Scam email ?

Yes, I had one.  I didn't think it was spam as we're constantly being asked for our views legitimately, but I binned it anyway because I don't see the point.

I would rather like an I-pad.

Looks genuine enough, some sensible questions and an invitation for a 30 min chat with a researcher. No request for personal info (apart from age and income range).

This thread made me chuckle for all the wrong reasons, perfect fodder to laugh with (at?) Our Marketing gurus.

But I can confirm, it is genuine. Good luck with the iPad.....

Thanks for the confirm - I was quite happy to take the survey, & have now done so : best remind your Marketing department, though, not to expect people in this day & age to to take sweets from email strangers.

I feel decidely miff'ed. I had one from TC last night, but found that the Nesta survey took me in never ending circles (get to the end.....took me back to the beginning...3 times). But not had one from FC or AC...OK, I guess I'd better check whether they hvae been filtered in some way.

I bin all online survey invitations. The RS survey might be excellent but most online surveys are rubbish and have discredited the technique. If companies really want to find out about their users and their experience of using their services, then they should simply talk to their customers.

Instead, companies are too often gulled by sellers of survey software. They fall for the line that the software will effortlessly compile large volumes of valuable data and then analyse it beautifully so that the company doesn’t have to do any work. The only beneficiaries are the survey software sellers.

The result is that the users are faced only with multiple choice questions and have no opportunity to write text; there may be no opportunity raise your own gripes; no one at the company will have to read and respond to a user’s views expressed in prose; the staff running the survey may not themselves be familiar with the company’s services.

It is worse than a missed opportunity because it actually distracts a company from getting useful feedback and allows the company to feel (and boast) that it is listening to its customers when it is not.

The best way for a company get feedback is to select users and then phone them. It’s called listening. This can be done unobtrusively by allowing customers to opt in to such calls.

All this is not aimed at RS as I haven’t read their survey; it’s just a reaction to too many mindless surveys that don’t give you a chance to say what you really want to say, or take longer than promised to complete etc. My background includes producing online survey software many years ago. End of rant.

I think nobody should fill this survey in.   That way, I win the iPad by default and become a Hero Dad by giving it to my daughter.  Doesn't that seem entirely reasonable?

Joking apart, it's no real effort to complete and far less intrusive in its questions than those produced by the BBC, my personal bete noire persistent survey junkie organisation.