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We regularly survey area CHECKBOOK and Consumer Reports subscribers for their feedback on services they have used. For our survey on kennels, we asked consumers to rate their experiences with businesses they had most recently used "inferior," "adequate," or "superior" on several aspects of service: "returning dog in good condition," "cleanliness," "spaciousness," "affection toward dog," "pick-up/drop-off arrangements," and "overall quality." Our ratings tables show the percent of each kennel's surveyed customers who rated it "superior" (as opposed to "adequate" or "inferior") on each question.
We have included in our ratings tables all of the firms for which we received at least 10 ratings on our customer surveys. If a firm is not listed in our ratings tables, it simply means we did not receive at least 10 ratings for it; that fact has no negative or positive implications.
Since many firms were rated by rather small numbers of raters, small differences between two firms in the percentage of raters who gave a particular rating (say, "superior") should be ignored. The table below gives a rough guide to minimum differences you should look for in deciding on one firm over another.
When using these survey data, remember that the questions are to some degree subjective and that the differences among firms might be explained by differences in the personalities, backgrounds, critical standards, and other characteristics of the raters or by biases these raters might have.
The price information shown on our ratings tables came directly from the kennels. We sent a survey to each kennel and asked it to provide its daily rates to board several different breeds and sizes of dogs and to board a cat. Many of the kennels did not respond to our survey. Our shoppers made a number of calls to the kennels that did not provide pricing information and, without revealing their affiliation with CHECKBOOK, obtained their pricing information via phone. Before going to print, we mailed a form to each of the kennels listed on our ratings tables and gave it an opportunity to update or correct the price information we had collected. Many of the firms did not respond to our effort to verify the information.
All of the data must be interpreted in view of timeliness. Our customer survey data are from surveys conducted from September 2003 to April 2011. Survey respondents were asked to report on experiences in the preceding year. The data from our survey of firms' prices were collected from May to November 2008.
We give checkmarks to firms that score highest on a scoring system that we devise for each service field. Our scoring systems weight the various data in our tables and text based on our subjective judgment of their importance. Since the scores are based entirely on information presented, you can apply your own subjective judgments, and decide whether you prefer firms we have not given checkmarks. Where we do not have important data on a firm, we cannot give our checkmark.
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