USING INCENTIVES TO INCREASE RESPONSE RATES 
Finding Balance with Customer Incentives 
When companies offer a promotional incentive in exchange for customer feedback, they must find a delicate balance between rewarding their customers and managing financial expectations. 
What makes a good incentive? 

A ÒgoodÓ incentive should balance the needs of the customer, the brand, and franchisees. 

© 2021 InMoment, Inc. 

For the customer, an incentive should: 
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Be relevant and have value 

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Have broad appeal 

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Illicit an emotional response 






INCENTIVE TYPES 

To the brand/franchisees, an incentive should: 
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Increase purchase value and profit by motivating for repeat vis.its (bounce back) and/or trial of strategic products, categories, or day parts (as long as it is relevant and has broad appeal) 

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Increase insight Actionability by: 

a. 
Increasing the number of surveys and insights 

b. 
Reducing non-response bias. Surveys without an                    incentive tend to narrowly capture either the                   ÒgripersÓ or the Òvery happyÓ customers. Using an                   incentive increases participation from customers in                    between the polarized ends, giving you better results 



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Have a comparatively lower hard costs 



Different types of incentives vary in success (as defined above): 
Less Successful Incentives More Successful Incentives 

Sweepstakes % Off Next $ Off Next Purchase Purchase 



INCENTIVE RECOMMENDATIONS 
Primary Recommendations: 
1. 
Charity Donation: Use a donation to a charity as an incentive to get more responses. Allows the business to define the pa.rameters around the charitable amount and tie each response to an amount 

2. 
Free ÒSoft CostÓ Item: Use a free Òsoft costÓ item when first launching your program.  This produces the most survey volume right out of the gate and creates a customer ÒhabitÓ of leaving feedback  

3. 
Free ÒSoft CostÓ Item w/ Purchase: After launch, change to a free Òsoft costÓ item with  purchase to increase bounce back growth while still maintaining high survey volume 

4. 
BOGO ÒSoft CostÓ Items: Typically has less of an appeal than a free soft cost item unless the item is highly sharable and most of your transactions are 2+ customers 


BOGO ÒSoft Free ÒSoft Cost Free ÒSoft CostÓ Items Item w/ Purchase CostÓ Item 


Secondary Recommendations: 
5. 
$ or % Off Next Purchase: Allows more freedom of choice for the customer on their next visit.  However, it loses the emo.tional response and brands have less control over costs with $ or % off 

6. 
Sweepstakes: Allows for one fixed cost for the entire brand.  However, sweepstakes generally produce the lowest amount of surveys, appeal more to certain demographics, and usually does not stimulate repeat business or trial.  If you use a sweepstakes as your incentive, we highly recommend you use a professional sweepstakes company to ensure your sweep.stakes meets all local and federal laws.  We also suggest that you publically post sweepstakeÕs winners. 




OTHER RECOMENDATIONS 
Other variations: 
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Minimum purchase or specific times to purchase: Adding a minimum purchase amount (e.g. Òfree fries with a minimum purchase of $10Ó) or specific items to be purchased (e.g. Òfree hamburger with a purchase of a large fry and drinkÓ) for the redemption can help to ensure a customers simply does not choose the item with the smallest dollar amount on the menu. Keep in mind that any restrictions can lower your number of surveys. 

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Valid redemption time period: Consider adding on your survey invite (typically the receipt) an expiration date to redeem the incentive (though in general we suggest you redeem all incentives whether they are past the expiration or not). ÒThis incentive is valid up to one week after taking the surveyÓ or ÒThis incentive is valid up to one month after the date on your receipt.Ó 

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Track redemptions 

a.
  If possible, add a button to your POS to track incentive    redemptions and the amount purchased to monitor        your bounce back growth (redemption visit $ spend / initial visit $ spend) 

b. 
Actively monitor how many times an incentive is redeemed    to make sure team members are redeeming properly 



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Multiple offers: Consider giving the customer multiple incen.tive choices to choose from. All restaurants should redeem all offers given to the customer. 

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Be consistent: Use the same incentive(s) across the entire brand to give the customer a unified experience and minimize the chance of differing stores only recognizing certain incentives 

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Survey invite (receipt): Make the incentive stands out, use bold or a larger font when possible 


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Alcohol restrictions: This is specific to food services brands, but if your brand serves alcohol, check with your local and federal laws to ensure your incentives meet all applicable laws and state any restrictions (some states consider survey incentive redemptions as a ÒcouponÓ and do not allow coupons on alcohol).  

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State any restrictions: State any restrictions to the incentive or the redemption clearly on the survey invite (not valid with any other offer or discount, restrictions on alcohol sales, minimum purchase requirements, valid at participating locations only, not transferable, not open to employees, etc.) 




TL-01532-02-NA | © 2021 InMoment, Inc.