Basic Marketing Research with Excel 3rd Edition by Alvin Burns,Ronald Bush

Exercise 8

The SteakStop Restaurant: What Is Wrong with These Questions?
This case was contributed by Tulay Girard, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Pennsylvania State University-Altoona. The SteakStop is a (fictitious) chain restaurant located in the southeastern United States. Working for its headquarters, the marketing manager, Brenda Bauer, hired you as a marketing intern to work on a customer satisfaction survey. On average, the twenty chain restaurants will receive about 150 phone surveys per store per month. Brenda would like to receive weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports generated from the customer feedback received. She drafted an automated telephone survey to collect information on customer satisfaction with the menu items and service in the restaurant. Below are the script and the questions that Brenda wants you to improve.
While looking at the survey questions, you notice violations of the basic questionnaire design rules based on what you learned from your marketing research course. Among such violations are double-barreled, loaded, leading or biasing, overstated, and vague questions, and questions with bad scales.
The SteakStop Restaurant Phone Survey Script "Welcome to our customer feedback system. Please enter your access code followed by the pound sign. It is located on your purchase receipt next to the toll-free phone number you've just dialed."
Introduction Script "Thank you for participating in SteakStop's customer satisfaction survey. By participating in this survey you will have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate. Winners will be notified by telephone. You must complete the entire survey to have a chance to win the gift certificate."
"If at any time during this survey you wish to repeat a question, just press the star key. Your feedback is important to us. Now, we will ask you questions regarding your latest dining experience at SteakStop."
Main Survey
1. "What meal did you choose? If steak, press 1. If seafood, press 2. If chicken, press 3. If sandwich, press 4."
2. "Did you order one of our fantastic appetizers that everyone is raving about? If yes, press 1. If no, press 2." (If the answer is yes, continue with 2a; if no, skip to 3.)
2a. "How would you rate the quality of our appetizers? If good, press 1. If very good, press 2. If excellent, press 3. If exceptional, press 4."
3. "Were you pleased with the exceptional taste of your meal? If yes, press 1. If no, press 2."
4. "Please rate your hot and tasty meal based on your satisfaction. If good, press 1. If very good, press 2. If excellent, press 3. If exceptional, press 4."
5. "All of our health-conscious customers consider the portion size of our meals to be ideal. Do you? If yes, press 1. If no, press 2."
6. "Was your server attentive and responsive to your needs? If yes, press 1. If no, press 2."
7. "What does our competitor, Beef-O-Rama, charge for a complete meal? If under $15, press 1. If between $15 and $20, press 2. If over $20, press 3."
8. "Now that you've completed the survey, please enter your ten-digit phone number followed by the pound key so we can notify you if you are a winner of the $50 gift certificate. If you prefer not to enter the drawing, press the pound key to skip this step."
Closing Statement
"Thank you for participating in our survey! We look forward to hearing from you each time you eat at SteakStop. Remember, 'When it's time to stop for a steak, stop at SteakStop!'"
Case Question
Carefully go over each question and identify what type of error was made. Then, correct the error using the "do's" and "don'ts" of question wording.