Personal Decision Making Public Opinion Polls Quality Improvement Surveys

Personal Decision Making

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MetaChoice™ Helps People to Make Wiser Decisions MetaChoice™ was originally designed to guide consumers through complex decision processes. We know that most people make logical decisions and that the wisdom of a decision is a function of how much information the consumer has available at the time of the decision. So we designed MetaChoice™ to tell decision makers how additional information can help them make a wiser choice when faced with several alternatives. For example, in College Choice, MetaChoice™ (1) helps the user to determine the importance of the evaluative criteria that differentiate one college from another, (2) asks the user to estimate the anticipated satisfaction from each college with respect to each criterion, and then (3) asks the user about the reliability of information used to estimate anticipated satisfaction. MetaChoice™ then uses an algorithm to calculate how additional information can change the original assessment of satisfaction, and suggests to the user that it would be worthwhile to postpone a final decision until more information can be obtained. Importantly, MetaChoice™ can be used by anyone to make the wisest choice from among competing alternatives. It can be used by brokerage firms to help people choose stocks, by realtors to help people choose a new home, by car dealers to help people choose a new auto, by insurance agents to help people choose insurance, or by travel agents to help people choose a vacation.

Public Opinion Polls

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MetaChoice™ Generates Much More Reliable Information MetaChoice™ Generates Much More Reliable Information Market researchers use a variety of scales to measure, aggregate, and analyze public opinion. Unfortunately, traditional scales are unreliable because of a problem called interpersonal comparison of utility. Experienced market researchers know that, just as there is no way by which we can compare individual perceptions of pain, there is been no way by which we can reliably compare personal utility scales. For example, we have no way of determining if the values of a dollar to one person is the same as to another person, if one the assessment of the importance of good health is the same to one person as it is to another, or if the view of the importance of a college education is the same to one person as it is to another. As individuals we can rank-order the relative utility of a dollar, good health, or a college education. There is no scale, however, by which we can reliably compare our ratings with someone else’s ratings, because we each have different personal utility scales. In election years the media talk about the impact of political issues, which traditionally are measured with adjective or numerical scales. For example, a newspaper might say that the issue of inflation is "somewhat" important or perhaps that it’s importance rating is, say, seven on a scale of zero to ten. These kinds of measures are fine for describing the transitive order of issues for a given individual. However, they cannot reliably compare issues between individuals. To be able to make such interpersonal comparisons we need a scale in which the value of zero to each person is the same. To make such comparisons we need ratio scales, like those used to measure length, time, and weight. Ratio scales permit us to manipulate measures arithmetically – to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Thus, we can say that two pounds plus three pounds equals five pounds, that 30 minutes minus ten minutes is twenty minutes, that six inches is three times two inches, and that ten pounds divided by two is five pounds. The key to the utility of MetaChoice™ is that it uses ratio scales to document individual measures of importance (see Decisions). Consequently, we are able to aggregate and analyze public opinion survey data more objectively and reliably than has heretofore been possible. For example, in asking a group of voters to evaluate different candidates for President MetaChoice™ uses a ratio scale to measure the relative importance of the evaluative criteria by which voters differentiate among political candidates. Thus, for the sample as a whole, we might say that inflation is twice as important as foreign policy for lower income voters, or that drug control is three times as important among Republicans as it is among Democrats. Using MetaChoice™ we can predict the electoral choice of every individual. We can explain precisely why voters choose one candidate or another. And, for every such poll, we can test the accuracy of each prediction.

Quality Improvement Surveys

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Customer Problems are Opportunities for Quality Improvement The same MetaChoice™ attributes that permit users to make decisions, or that permit us to generate highly reliable aggregated measures of consumer products, also can be used to create highly objective measures of consumer satisfaction with consumer products and services. The ability to use ratio scales to define and measure evaluative criteria permit us to analyze consumer opinion more efficiently than is possible with traditional mail or telephone surveys. The use of ratio scales permits us to analyze the relative importance of different aspects of a consumer product. For example, evaluating satisfaction with a new car requires respondents to assign measures of importance to a set of evaluative criteria. Thus, a customer will be able to assign measures of importance to such criteria as roadability, integrity, engine, driving position, reliability, economy, comfort, and so forth. Because these measures are documented with a ratio scale, analyzing consumer reaction to the product can be accomplished with much greater reliability than with traditional methods. A company can identify the things that most influence the opinion of customers, and then analyze the cost of designing a car that will generate greater satisfaction. For example, a company might determine how important to the consumer a specific safety improvement is, calculate how much more revenue would be achieved with the change, and then compare the increased revenue to the cost of implementing the improvement. We believe also that many companies will try to improve their services as well as their products. There are many kinds of retail services that don’t usually conduct consumer satisfaction surveys. We’ve designed a generic Retail Survey that can easily serve the needs of department stores, food markets, discount stores, and many other retail outlets. Highlight Decisions to see how MetaChoice™ can be used to obtain reliable measures of consumer satisfaction with many kinds of products and services. We should remind the reader that we don’t have to offer incentives for consumers to participate in quality improvement surveys. To improve quality we don’t have to sample every consumer. We do not even need random samples. To improve quality we need only to find opportunities for improvement. Every consumer problem is such an opportunity. Consumers who experience product or service problems are more than willing to report their problems to the manufacturer or retail service provider. MetaChoice™ reports rank-order corrective actions according to their potential impact on overall consumer satisfaction. The results are presented graphically and need no statistical training to interpret. And MetaChoice™ reports are available to the quality assurance staff of a company 24 hours a day, seven days a week. MetaChoice™ Internet based satisfaction surveys can help companies anywhere in the world to assess consumer satisfaction more efficiently and less expensively than ever before.

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