Has anyone out there seen this? Go ahead, click over there, then come back.
I stumbled upon it looking for data on at-register/on-receipt customer satisfaction surveys and was surprised to find a well-maintained blog-style site dedicated to this very thing. I’m unclear as to what the organization behind the blog stands to gain or how it generates revenue but the site states that its mission is to “help internet users quickly locate these consumer satisfaction survey websites by cataloguing and archiving the consumer satisfaction survey websites of various merchants and companies for their convenience.”
At first glance this site seemed helpful and transparent enough. The directions are clear and the surveys are appropriately linked, although I’ve personally never found customer satisfaction survey instructions difficult to follow so I’m not sure how useful it is if you have a receipt with the instructions for the survey in your possession. Then I considered that some consumers might check back to this site every once in a while to see if there are any receipts with surveys they may have overlooked. Handy, no?
Then I kept reading. Several of the entries start by saying that there is no purchase required or that there is no code to enter. (It should also be noted that there are no “cheats” or fake codes given to help site users game the system.) These entries go on to walk readers through the process of filling out the survey. This would mean that even consumers who haven’t interacted with a certain company or brand are eligible to enter for the free product, coupon, discount or sweepstakes.
Hey, I’m all for the free stuff but as a member of a research community, isn’t it a little bit concerning? I’m not sure how popular www.consumersatisfactionsurveys.com is or what kind of traffic it gets (in almost four years in the industry I’d never come across it) but are unsecured customer satisfaction surveys running the risk of being flooded with people looking for handouts? Is the average consumer hungry enough for freebies that they would routinely fill out surveys they are unqualified for? Or is the number of consumers willing to fill out a survey for a product they haven’t interacted with small enough that it’s insignificant? With all of the data quality control products out there, is there any reason to allow just anyone to answer your satisfaction survey? Would you ever put out an open customer satisfaction survey? Would you be upset if it ended up on www.consumersatisfactionsurveys.com?