Although surveys are the most frequently used means of assessing

Question

Although surveys are the most frequently used means of assessing customer satisfaction, the meaning of survey results is often difficult to determine. For example, disappointed or angry customers often seize an opportunity to vent their opinions, but contented customers often do not. Even so, surveys can be very useful. In particular, resurveying over time can reveal trends in customer satisfaction.

How a sample of individuals is selected can, however, distort survey results in other ways. Because businesses tend only to survey their own customers, those businesses’ ratings may rise artificially as dissatisfied people go elsewhere and cease being their customers. And a business might interpret a difference in satisfaction ratings between two groups of customers as evidence that it is delivering better service to one than it is to the other, when the true difference lies only in the expectations of different groups of customers. Lastly, because many businesses define customer satisfaction as “meeting or exceeding expectations,” this metric may fall simply because expectations have risen.My partners and I run a prepared-food business. We were tempted to rethink our approach—providing high-quality, premium-priced food—after receiving negative reviews on a social-media website providing user-generated restaurant reviews. But because such reviewers are usually anonymous, it is hard to know to what extent their opinions reflect the majority. We discovered that many of these reviewers were considerably younger and less affluent—and therefore had different expectations with regard to prices—than our customer base of older professionals who routinely express satisfaction when shopping at our business.

Of course, not all reviewers are anonymous. One catalog retailer that is able to match reviews to purchases found that reviewers make smaller-than-average purchases and buy a higher-than-average proportion of sale and clearance items. The retailer still monitors online reviews and responds to product-defect complaints, but it worries less about price complaints.

If businesses all try to please the same segment of reviewers, they risk weakening their appeal to their target markets.

kamali18ks · Answer

Official explanation - Question 1:

RO1,  Customer satisfaction may fall because expectations have risen :

The discussion of Survey Difficulties states that because many businesses define customer satisfaction as “meeting or exceeding expectations,” measures of customer satisfaction may fall merely because expectations have risen. For the statement under consideration to explain the difference that the business owner observes between the impressions created by the online reviews and the in-person feedback of the prepared-food business, there would need to be some indication that expectations had risen for the online reviewers but not for the customers who gave in-person feedback when shopping. There is, however, no indication that there was any change in expectations, so this statement cannot help explain the difference.

The correct answer is  No .

RO2,  People often cease patronizing a business with which they are dissatisfied :

If it is true that people often cease patronizing a business with which they are dissatisfied, then the reviewers who posted negative online reviews may have been dissatisfied customers who have ceased patronizing the business. (Note that the Survey Difficulties discussion indicates that disappointed or angry customers often seize opportunities to vent, whereas contented customers do not.) On the other hand, someone who continues to patronize a business has obviously not ceased patronizing the business, and so is more likely to be satisfied and would likely be willing to express that satisfaction when shopping at the business. Therefore, this statement does help explain the difference.

The correct answer is  Yes .

RO3,  Contented customers often do not seize an opportunity to vent their opinions :

As the Survey Difficulties discussion notes, disappointed or angry customers often seize opportunities to vent. Clearly, social-media websites that provide user-generated reviews present opportunities to vent their opinions. If contented customers, on the other hand, often do not seize such opportunities to express their opinions, but are willing to express satisfaction when they are shopping at the business, then this statement could help explain the difference.

The correct answer is  Yes .

GMATNinja · Answer

Check out  this video  (starting at 28:36) for a full explanation of this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y3MPLstsRw

KarishmaB · Answer

Question 1.

Assuming each of the following statements is true, select Yes if the information provided suggests it would help explain the difference in the impressions created by the online reviews and the in-person feedback of the prepared-food business as described in the business owner’s passage. Otherwise, select No.

Very carefully, read what is given about online reviewers and in person feedback:

... receiving negative reviews on a social-media website ... But because such reviewers are usually anonymous, it is hard to know to what extent their opinions reflect the majority. We discovered that many of these reviewers were considerably younger and less affluent—and therefore had different expectations with regard to prices—than our customer base of older professionals who routinely express satisfaction when shopping at our business.

We need to consider what can explain this difference - online reviews are negative but in person routine shoppers are happy.

Customer satisfaction may fall because expectations have risen.

There is no discussion on rising expectation. There is a discussion on different expectations of different client bases, but not how expectations of online users have risen and hence negative feedback has been obtained. This factor does not affect difference in the feedback today - negative online reviews vs happy in person routinely shopping professionals.

Select  NO

People often cease patronizing a business with which they are dissatisfied.

Why are in person routinely shopping professionals happy while others are not? The difference could be explained by saying that those unhappy walked away and do not routinely shop at your store anymore. The routine shoppers express happiness. They are happy and that is why they are routine shoppers. So feedback from those people is positive. It is a biased sample.

If a business claims that our long term employees have all expressed satisfaction with our work culture, isn't it a biased opinion. Only those who were happy stayed long term. It is the same logic.
 
Hence it does help explain the difference.

Select  YES

Contented customers often do not seize an opportunity to vent their opinions.

Why online reviews are negative can be explained using this. People who are happy don't normally go online to express their satisfaction. Hence this could explain why there is negative feedback online though in person shoppers express satisfaction. Hence this is relevant too and explains the difference.

Select  YES

anushkatew · Answer

Question 2:

Statement 1 , Including survey questions...:

The business owner notes that one disadvantage of online reviews is that the reviewers are anonymous, and so it is difficult to judge to what extent their opinions reflect the opinions of a majority of their customers. Therefore, if the prepared-foods business conducted a survey of their customers that included questions identifying specific groups of customers and analyzed reported levels of satisfaction within each of these groups, this would be more helpful than the reviews on the social-media site in analyzing overall satisfaction among its customer base.

The correct answer is  Yes .

Statement 2 , Offering discounted prices...:

The business owner notes that a certain catalog retailer found that online reviewers buy a higher-than-average proportion of sale and clearance items. If this is also true of those who write online reviews of the business owner’s business, then by offering discounts to customers who complete online reviews, the business could end up receiving reviews from the same sort of clientele as is currently leaving online reviews. And if so, there is no information given that suggests that these reviews will make it any easier for the business to identify overall satisfaction than such online reviews previously have done.

The correct answer is  No .

Statement 3 , Giving the least...:

Nothing in either the Survey Difficulties or Business Owner discussions indicates that by giving different weight to different levels of satisfaction it will become easier for the business to identify overall satisfaction among its customer base than the reviews on the social-media site did.

The correct answer is  No .

kartickdey · Answer

can anybody please explain why the answer to the question 2.2 is "No". I thoughy as only dissatisfied customers are more likely to vent their grievance and contended customers are not, then by providing discounted prices to customers who complete online surveys contented customers will also be likely to vent their grievance. In that sense the review result will be more representative and accurate from the earlier one. So the answer should be yes

Bunuel · Answer

The business owner’s core difficulty is that the online reviews are not coming from a representative slice of the business’s real customer base. The owner says many reviewers are younger and less affluent, so they have different expectations about price, and that can make the online feedback look more negative than what the older professional customers say in person.

That is why 2.2 is No. Offering a discount does not fix the representativeness problem. It mainly attracts the most price sensitive customers to respond, which pushes the survey toward the very group whose price expectations are already suspected to be different. So the survey becomes less reliable for identifying overall satisfaction across the full customer base.

Dexter3 · Answer

Q1:   
 Customer satisfaction may fall because expectations have risen. -->  No  
Tab 1 and tab 2 doesnt mention about rising expectation. Satisfaction may fall due to non-target customers' reviews

People often cease patronizing a business with which they are dissatisfied. -->  YES  
Tab 1 state it kinda clear " Because businesses tend only to survey their own customers, those businesses’ ratings may rise artificially as dissatisfied people go elsewhere and cease being their customers". Dissatisfied cus go away, they dont leave any review
 
 Contented customers often do not seize an opportunity to vent their opinions. -->  YES
 It's in Tab 1 again, "  For example, disappointed or angry customers often seize an opportunity to vent their opinions, but contented customers often do not." --> that means who are satisfied dont leave any review 
  
Q2:   
  Including survey questions to identify specific groups of customers and analyzing reported levels of satisfaction within each of those groups -->    YES
   It would help the shop owner to categorize each group, so they can know which review is from their target customer, which is not

Offering discounted prices to customers who complete online surveys -->    NO
   It may attract unwanted customers, or someone who never purchase that just want a discount

Giving the least weight to the reports of very high and very low customer satisfaction and the most weight to reports of moderate satisfaction -->    NO
   We dont know if the very high and low point they give is outliners or not, it's not a normal distribution

Q3

Determining what types of complaints are most typical among the respondents --> They still can determine
 
 Detecting trends in its level of customer satisfaction --> same as A

Determining which customer complaints it would be most beneficial to address -->  correct answer  --> bc they need to know which responses are from target customers

Determining how to define customer satisfaction --> How to define is up to them, not up to customer

Differentiating itself from competitors --> irrelevant

gullyboy09 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB ,  Bunuel ,  MartyMurray ,  egmat ,  kevincan  can you please help me with question 1 first part? I have gone through all the explanations and it's not very clear to me.

Now for the first part "Customer satisfaction may fall because expectation have risen." Yes, it's true that in business owner tab "different expectations" were discussed, and not necessarily "rise in expectations'. But survey tab mentioned that rise in expectation can also be the reason. I'd assume that we are sticking here with the second tab, and if second tab hints that it could be the reason then only we will select it Yes.

But now moving to third part, "Contended customers often do not seize and opportunity to vent their opinions". In the below explanation, it's mentioned that "..can be explained using this" with no backing from the second tab. Yes, it can clearly explain based on first tab also, but then first option can also explain! While rejecting first one by saying tab doesn't say about "rise" so we rejected it, but for the other options also tab doesn't say anything directly.

In simple words, we rejected first based on no hint for "rise" in second tab. But we don't have hints for any other options also in the second tab! Question says assume it is true and based on that we are using it to explain it. But then we can use first too. If first need backing from tab, then why others dont?
Please help me what I am missing.

KarishmaB · Answer

Nothing says you have to use data of only tab 2. In fact, the options give you data each of which you have to take to be true and then evaluate whether this option explains the difference between online reviews vs in-person feedback obtained by the prepared-food business. That is, whether the option explains why online reviews for the business are negative while in-person feedback is satisfactory.

Customer satisfaction may fall because expectations have risen.

We are comparing online vs in-person, not how expectations may change over time leading to falling customer satisfaction in a group. So this doesn't help.

Contented customers often do not seize an opportunity to vent their opinions. 
 
If content customers are unlikely to take an opportunity to write a review, it may seem that most online reviews are negative. Whereas in-person, usually the customers are happy and content. This could explain the difference in the feedback in the two user groups. Perhaps most online users are happy too but the happy ones don't feel the need to write a review. So this helps.

gullyboy09 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB , thanks for the below.
Again, my issue is as you did for the second part in the below "If content customers are unlikely to take an opportunity to write a review, it may seem that most online reviews are negative.", then similarly why can't we say that maybe because people got expectations high and so the negative review. And expectation risen are supported by the first tab!

KarishmaB · Answer

Then why didn't the expectations increase for the in-person shoppers? Be careful of what you are comparing - Online vs in-person. If you say that expectations of online shoppers increased, then why would the same not be applicable to in-person? It does not impact one group more than the other.
Whereas in-person shoppers are happy and content but online bad reviews are obtained are different by the very nature of interaction in the two cases. Online a content shopper may not go out of their way to put a review. Only a few discontent ones will do so. But in-person one can see that people are content. The in-person shoppers don't have to go out of their way to express contentment. The business owner can see that they are content.

gullyboy09 · Answer

Hi  KarishmaB , but it is entirely possible that one particular group can have expectation risen as given in survey tab "....  when the true difference lies only in the expectations of different groups of customers. Lastly, because many businesses define customer satisfaction as “meeting or exceeding expectations,” this metric may fall simply because expectations have risen. "

KarishmaB · Answer

It is possible but you have no data to support it in the tabs. "Different expectations" does not imply "different rates of change in expectations" over time. It just means different expectations at a point in time.

gullyboy09 · Answer

Thanks, Karishma, and sorry for bothering you so much. That was the reason I marked it yes that it is possible. Now when we say we have no data to support but we do have rise in expectation point in tab 1, and if we are looking specifically something for online vs in person then we don't have anything like that for other two options also. I am going to move on from this question, my intention was that if I am missing something major point in learning here, but now with so much of confusion, it's better to move.

KarishmaB

It is possible but you have no data to support it in the tabs. "Different expectations" does not imply "different rates of change in expectations" over time. It just means different expectations at a point in time.

egmat · Answer

Hi gullyboy09,

You've actually spotted the right test; the piece you're missing is what "explain the difference" demands. It's not about which tab backs a statement. It's about whether the statement, taken as true, gives you a reason the  online  channel came out negative while the  in-person  channel came out positive. That's the gap between the two options.

Why statement 3 clears that bar.  "Contented customers often do not seize an opportunity to vent" is  channel-specific . Writing an online review is the "opportunity to vent" - so happy customers stay silent online, and the reviews skew negative. But in person, those same happy customers  do  express satisfaction. One mechanism, two different outcomes for the two channels. That's exactly a difference-explainer.

Why statement 1 doesn't.  "Satisfaction may fall because expectations have risen" is a  general, over-time  effect. Rising expectations would drag down satisfaction for  everyone  - online reviewers and in-person shoppers alike. It gives you no reason the two channels would split apart. For it to explain the split, you'd need expectations to have risen for the online crowd but  not  for the in-person crowd - and nothing tells you that. As Karishma put it, we're comparing online vs. in-person, not how a group's satisfaction changes over time.

So the real filter is symmetry: does the mechanism hit  both  channels the same way ( therefore  No), or does it single out one channel ( therefore  Yes)?

A quick stand-in to lock it in.  Imagine explaining why your  online  thermostat reads hotter than your  hallway  one:

- "The sun only hits the online sensor" - explains the difference (one sensor, not the other). ✓
- "The whole house is getting warmer this year" - true, but it raises  both  readings, so it can't explain why they differ. ✗

Statement  1  is the second bullet; statement  3  is the first.

Answer: No, Yes, Yes

Although surveys are the most frequently used means of assessing

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Yes	No
		Including survey questions to identify specific groups of customers and analyzing reported levels of satisfaction within each of those groups
		Offering discounted prices to customers who complete online surveys
		Giving the least weight to the reports of very high and very low customer satisfaction and the most weight to reports of moderate satisfaction

	Determining what types of complaints are most typical among the respondents
	Detecting trends in its level of customer satisfaction
	Determining which customer complaints it would be most beneficial to address
	Determining how to define customer satisfaction
	Differentiating itself from competitors

GMAT Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) Questions

Although surveys are the most frequently used means of assessing

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