Dubai: The next time you are asked to participate in a survey, it might be a good idea not to ignore it, because chances are that you might end up getting a prize – either a free ticket, a hotel stay or a dinner for two.
A recent government office in the UAE, which seeks to collect data from customers by incentivising respondents, have proven just that.
Three travellers recently brought home free Air Arabia air tickets given away by the Sharjah Airport Authority through the “Because We Care” campaign.
The three winners, Khalifa bin Rashid Al Saeedi from Oman, Mohammed Tamer Aboud from Guinea-Bissau and Bawn Ghandi from India, were among the passengers who responded to the Customer Feedback Questionnaire Programme, which was designed to gauge customer pulse and gather suggestions to improve airport services.
The airport authority hopes that by offering rewards, flyers are more encouraged to participate in its survey and provide more helpful feedback.
“Sharjah Airport Authority is committed to engaging the users of Sharjah International Airport in all the programmes and initiatives launched by the authority,” said Shaikh Faisal bin Saud Al Qasimi, director of Sharjah Airport Authority.
“Through these programmes and initiatives, we are keen to open the channels of communication with all the airport’s users to identify their feedback and suggestions with the aim to improve the services,” he added.
The three travellers aren’t the only ones who got lucky with surveys in UAE. Larissa, an expatriate based in Dubai, recently won a free night stay at a premium hotel in Abu Dhabi. The reward also came with free breakfast, brunch and massage for two guests.
She got the prize after participating in an online survey by a magazine that promised to reward respondents. “All I did was filled out a form and about a week or two later, I got a notification saying I won a prize,” she said.
The prize couldn’t have come more timely since the expat was about to celebrate her birthday. “That was perfect timing,” she said.
When doing surveys or market research, businesses dangle incentives to customers in order achieve higher response rates. Rewards come in different forms and they can be in the form of cash, voucher or token.
Survey respondents, however, have been advised to be extra careful when participating in such surveys, as some of them could be a scam.
According to SCAMwatch, there are a number of online scams out there that offer fake gift vouchers or other bogus inducements in order to entice people to give away their personal details, including credit card information that can be used to commit identity theft.
How scams work:
1. These scams abuse the brand names and logos of well-known companies and products to make them look legitimate.
2. As with many legitimate offers and online posts, you might be asked to complete a survey and/ or pass on an offer to others before you can claim a voucher or other inducement or enter a competition. But the scams will take your valuable information and give you only disappointment in return – the products don't arrive or the vouchers are fakes and the retailers won’t honour them.
3. Recent scams have related to supermarkets, coffee shops, smart phones and tablets, including offers featured on Facebook.
Source: scamwatch.gov.au
