A burger for your thoughts

The Wendy's Customer Feedback Survey

As you may recall, I collect surveys, often recognized as those pesky little customer feedback questionnaires you receive after purchasing a product or service. During lunch today I ran a few errands preparing for the worst prior to the expectant ice storm to hit the Dallas area. On my way back to work, I drove through the drive-through at Wendy's for a bowl of hot chili. To my surprise, I noticed the request for customer feedback on the back of my receipt. Some ask you to call to give your feedback on their products and services. Some tempt you into completing the survey with the chance to earn cash from a monthly pool that they give away. With Wendy's it's a solid offer --- a free Single hamburger for your feedback. Tonight I decided to see what was required for that hamburger.


The rules: In order to qualify for the free burger, you must call a toll-free number or complete an online questionnaire within 48 hours of the visit. When completing the survey, you are given a validation code that you are instructed to write on the back of your receipt in the designated area. You must pick up your free burger within 14 days of completing the survey. Also, you can only get one free burger in a 30-day period. And, as with most offers, employees and their families are not eligible.

The questions: I was surprised at the number of questions. Twenty-nine responses were requested during the survey.

• There were some general questions about the visit, including the country where the restaraunt was located, the store number, the receipt number, the time of day and the amount of purchase. I expected to see a huge list of countries but only the US, Canada, New Zealand, and El Salvador were listed. Could it be that this customer satisfaction experience is only being assessed in these four countries? I wonder how they were selected --- El Salvador seems like an odd choice. There are three from the Americas and one from Asia Pacific, but none from Europe.
  
• There were numerous satisfaction questions, about the cleanliness of the parking lot, the wait time to place an order, the greeting at the speaker, the clarity of the speaker system, the accuracy of the order, the temperature of the food, the overall quality of the food, the appearance of the food, and the overall satisfaction with THIS experience at THIS restaraunt. They used a 5-point, anchored scale, on the satisfaction questions. The response choices were listed from negative to positive (i.e., very dissatisfied, dissatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, dissatisfied, and very dissatisfied). The items were vertically presented usually, unless multiple question items were grouped (e.g., a matrix or table question -- but without the table borders).
  
• There were some agreement questions also about the employee friendliness, attentiveness, and neatness. Again, these question response choices were listed in negative to positive order.
  
• There was a yes/no question to determine if all items ordered were received. There was also a question to determine if any issue or problem was experienced during the visit.
  
• Wendy's wanted to know the likelihood that I would recommend THIS Wendy's restaraunt and the likelihood that I would come back.
  
• Some numeric data were requested: the approximate total length of wait time (time joining the line to receiving the order) and the number of people in my party.
  
• There were some optional demographic questions, including gender and age. The e-mail address was requested twice: once when arriving at the customer feedback website and once near the end of the questionnaire. I wonder why they asked that twice.
  
• Of course, the last question included an inquiry about my interest in participating in additional consumer research. Right before they asked the question, they pitched some ideas about the benefits to me, but I did not take the bait. : )
  

I wonder:

• Did everyone get an invitation to complete a survey who visited this Wendy's or was it randomly printed at some sampling rate?
  
• How will they know IF someone visits again and completes another survey within 30 days? I bet they either logged my e-mail address or IP address (but that is not static for many people). Because so many people have multiple e-mail addresses, I bet someone could qualify for another free burger within the next 30 days by using another id. Also, one could try using the toll-free telephone number next time.
  
• Can someone get another validation code using the same receipt but completing the survey using the toll-free number?
  
• Can someone get another validation code by mistyping the current receipt data (because they're likely logging the receipts processed) perhaps a different time for the same receipt? by using another receipt number?
  

Of course, these are just hypothetical questions...for the purpose of understanding the parameters of their research design.

Anyway, I received my validation code and wrote it on the back of my receipt. My receipt is now posted on my refrigerator --- a good choice for my next fast food run during a quick lunch hour. I'll take my free Single --- and I'll likely grab some fries and a Coke with it too.

Post a comment if you've received a free Single after completing a Wendy's customer satisfaction survey. Also, if you agreed to participate in future consumer research for Wendy's, tell us about it.