Customer feedback is an essential input for developing strategy. But how do you get your busy customers to give you feedback?
A sushi restaurant I frequent in Denver provides an incentive. After each meal they send me an email with an incentive to complete a brief survey. If I complete it I have a 1 in 5 chance of receiving 5 ‘points’ in their frequent diner program. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
For every dollar I spend at the restaurant I get one point. When I earn 200 points I get a $10 reward. So, stay with me, if 200 points is worth $10 then 5 points is worth … 25 cents. Which means that taking my valuable time to complete a survey gives me a 1 in 5 chance of receiving 25 cents worth of points! Seems a touch light, don’t you think?
If you’re offering your customers an incentive, yes, make sure the odds don’t seem astronomical. But also make sure the payoff is significant enough to truly act as an incentive. Otherwise, there’s little incentive in having an incentive program.
Your thoughts?
Michael
