Place: Cici's Pizza
Lunch: Buffet, Coke
Cici's (at least this particular one) is having a special where you get the buffet during pre-dinner hours (10:30am-4:00pm) for $2.99 with drink purchase, making this lunch $4.85 including sales tax. This usually comes to $6.97. Jeepers. They really weren't cheap enough already?
Smiling Store Manager takes my money and hands me my change. I grab the receipt directly from the cash register. "I always forget you keep those!", she exclaims. "Hey! Will you take the survey? Nobody ever does."
Me: "Huh?"
She points me to the sign inviting me to take the survey, which also prints on the back of the receipt. "Our regional rep was here and says they've never received a survey for this store. I don't know why. It takes like ten minutes and you get a discount when you come in next time."
Me: "They probably think they're going to get their e-mail address on a marketing mailing list."
Her: "Oh. Hadn't thought of that. But we don't do that"
You see these survey invitations a lot anymore, and some companies have their front line people verbally encouraging customers to take them. Sometimes you get a coupon or discount in return, sometimes you're entered in a contest to win a prize. $1000 in gas, free appetizers, edible shoes...apparently it's cheaper and considered to provide more accurate customer feedback than traditional research methods.
I doubt a lot of people take these. You forget about it the second you exit the door of the business. The only surveys I take are ones requested of me by e-mail, usually by hotels or airlines based on recent business, because they're right in front of me and accessible immediately. But those aren't necessarily anonymous. I found that out when the manager of a hotel I stayed at replied to me about my survey responses. (It wasn't like I punked the survey with silly responses...I pointed out some legitimate concerns and he addressed them professionally.)
Some companies are going further with this. One I do a lot of business with sent out invites to certain customers to join a secured community website that is full of surveys for new product ideas, community discussions, company news, and the like. It's like a hardcore customer fan site where you get real input into the product. There's enough information here that I actually feel like I have a better idea of where they're going with their product than even the company I work for is going with theirs.
Anyhoo, I took the Cici's survey. I responded favorably. And no e-mail address or other personal information was collected. Just some generic multiple-choice questions and a couple of comment fields.
Sort of boring, really.
