| Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree |
Efficiently completed transaction/addressed query | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Knowledgeable of banks’ products and services | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Courteous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Provided simple and understandable explanations | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Exhibit 5.1 Set of attitude question that can be combined to form a Likert scale.
A Likert scale is the sum of
rating scale responses, to a collection of evaluative statements
(Likert items) pertaining to a topic. It measures what these group of
statements represent.
The first step in
constructing a Likert scale is to generate statements covering different
aspects, both positive and negative, of the subject. For example, a bank
interested in assessing customers’ attitudes to teller service, may consider
the following statements to gauge their level of satisfaction:
- Efficiently completed transaction/addressed query
- Knowledgeable of banks’ products and services
- Courteous
- Provided simple and understandable explanations
In cases where marketers are dealing with an unfamiliar
subject, they may consider qualitative research to determine the statements or
aspects that best reflect the respondent’s attitude to the subject.
Next, we need to determine the direction of the
statement — does it reflect a positive or negative attitude towards the teller
service? Statements that are positive or negative are retained, and those that
are neutral are discarded.
The question to respondents is then framed on a
multi-item rating scale, such as the one shown in Exhibit 5.1.
In this example we do not have any negative
statements. However, if we did, those statements would be reverse scored (i.e., 5
becomes 1, 4 becomes 2 … and 1 becomes 5) during processing so that there is a
uniform scale reflecting the intensity and direction.
A Likert scale is the sum of responses to all the
statements or Likert items. In the previous example the scale will range from 4
to 20. It measures what these group of statements represent (i.e., teller satisfaction).