Surveys...... now THAT'S worth 5 minutes of my time :)

Soooooooo, you go into a store and you decide to purchase something. You approach the cashier with a smile while whistling a happy little tune over your recent find. ( Well, sometimes I whistle, but I don't particularly recommend it as you get weird looks from a lot of people :P) You plop it down on the conveyor belt (in my mind I am in Target... hence the belt) and the cashier reaches for it and opens the transaction. Just as your receipt comes out and you start to reach for it, they hold it up for you and point towards the bottom and say something like "You have been reandomly selected to participate in an online survey. Once you complete it, you will be entered into a drawing (with thousands of other people) for $100. Thank you for shopping with us!"

Ok, so here's the deal. I'm not usually willing to spend even 5 minutes of my time on the slightest chance that I could win $100. Because of this, I never do the surveys and those receipts end up where all the other receipts do....trash, couch cushion...whatever :) But this past week I got two surveys I thought were worthwhile. One from Target that enters you in a drawing for $5,000 (which you probably won't win, but hey... it's 5,000 bucks if you do) and one from Gap that gives you 20% off of any item you want if you complete the survey. I have to say, I think the Gap one is genius!!! I mean, customers get an automatic reward (no drawing) and it brings people back into your store.... it's a win win. Anyhoo, the last question of the survey was,

How instrumental was the 20% off one item in your decision to complete this survey?

I laughed and laughed and then I clicked as far over in the "Extremely instrumental" side of the range as I could. Let this be a lesson to all you survey incentive creators out there..... give a discount. You'll eventually bring more money into the store, and people will actually do the survey. (like, nice people... not just the ones who had a horrible time and want to chew you out about it)