Hope Springs Eternal

Kimberly here. In July, one reader included the following comment in a book survey: “I'm not convinced these surveys are always looked at, but I always live in hope!” Well, dear reader, I am here to assure you that your hopes are fulfilled on a regular basis!

Back in January, when we launched our new book survey, we also launched a formal program to review the results. Each quarter, we look at the results for the books that sold during that quarter in two ways. First, we derive a numerical customer satisfaction score from the quantitative data. We report that score to the Microsoft Learning organization and it becomes part of our goals as a Microsoft Press team. Second, the Microsoft Press team meets to review all the comments for the books in a particular series or that cover a particular technology. We look for themes and brainstorm ways to address problem areas. For example, in March we focused on Training Kits for the developer audience, and we identified concrete changes to the series pedagogy and design in response to your feedback. This quarter we’ll be looking at your comments on IT Pro Training Kits.

We also look at your surveys on an individual book basis. When we start planning a new edition of one of our titles, in addition to analyzing the existing book’s sales and what our competitors are offering, it is now a standard part of our process to pull the customer satisfaction report for the book, which contains all survey-generated feedback from you, all comments sent to our Support team, and all Amazon reviews. We share that report with the author and the editorial team, which helps them focus their efforts on the things that matter most to you as they develop the new edition.

So, did I convince you?

https://www.microsoft.com/learning/booksurvey