Businesses Reaching Out for Feedback

[Kestra]

Has anyone else noticed more of this going on? With restaurants, for example. There are the usual comment cards and such, but I've noticed an increased amount of personal attention asking for feedback. And just now I got an e-mail from Houlihan's that was a slightly unusual survey. At the end of it they asked if I'd be interested in participating in some group that can give them feedback on their ideas.

I'm not explaining this right and the e-mail was sent out to everyone on their list, but it just reminded me that I've been noticing an increase in this sort of thing. E-mails from companies saying that they have listened to feedback and changed their products. Personal attention in large stores. As a consumer, I've been feeling more important.

Anyone with their own experiences?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Well, it's a recession. Any ways companies can find to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction, they'll try. Efficiency lowers costs, and satisfaction increases sales. Actually, I think this "reaching out to customers" thing is a cheapskate move--this way, they don't have to hire market research firms, they just talk to customers directly.

 

[Plecostomus]

We've been doing that alot more at the diner. Every check comes with a little card asking for feedback and suggestions, and if you fill it out you get $10 off your next order.

 

[Holdfast]

Feedback forms cheese me off something horrid.

I hate the buggers. I'm not doing someone's freebie market research for them, unless they offer me some kind of incentive (so Plec's ones would be alright). But otherwise, not a chance in hell. Pay for your own damn research.

What's worse, and I guess why I dislike them so much, is that I have to do them at work too. For about a million different things, all in the name of "good governance". Most of them, I just junk. But some, if I don't complete them, I can theoretically get disciplined at my annual appraisal. But I'm not prepared to waste my time doing them properly, so I just usually fill in the average option straight down the middle so as to finish them in the fastest time possible.

What do the statisticians say? RIRO. Rubbish In, Rubbish Out. So much for "good governance"...