I started collecting examples of emails about surveys last year, although it has been surprising how very few actually stand out from the bog standard. Two messages that caught John or my attention last week were these – all because of the subject line.
Subject: Only 30 mins till lunchtime!
I definitely never actually opted-in to this mailing list but it’s a very different approach to the usual “Customer Satisfaction Survey” headline. Although the survey was more market research than for customer feedback, it might work well for employee surveys.
This message does assume that the email will land in inboxes before lunch. If you are firing out a few thousand (or less) – just because the emails have “gone” don’t mean they have all been delivered. Email does not guarantee time-critical communication.
Subject: Can you help us out this Friday?
This was the subject for PostcodeAnywhere’s annual survey. Again it’s different from the usual affair and appealing to our charitable feeling on the day.
Does the message mean that they don’t want to hear your feedback on Monday though? Possibly – this is a common problem for choosing a date and how to communicate the survey’s closing date.
Bonus points to the creator for making the version without images look so clean (left hand screenshot).
One other message leapt out in my inbox.
Thank you for taking part in our survey and prize draw
I’m not a customer of Zen Software yet, but receiving a thank you by email is rare. I am more likely to buy the software (I probably would have anyway, but this has only helped strengthen my view).
Dan Wardle
Dan
John Kemp