Summarize this article:

When you're designing a survey or another method of measuring your business's service quality, it's important to focus on the very most important metrics (since customers are less likely to complete longer, more complicated surveys). One of the most important details of all to focus on is the quality of the customer's point of contact. By examining the interaction between customers and your representatives, you can determine whether your business's interactions with your customers are satisfactory. In addition, this line of questioning can help you "weed out" problem employees with bad attitudes. Try to ask questions like the following:  Which employee(s) provided your service? Did the employee(s) providing the service appear to be knowledgeable? Were they courteous to customers as well as other staff? Did they convey a sense of confidence and trust? If your business deals directly with consumers (as opposed to other businesses), it's vital to convey the idea that your business cares about its customers. There isn't one single way to do this — the solution to this problem is part marketing, part branding, and (especially) part service quality. To measure this quality in surveys and so on, focus on asking questions like the following:  Did the consumer feel the company and/or employee(s) cared about the people they were working with? Did the customer feel they received individualized attention? Did the company project a friendly, welcoming atmosphere? High service quality in the short-term doesn't mean much if it can't be sustained in the long-term. Consistency is a hugely important aspect of high-quality service — in fact, research has shown that reliability is generally considered the most important aspect of good service by customers. Reliability is the reason that huge-multinationals like McDonalds are able to attract customers everywhere. Customers like getting the same satisfactory result every time they use a business's products or services. Thus, to judge the consistency of your service, ask questions like the following:  Did the employee or company perform the service accurately? Did the customer feel the company or employee would be able to dependably continue to perform the service in the future? Would the customer use the company's services again in the future? If this is not the customer's first time using the company's services, how did their most recent experience compare to past ones? Though it's probably obvious, it definitely bears mentioning that customers nearly everywhere prefer interacting with companies that are kind, polite, prompt, and willing to satisfy them. Measuring your company's responsiveness can help you determine whether to devote more resources to creating a positive experience for your customer by training your employees to be more effective, hiring new personnel, and/or using different strategies for dealing with customers. Try focusing on questions like the following:  How willing and able was the employee able to respond to the customer's needs? How quickly was service provided? Did the employee seem happy to offer additional service? Even the happiest, promptest, most accommodating employees can't give high-quality service if they don't have the equipment to do their job or the actual physical environment of the business is unsatisfactory. Keeping the physical, tangible aspects of your business in good order is an important aspect of providing high-quality service. Pinpoint flaws in your business's operations by asking questions like the following:  Was all equipment functioning properly? Was the appearance of the product or business clean and satisfactory? Was the appearance of the employee(s) professional? Were all communications clear and professional?
Measure the quality of the customer’s point of contact. Measure the empathy of the company as a whole. Measure the reliability of the company. Measure the responsiveness of the company. Measure the tangible aspects of the customer's experience.