Yeah, cable television isn’t a necessity, and it isn’t cheap. But according to a new poll by our friends over at Coupon Cabin, most American households pay up anyway, even if they acknowledge that cable is kind of a waste of money. [More]
surveys
Why Only Perfect Customer Service Scores Matter: It’s About Evangelism
By 4.25.13 — Updated: 4.26.13
No matter how many people are content or reasonably happy with the service they receive, it doesn’t matter when some companies analyze their customer service surveys. As a former Borders manager told us earlier this week, the only scores that matter are the very highest. We shared a note on the box from a local Pizza Hut begging customers for “5 out of 5” responses. Why is it that these are the only answers that count? [More]
Ex-Borders Manager: Here’s Why Only Perfect Scores Matter On Customer Service Surveys
By 4.23.13 — Updated: 4.26.13
Why is it that when we take customer service surveys, store employees beg us to either give them a perfect score or not bother? Reader C. used to work for a now-defunct retailer whose name rhymes with “disorders.” She was in management, and explains why a perfect score, and only a perfect score, counts. [More]
Pizza Hut Tapes Note To Box Begging For Perfect Survey Scores
By 4.23.13
Filling out customer service surveys is scary. If some managers are to be believed, giving any score but an 11 out of 10 is effectively stealing food out of the mouths of employees’ families. Getting impossibly perfect stores is so important for some stores that they’ve resorted to bribing customers with coupons or freebies. That’s the case with Jared’s local Pizza Hut, which taped a note begging for perfect scores to his pizza box. [More]
Well, At Least Most People Aren’t Stingy Jerks When They Tip
By 4.4.13
Tipping is a hot topic here on Consumerist, and…well, everywhere else online too. Common decency dictates that when you use a coupon or otherwise get discounted services or chow, you should still tip based on the original sticker price. Makes sense, right? And yet, a recent survey shows that 26% of adults who say that they leave tips claim that they tip based on the post-coupon total. For shame! [More]
Survey Says: Retail Workers Feel Least Connected To Employers
By 2.4.13
While there are plenty of people working in all levels of retail who want to do a good job, a new survey shows that only half of U.S. retail workers have the sense that they are even moderately engaged with their jobs. [More]
Ask The Consumerist: Is There Any Point To All These Stupid Surveys?
By 9.19.12
Rachel is sick of surveys and writes in to ask if we think they serve any purpose. [More]
Citi Has Some Very Strange Ideas On How I Plan To Spend My Extra Cash Points
By 8.6.12
Is there no limit to what banking rewards programs will cover these days? Flights, hotel rooms, rental cars, electronics, women. Wait — what? [More]
Most Americans Giving Black Friday The Cold Shoulder
By 11.10.11
Despite all the hype and hoopla and multi-page spreads, most Americans are planning on doing absolutely no shopping at all on Black Friday, according to a new survey. [More]
How Many Slaves Work For You?
By 11.1.11
There’s a decent chance that slaves have handled something you own. The coltan in your smartphone. The beans in that coffee you’re sipping. The cotton in the underwear you’re sitting in. All around the world, forced labor is used to mine and harvest the raw materials that goes up the supply chain and into the products you own. So how many slaves do you have working for you? This interactive, beautifully designed, 11-question survey calculates it for you. [More]
Walmart.com Has Slowest Shipping, Costco.com Has Fastest
By 8.3.11
Two days before school starts and you need those pencils and TI-89 calculators, stat? If online shopping is the route you’re going, Costco will get it to you faster than Walmart, says a new survey. [More]
Pizza Hut Cares, Offers Gift Card When You Misunderstand Survey
By 7.22.11
This is a story of a small thing going wrong during a pizza order, and a relatively small gesture from the company to make things better. No, it’s not a large, earth-shattering problem. Jay took a survey on the Pizza Hut web site, and wasn’t entered in the drawing that enticed him to take the survey in the first place. Why was that, he wondered? So he used some Consumerist resources and got on the phone. [More]
Co-Eds Say It's Sexier If You Have Health Insurance
By 7.19.11
According to a new survey, 90% of college students say that they were attracted to someone and then found out they had health insurance, they would be more likely to be more attracted to him or her. So forget shopping for sexy lingerie, or perfecting your conversational skills, if you really want to attract the ladies or the fellas, you should call a health insurance broker or get a job with health benefits. [More]
Walmart Declutters Aisles Per Customers' Request, Then Loses $1.85 Billion In Sales
By 4.18.11
Back in 2009, Walmart surveyed its customers and asked “Would you like Walmart to be less cluttered?” They said yes. So Walmart cleared out space and reduced inventory and customer satisfaction shot up. However, same-store sales plummeted, by Phil Terry’s estimate, by $1.85 billion, and now Walmart has fired the team that put the idea into place and is spending hundreds of millions to undo what they spent hundreds of millions doing. But wait! Weren’t they listening to their customers? Why weren’t they rewarded? [More]
Survey: Zappos, Amazon Give Best Customer Service
By 1.24.11
Zappos.com and its parent, Amazon.com, provide the best customer service, according to a survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation Foundation and American Express. The survey polled 9,291 consumers, asking them: “Thinking of all the different retail formats (store, catalog, internet, or home shopping), which retailer delivers the best customer service?”
Survey Finds That Most People Don't Want To Be Tracked Online
By 12.23.10
Do you like it when marketers track your behavior across the Internet, in the name of providing you with targeted ads? If you said no, you’re in the majority, according to a new Gallup Poll and common sense. But don’t worry. Advertisers will continue to follow you anyhow. [More]
Game-Hating Group Says 19 Percent Of Kids Can Buy M-Rated Titles
By 10.28.10
Striking a blow against the validity of the self-regulatory practices of the video game industry, the Parents Television Council conducted a survey that found 19 percent of kids could buy Mature-rated games at retailers. [More]
Flight Delays Cost Passengers $16.7 B Per Year
By 10.22.10
Delayed flights aren’t just annoying, they’re expensive. A new FAA-funded study finds that they cost passengers $16.7 billion per year. That’s a lot of bags of peanuts. [More]
