Well, this blog was always an experiment.

As it turns out, not a very successful one .. I got some nice incoming links, but few comments and very little personal contact. I guess it is not all that surprising - the blogosphere is a large place, and there are others commenting on data analytics matters, and doing it well.

So, it is time to bring this chapter to a close and pursue other interests. I guess I will miss blogging, but .. well, case closed.

Bye

Recently, when visiting the site of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (www.theacsi.org)and its owner forseeResults.com, I was “randomly selected to take part in a … Customer Satisfaction.. survey”.

Now, this came in the form of a popup window after I had been on the site, for the first time ever, for only a few seconds.

Was it sensible to ask me what my “satisfaction” was after such a short time? Could I realistically answer the following questions?

Please rate..
1: the accuracy of information on this site.
2: the quality of information on this site.
3: the freshness of content on this site.
4: the usefulness of the information provided on this site.
5: the convenience of the information on this site.
6: the ability to accomplish what you wanted to on this site.
7: the ease of reading this site.
8: the clarity of site organization.
9: the clean layout of this site.
10: the degree to which the number of steps to get where you want is acceptable.
11: the ability to find information you want on this site.
12: the clarity of site map/directory.
13: the ease of navigation on this site.
14: the speed of loading the page on this site.
15: the consistency of speed on this site.
16: the reliability of site performance on this site.
17: What is your overall satisfaction with this site?
18: How well does this site meet your expectations?
19: How does this site compare to your idea of an ideal website?
20: How likely are you to return to this site?
21: How likely are you to recommend this site to someone else?
22: When was the last time you visited the .. site?
23: Which of the following best describes your field?
25: What is your primary purpose in coming to the .. site today?
26: How did you find out about the .. site?
28: What area of the site are you primarily using today?
29: How likely are you to continue to use this site for … information?
30: If you could make one improvement to the site, what would it be?

Now, there are a few nice questions amongst this lot. But at 30 questions it is quite lengthy, and I think there would be response fatigue/order effects.

But, more importantly, I was not qualified to answer these questions.. I simply had not spent enough time on the site, nor was I motivated to complete the questionnaire.

Added to this, I am quite skeptical of such rating questions and believe that respondents use the scales differently from one another.

Although there is apparently some “econometric analysis” done, I am of the opinion that the data would be of low quality and is conceptually weak.

Well, just my humble opinion.