Customer Satisfaction Survey Incentives

It seems to be becoming a fairly common practice these days (at least in the US) to include a customer satisfaction survey invitation printed on receipts at check-out that offer a discount on a future purchase as the survey incentive.

Some see potential data bias involved with offering a discount code as an incentive but depending upon the type of survey and the survey audience, offering an incentive is usually very effective in improving response rates. People like the idea of getting something for their time and research has found that incentives can boost response rates by 50% on average.

The use of discount codes as incentives to increase customer satisfaction survey response rates can be beneficial in reducing non-response bias since customer surveys without an incentive tend to capture only the discontented. Using a discount code incentive can help increase participation from the vast majority of your customers in the middle (those between very satisfied and very unsatisfied) giving you better overall results. In addition to gaining insight into your customer’s shopping experience, offering discount codes as incentives can both stimulate repeat business and strengthen your brand.

The data compiled from the survey respondents can be used as an additional marketing research tool giving you additional customer insights. Offering a discount code incentive provides you with information regarding what comprised the customer’s original purchase as well as if and how they utilize the discount code incentive resulting in additional actionable data, not unlike many customer loyalty programs.