How Fake Survey Sweepstakes Hurt Your Company

How Fake Survey Sweepstakes Hurt Your Company

Thank you for your purchase.

Share your thoughts for a chance to win!

Have you ever purchased an item and then received an email asking you to fill out a survey about your shopping experience for a “chance to win” some sort of random sweepstakes? Sounds like a decent proposal, right? So you went ahead and filled out the survey and…nothing! You didn’t win. Well, here’s the reality. No one ever wins. The whole thing is a lie.

The whole thing is a lie.

You’d think that only smaller companies would engage in this type of deception, but that’s not the case. More established companies promote this sham as a “bait” to gain important customer feedback, but don’t actually deliver on their promise to deliver a gift card, or other reward. Here’s the reality, this type of duplicity hurts your brand.

Savvy and sophisticated customers, who provide the most valuable feedback, understand that this is a fake promotion and won’t participate. Thus, the sample set you gain from this fallacy is only from the lowest common dominator of your customer base. Certainly not an accurate portrayal of the overall customer shopping experience.

Fake Survey Sweepstakes Hurt Your Brand
This recently came to light when I received a “Thank you for your purchase. Share your thoughts for a chance to win!” from a well-established fishing brand. I responded to their email asking why they send these promos when nobody actually wins anything. Their response: “Thank you for contacting _____. I’m sorry to hear of your frustrations regarding a chance at winning the $500 _____ Gift Card. We have a monthly prize drawing which we don’t have any control over who wins. Hopefully, you will be selected as a winner in the future. Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with, have a great day!”

The response was pleasant and professional, but what’s apparent is what they didn’t say: who actually wins the gift cards. So I asked if they had a list of past winners. The response: “Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, we do not have a list that we can supply for previous winners. Have a great day!”

By now, you know the reason. There are no past winners. If there were actual winners the company would have a nice web page showcasing all the past gift card recipients that not only validates their promotion, but more importantly, illustrates their integrity.

So what’s the big deal about not really awarding gift cards? You may think the majority of customers who get suckered into spending their time filling out a survey will never know that the game is rigged, and that’s true. But do you know who does know? This company’s employees.
Fake Survey Sweepstakes Tarnish Your Reputation
And this lack of integrity, at the most basic level, informs this 150 year-old company’s employees that they don’t have to treat their most valuable asset with respect or integrity. It’s acceptable to steal their customer’s time. It’s permissible to lie to their customers. It’s appropriate to deceive their customers.

Is this how you want your company’s employees to treat your customers?

Therefore, for not awarding a handful of dollars in the form of a gift card that the customer will then have to spend at your store, this esteemed company is not only cheating their most valuable asset, they’re also permitting their second most valuable asset, their employees, to be dishonest. This is just bad business.