How do you like this column?
- col-teri-stein
- October 7, 2022
- 872
How do you like this column? Would you like to take a survey?
No, you don’t.
I don’t want you to take one either. I’m getting sick of surveys and reviews.
I bought one small item online, and the next thing I know the seller is bugging me for weeks to do a survey on it. Did the product meet my expectations? Did the delivery meet or exceed my expectations?
They also wanted me to go online and make some comments about this experience. I don’t know anyone who has that kind of time.
I just deleted the survey. Everything was fine. The item didn’t even cost $10.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Oh no, they sent me another survey because I didn’t answer their earlier requests. Delete.
I’ve done some fast-food surveys in the past. They give you a discount, which sometimes makes it worth your while. We’ve got a lot of wonderful people around here working in fast-food restaurants, so I have mentioned some of them by name for their great service.
The problem with one of the surveys is it assumes you have already had a tremendously positive experience at their fast-food restaurant, so it words the questions that way.
It asks you to list in complete sentences the top-three things that made your fast-food experience so great. One time I had a minor compliant that was no one’s fault at the restaurant, but I wanted to mention it. I kept scrolling through the cheerful survey. There was nowhere to put a comment that wasn’t totally positive.
So I tabbed back to the positive comment section and put it there — a little positive sentence with some constructive criticism at the end. I still got my discount.
This year we got lured into downloading the fast-food app on our phones. They seem to put the best discounts online, and their paper coupon offers are not as good. It is convenient, but I’m not convinced it’s better than ordering at the drive-thru. After my last order on the app, a message popped up on my phone. Did I like the app? How was my order? Did I want to take a survey?
Even the exercise app on my phone wants me to rate my workouts.
My husband, Joe, used to do some surveys online about various topics and products that had perks like restaurant gift cards, but it seems the older you get, the less people want your opinion.
Joe did, somehow, get me two free, really great exercise tops to try from a company website. I don’t know how he did it, but all I had to do is wear these tops and write a review. The tops were great, so I had no problem saying nice things about them. Although, come to think of it, they did have guidelines to ensure I wrote about fit and quality.
Shortly after I did these surveys, Joe was looking at getting some more free items to try, this time for himself. But times change and so do surveys. I can’t remember the exact specifics, but they didn’t want you to just write about the product. They needed you to take a fun photo of yourself wearing the item and looking like you are enjoying the product and make it an action shot. Be sure to smile. Write a 500-word essay and post it to the company website, company social media and share it with 1,000 of your closest social media friends.
OK, I might have embellished that a little but not much. I looked at Joe; our eyes connected. My eyes said you are not getting those free items. His eyes had already accepted defeat.
I had a doctor appointment recently. How did it go? I’m going to say publicly that it was fine. My doctor and his staff are kind and capable people. Of course, I’m saying this because I’m not doing the survey they sent me.
So thanks for reading this column, no survey required.