Surveys

Dear everyone sending me satisfaction surveys: pay me.

Seriously, if you’re an airline or a hotel chain sending me a survey that takes (according to your own blurb) “ten or fifteen minutes” of my time, I want a handful of airline miles or hotel points in exchange for that time. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, but it shows proper respect.

I am not “honoured” by the opportunity to tell you whether my flight or stay was pleasant. If the experience is worthy of comment (good or bad), you’ll hear about it on Twitter. Watch out for that type of feedback and engage with it promptly. Surveys will give you more granularity, but without any enticement, the feedback you get will be skewed towards people who place a low value on their time.

Seriously, what’s it to you to throw a hundred airmiles at me in exchange for a detailed, thoughtful critique of the service I received? You already have all my demographics from the loyalty programme anyway, so you can tune the hit list of people who receive the survey.

Otherwise, you’re not getting my feedback.