P&O email surveys - 20 minutes for a minute chance to win £100

I know Carnival/P&O are notoriously mean, but do they really expect their customers to waste 20 minutes of their time doing a survey for their benefit just for the tiniest chance of winning a measly £100?

"At P&O Cruises, we regularly carry out customer research to help us understand our guests' views and preferences to help us improve the service we provide.

Currently we’re looking to better understand the types of holidays our customers like to take, what’s important when deciding where to visit and general attitudes towards cruises specifically. As a valued guest whose views are important to us, we hope that you will be able to take time to complete a 20-minute survey.

As a "thank you" for completing the survey you will be entered into a prize draw with the chance of winning a £100 John Lewis voucher. (This can be spent online at JohnLewis.com or at any Waitrose or John Lewis store.)"

Each to their own but I would be happy to do it. I have had this from Cunard in the past without any incentive but have just had an e-mail from them with the same offer. I am quite cynical about these anyway because normally the questions are phrased in a way that will give them the answers they want (that is for any company of any type!).

I would do this, whilst having a coffee break at my desk. After all, decisions are made by those who speak up. It's not the winning that matters; it's the taking part :D.

I would do it as well , it isn't a waste of my time and it doesn't matter what the incentive is. P and O are certainly not alone in offering the chance to win a voucher or be put into a draw of some sort. All large companies make such offers for surveys.

I do fill them in but as Andrew has said the answers to tick are the ones they want you to tick and do not totally concur with what I would like to say. But at least they have stopped asking which paper you read and how much is your household income.

I did one of these 20 minute ones the other day for Channel 4 and when I had finished (about 15 mins later) I pressed the submit button and it took me to a page saying something like "Test Page", so where it went to...if anywhere... I have no idea, needless to say I will think twice in future before wasting part of my life.:):)

I do fill them in but as Andrew has said the answers to tick are the ones they want you to tick and do not totally concur with what I would like to say. But at least they have stopped asking which paper you read and how much is your household income.

I did the survey in the end, yesterday, more to see what the questions were than anything else - and they do ask about your income. They also ask your age, how many hours you spend watching TV, and how long on the internet.

It was all about the sort of holidays you like (city breaks, beach, country etc) - but virtually nothing related to cruising preferences, feedback on P&O, likes and dislikes re P&O etc.

It didn't take 20 minutes, to be fair, but I did rather rush through it - and I do admit to being, what shall we say, economical with the truth. I strongly suspect that surveys like this are used against people when it comes to personalised pricing and offers, so for the purposes of surveys I tend to be pretty hard up, very unlikely to take more than the odd well-priced holiday, and a keen seeker of bargains. That last one is very true!

I started doing it, but stopped halfway through because the questions were so loaded towards the "unbundling" that Florrie has mentioned in previous posts that I couldn't answer, as neither proposed answer corresponded to what I, or my family, would want out of a holiday.

It seemed crystal clear that P&O were looking for justification for potentially turning many currently inclusive services into fee-paying add-ons.

I tend to ignore such surveys because the large cost of employing people in HQ, interpreting the answers that the IT computer provides, to tell the company what they want to know, is another unnecessary overhead that increases prices.

And it is obvious from the way the survey is written they want to reduce formal nights. As far as I can remember the question is near the end. I went though the survey most selecting the first answer - the words were something like " this is very much like me" so when the Q about dressing up comes somehow the answers get reversed so it would be easy to pick the opposite of what I like. ( I do like dressing up but I appreciate not every one does). Sorry I can't remember the exact wording!

And it is obvious from the way the survey is written they want to reduce formal nights. As far as I can remember the question is near the end. I went though the survey most selecting the first answer - the words were something like " this is very much like me" so when the Q about dressing up comes somehow the answers get reversed so it would be easy to pick the opposite of what I like. ( I do like dressing up but I appreciate not every one does). Sorry I can't remember the exact wording!

I don't agree - what they want is to find out what their customers want. If it were just a question of wanting to reduce the number of formal nights they'd just do it.

They simply want to find out whether dropping formal nights would gain them more customers than they'd lose, which is fair enough. I wouldn't be greatly bothered either way - there's no way on this earth that I'd wear a penguin suit, but I'll happily wear a dark suit to comply. There are plenty of people, though, who see this as unnecessarily controlling and simply won't cruise with P&O. And as the old die-hards die off I'm guessing that number will increase - the survey will give them an idea.

I don't agree - what they want is to find out what their customers want. If it were just a question of wanting to reduce the number of formal nights they'd just do it.

 

They simply want to find out whether dropping formal nights would gain them more customers than they'd lose, which is fair enough. I wouldn't be greatly bothered either way - there's no way on this earth that I'd wear a penguin suit, but I'll happily wear a dark suit to comply. There are plenty of people, though, who see this as unnecessarily controlling and simply won't cruise with P&O. And as the old die-hards die off I'm guessing that number will increase - the survey will give them an idea.

Many companies which launch this type of survey have an idea what they passionately believe is the best way for the company to evolve and try to get confirmation through the process. Unfortunately, in order to do this quite often, in my opinion they introduce a bias.

In terms of running "Black Tie" evenings the cruise line allow a wide range of formal wear including dark suits. You probably could wear any colour of suit without causing a problem. It seems quite fashionable for modern young gentlemen to wear suits at the moment, all be they small jackets and narrow to tight trousers. The suit will endure much longer as there is no real alternative to it for men to wear.

I do not think that requiring a formal dress code is as controlling as you seem to believe. It's the same people every night on a cruise and some nights are made more special a bit like going to a wedding for example. When you talk about old die-hards dying off, it reflects badly on you and is not respectful of other passengers. May I remind you that your opening gambit was being a bit miffed at not likely winning £100 for 20 minutes completing a survery which seems a tad mercenary.

Regards John

Without wanting to set off yet another argument about this, I think we must simply disagree. It's primarily an age thing, with far more older passengers preferring formal than younger passengers, and I don't see any disrespect in mentioning that people die - it's a fact of life.

There are very few holidays in which such a degree of control over clothing is exercised, and whilst some younger people are doubtless happy to accept that, most, I would suggest, aren't - and that's precisely why they run surveys like this. It's also a peculiarly British things, and probably alienates people from outside the UK who might otherwise make bookings.