Ooh! Say something nice about me!
posted by: Nick Roman on 2/22/2010
When I was served at a well-known chemist chain in London recently, the woman at the checkout felt the need to comment on a number of my purchases (none of which was interesting enough to comment on). I particularly enjoyed “Oh my God! Did you see how much that toothpaste costs? So expensive!” Excellent. Nothing like making the customer feel like she’s either getting ripped off, or she has an outrageously decadent approach to dental hygiene.
Anyway, as she printed my receipt, the machine also printed out a survey invitation which directed me to their Website. I’ve had these from the same company before, and in return for completing a short survey about your experience that day, you’re entered into a prize drawing to win £1000. I usually complete the survey, because I like giving feedback. And I quite like money too. Win/win. Before the cashier handed me the receipt, she wrote her name on it in huge letters, with a smiley face. She then beamed at me (notably the first time she’d smiled during the transaction), and said “Oh! Say nice things about me! We get bonuses for good comments and I’m going on holiday soon.” So, so special. And it looks like such situations are independent of geography too, since I’m in London and this was in the US.
Point-of-sale surveys often rely on the person providing the service to invite the customer to give feedback, and I don’t really know how you avoid them either cherry-picking customers or trying to influence their answers in some way. But managers do need to put together some sort of training for the way employees handle the situation. Or, find a way to take them out of the equation. The woman on this occasion hadn’t inspired me to write anything nice about her anyway, but her cheekiness in asking for positive comments pretty much scuppered her chances altogether. I wrote “none” in the Additional Comments section.
Let us know if you’ve got any similar stories of poor or amusing survey invitations. I’m sure there must be plenty out there—we could have a top 10 list!