Census and Sample Surveys

This chapter discusses the type of surveys used by firms who want to find out about the satisfaction level of their customers. It provides a brief introduction on the importance of customer satisfaction surveys (CSSs) for a firm, and presents the two main types of surveys, census and sample. The choice between the two depends on costs, timeliness, goals of the survey, and mainly on the type of firm, its dimension and its customers. For each survey, the quality of the data collected depends on different types of errors. The chapter focuses on non‐sampling errors in CSSs and discusses their effect on statistical estimates. The non‐sampling errors include measurement error, coverage error, unit non‐response and non‐self‐selection error, and item non‐response and non‐self‐selection error. The chapter also shows data collection methods applied in CSSs, linking every method to one or more non‐sampling errors.