Wal-Mart, Self-Conscious About Popularity, Conducts Survey

Wal-Mart’s spokespeople sounded kinda cranky in their response to Tuesday’s report from the University of Michigan. The University’s American Customer Satisfaction Index ranked Wal-Mart last among major retailers for customer satisfaction, to which Wal-Mart’s spokespeople said “That is, like, so not true!”

To counter U of M’s assertions, Wal-Mart conducted it’s own survey. While Wal-Mart’s poll “wasn’t scientific or anything,” the retailer is standing by its findings.

“We found out that at least half the lunch room likes us,” one spokeswoman said. “And that’s not even counting the lunch ladies.”

Wal-Mart frequently uses “the customer” as an excuse for the company’s irresponsible business practices, and though Wal-Mart’s survey was neither objective nor statistically accurate, they’re still pretty sure all that wage-cutting is paying off.

Wal-Mart disputes customer satisfaction survey [Morning News of Northwest Arkansas]

A university report on customer satisfaction released Tuesday and Wal-Mart’s in-house survey paint two different pictures of how content shoppers are with the retailer.

Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its survey of 2 million customers each quarter shows customers are increasingly satisfied with their store experience, while the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index showed Wal-Mart hit an all-time low with its shoppers.

According to the University of Michigan, Wal-Mart slid 6 percent to an all-time low of 68, below the industry average. The university first conducted the survey in 1994.

The score is based on a telephone survey of about 250 consumers who shop at the retailers in the survey, including Target, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Gap and Dollar General. The survey also measures satisfaction among finance, insurance and e-commerce sectors.

Wal-Mart surveys its customers randomly at checkout via credit card readers and asks them to rate metrics like speed of service, friendliness of employees and cleanliness of stores.

“We consider our data to be extremely reliable,” said John Simley, Wal-Mart spokesman. “We survey 2 million people every quarter and that gives us a very reliable sample over time.”

Claes Fornell, who heads the university’s study, said a larger sample doesn’t result in an accurate measure.

“I would say to anybody who surveys 2 million customers per quarter that I would doubt their results. You probably get a worse result than a carefully drawn, albeit small, sample. If you get that many, you actually introduce more error into the system,” Fornell said.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart stores, said in a pre-recorded phone call on fourth quarter earnings that customer service and the shopping experience had greatly improved in the last quarter, but did not provide details.

Patricia Edwards, fund manager with Seattle-based Wentworth, Hauser and Violich, said she has seen visible improvements in Wal-Mart stores, and said it may take time for customers to catch on.

“It takes a while for consumers to get that this isn’t just a lucky day in the store,” Edwards said.

Wal-Mart on Tuesday released fourth quarter profit and sales increase, which executives largely attributed in the U.S. stores to greater efforts in customer service and improved shopping experience.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, February 21, 2008

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