out by that job, and I do believe it was the emotional burden of all the negativeness that did it to them.

Hm. On the one hand, I agree with pcpr and mandy that a concern with ratings is best gotten over. On the other hand, I agree with bill and anonymous that it's hard to do so.
"But rabbi, they can't *both* be right"
"You're right!"