Ryan Greenberg

I like flying with Southwest. I don’t like the tactics that a research company is using on their behalf.

This email arrived in my inbox this evening. It invites me to take a survey about Southwest and offers a $15 incentive for participation. That seems relatively high, but not inconceivable.

I answered a series of demographics questions and questions about my preferences in air travel. Ten minutes and 20 pages later, I finished the survey and received the following message:

“Thank you for taking the time to participate in our study unfortunately you did not participate actively enough to be eligible for the $15 reward. We appreciate you taking the time to try and encourage you to please try again at your next available opportunity as your opinions are very important to us.”

I don’t care about the $15. This is simply a dishonest way to solicit information from your customers.