In the quest to understand consumer habits and preferences, companies use a variety of tools, which offer clues to help define strategies to improve customer relationships. One of the best known is the Likert Scale.
Created by American psychologist Rensis Likert in the 1930s, the method aims to faithfully measure people’s attitudes, combining statistics and psychology.
Due to its efficiency, the Likert Scale has become one of the main KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) and, therefore, has been incorporated into customer opinion surveys in the most diverse segments.
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How the Likert Scale works
Compared to a questionnaire of questions that only allow “yes” or “no” answers, the Likert method is based on reactions generated from affirmative statements in order to offer a more detailed picture of the consumer experience.
For example: the Likert survey highlights the statement “I am satisfied with the product” and in the list of answers offered, the options “strongly agree”, “partially agree”, “strongly disagree”, “partially disagree” and “indifferent/neutral” appear.
The researcher must evaluate how many points they will fill out in the survey, which usually has five options like these, but can also consider a scale of 0 to 10.
The calculation involves the sum of the scores assigned to each answer given by users. For example, if the Likert scale has five points and a person responds “strongly agree” (5 points) to one statement, “strongly disagree” (1 point) to another, and “neutral” (3 points) to a third, the total sum of the scores would be 9 (5 + 1 + 3).
Structured quantitatively, the survey provides feedback and final scores can be interpreted in a variety of ways, depending on the purpose of the research. Thus, the company is able to capture more clearly the intensity of the customer’s feeling.
What is measured on the Likert Scale
The return obtained will certainly be important to evaluate satisfaction with the products and services offered, service, frequency and level of importance attributed to an activity, probability of making new purchases and referring the company to friends.
Some examples of common questions: “What is your level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with our company?”, “From 0 to 10, how much would you recommend the brand to a friend or relative?”, “Thinking on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means ‘I was very poorly served’ and 5 means ‘I was very well served’, how do you evaluate the quality of our service?”.
The analysis of this type of data provided by customers is primarily used to review and/or improve processes, services, assistance and marketing strategies.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Likert Scale
As mentioned earlier, the most evident gain is to offer a more in-depth picture of the level of customer satisfaction. In addition, the Likert Scale is an easy method to apply, very visual and simple for customers to use, thus generating high adherence in the digital environment.
The “neutral” items are seen by many as a negative point of the tool due to the difficulty in using them as a relevant parameter. But they should be considered as something valuable, because they indicate that the shopping experience was weak or irrelevant, which can motivate changes.
A limiting aspect is the tendency of people to agree with the statements, without making a more detailed analysis of their feelings in relation to the aspects described. The results obtained will also not serve as a basis for benchmarking, as each company has a pattern of questions.
Even with some limiting points, the Likert Scale is a great way to get important information. For almost 90 years, this scale has been helping companies in decision-making and strategic planning.
