Survey Says...

This is a little bit of a pet peeve post...be warned!

I'm looking at a receipt I recently got from an office supply store. At the bottom, it says "If you were happy with your service please take the survey and give us 5's."

I've got a problem when people tell you how to fill out a survey. You know...sometimes I "agree"; I don't have to always "strongly agree."

Last year, Dan & I bought a new (to us) vehicle. The salesman was wonderful. Former Marine. Family guy. Honest. A straight shooter. We really enjoyed working with him. As soon as the sale was final, he turned to Dan and told him that a survey would come in the mail. We should fill out "strongly agree" for everything. Dan & I talked about it, and felt that we needed to fill it out honestly, and not necessarily the way we were told. Frankly, although we were quite happy with our purchase and the salesman, we just didn't "strongly agree" on everything.

A few weeks later, the salesman called Dan quite upset. He wanted to know what he had done wrong that we would not give him a "strongly agree" in every category. Dan said that we were quite happy, and had no complaints. The salesman went on to tell Dan that he missed out on a large bonus because we didn't fill out the survey the way we were told.

Wait a second...I don't believe the salesman was justified in blaming us and the survey for not getting the bonus. We didn't have any complaints...we just weren't gushing over every detail of our used car purchase.

This survey situation left a bad taste in our mouth for this dealership. When did we start dictating how people should feel about their shopping experiences? A survey should be optional and people should be able to fill it out as they see fit. Maybe that's just old-fashioned of me, though...