Undoubtedly, the biggest trend in survey feedback incentivisation has been offering the chance to win an iPad or the like.
To incentivise or not to incentivise—that is the real question for small businesses.
Many people believe incentivisation is a necessity, but a substantial body of research suggests the contrary, particularly for owners of small businesses. If you are already engaged with your customers, they will trust that the information they provide through a survey will be duly noted and used wisely. If customers know that the survey will be brief and the amount of effort required is minimal, they get the reward of feeling like they are valued and are truly assisting you in your business. Often that is a more rewarding feeling than a prize incentive.
As it turns out, impressive prizes are not always the best incentive for customers to fill out your survey. Many people are often sceptical that the prize will ever be awarded.
A vast amount of businesses reward a customer’s time and effort for completing their survey by entering them into a draw to win something. They forget to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and recall that universal reluctance to enter a competition that they think is unwinnable because of an assumed overwhelming number of entries. Similarly, incentivising a skill-based response often seems like too much time and effort to complete. Kate Tribe, Managing Director of Tribe Research, believes there is one reliable thing small business owners can reward their customers with—no iPad needed. Proving that you actually listen to your customers and take their feedback into account is a huge incentive in itself. It makes customers feel valued, and inevitably improves their overall customer experience.
This article is based on an extract from the Designing Effective Feedback Surveys webinar, which was presented by Kate Tribe. Click here to access the Designing Effective Feedback Surveys webinar recording from the On-Demand Learning Centre.
This article was co-authored by Elizabeth Rowe. Elizabeth graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English Literature) at the ANU and a Masters of Media Practice at the University of Sydney. She is currently completing an internship with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.
