When we bought a used minivan several years ago, the sales lady who sold us the van - a lady in her mid-twenties, moderately attractive, and overly effusive in a way only used-car salespeople can be - gave us the whole survey spiel when we were just about finished.
Then, she leans into me and says “I’d be (here she takes a deep breath, and glances down at her cleavage) very appreciative if you gave me a good rating.”
Uh, yeah. . . no. I mean, if I weren’t there with my wife an (at the time) two kids, I could understand why she might try to use her second-rate feminine wiles on me, but when I’m obviously married, that’s just tacky.
So I gave her one star across the board - aside from the come-on, she really wasn’t a very good salesperson. She didn’t know her inventory, didn’t know much about cars, and was a horrible negotiator - I wound up dealing with her boss for most of the process.
Whataburger’s online survey is relatively short, to the point, and asks for absolutely no personal information beyond general demographics. And for doing that they give you a free burger. It’s a pretty good deal, and it’s the only survey I’ll bother doing ever.
WHY is it so incredibly difficult to make businesses accept that we have a very simple relationship? I give you money, you give me goods and/or services. The end. If you would like something else from me, be it my time, opinion, or hair clippings, make me an offer. Make it worth my while. I may be willing to engage in a transaction, or I may not. If I have something you want, you should be willing to pay for it in some way. HINT: offering a 1:100,000 chance of winning a $10 gift card is unlikely to pique my interest.
I fell for a PayPal “survey” the other day. What it was, actually, was a thinly disguised advertisement for a new service they a pushing.* Not only that, but it went on, and ON, and OOONNNNNN…after about the first thirty questions I just started picking the most negative possible option, unless there was an “other” box where I could fill in the blank with profane comments on what I thought of their “survey”.
As a result, I am now far less inclined to use PayPal at all.
*Basically a “PayPal for craigslist” where the buyer can transfer money to seller via a mobile phone ap, without having to carry cash.
I filled out one for Walmart a couple of weeks ago for an online cell phone purchase. After about 4 screens of typical “Were you satisfied with your purchase experience?” questions, this screen came up.
That’s interesting - sometimes the whole survey is just a smoke-screen to get to what they really want to ask. Case in point - years ago I attended a free screening where they showed a movie, an episode of a TV pilot, and a few commercials. Then they wanted to have us fill in a survey. It turns out the whole evening was to get our reaction to one of the commercials.
When I go to Mimi’s Cafe, I get the phone number and access code to take the satisfaction survey when the bill comes. I pull out my cellphone and take the survey while my card is being run, so I have the compliance code ready when it comes back.
Then when I’m leaving I pick up my two free muffins (used to be four, but I think they caught on to me…)
