I love loyalty program surveys. At least I love ones that:

1. Don’t take very long
   
2. Offer insight into the strategic thinking that a program is going through

So I always at least try to start surveys, though sometimes I give up along the way. I used to play all the time with e-Rewards, opinionplace, e-miles, and the other survey programs but for those the rewards were never worth the time.

I liked having a stash of points with e-Rewards and e-miles that I could transfer on demand to generate partner activity in a mileage account when there was a bonus for doing so, but even those offers have been fewer and farther between. But at least that provided some leverage. The straight-up earning for time is weak.

That said, I’ll check out surveys done directly on behalf of a program because I’m interested in what they’re surveying.

So I saw a survey link posted at Milepoint and ostensibly IHG Rewards was offering 500 points for completing it. I value that at about $3, but I was more interested in seeing what the questions were.

In fact I don’t know whether I’ll get credit for it or not. The survey can be accessed here and you can then reload the page adding your IHG Rewards account number at the end of the URL string. That may or may not wind up delivering points to you (my guess is that it will, that they won’t check the survey against their original email list to see who was targeted. But points didn’t post instantly.

The survey seemed to want to know about three things:

1. What the IHG Rewards program makes you feel. There were only a variety of positive options to choose from, so this may give them adjectives to use but isn’t a survey aimed at constructive understanding of customer perception.
   
2. What kinds of rewards you want most. I selected upgrades, something the program doesn’t currently offer. You shouldn’t redeem your miles for merchandise anyway.
   
3. How you use your smartphone and social media while on vacation. I surmise this is the real meat of the survey from a strategic perspective, with the other questions attempting mostly to classify members or figure out what to offer to and how to engage smartphone and social-engaged members.

IHG Rewards strikes me as on the whole behind in the social and mobile space. Not that any hotel chain does it especially well, although they do for the most part at least have an app.

This survey, judging from the URL string, was aimed at Ambassador members of the program (paid members seeking better treatment at Intercontinental-branded properties). And at least it shows your progress along each page, something that I resent any survey for leaving out (I have to know how close to done I am if I’m expected to complete it).

There were 20 questions in all. If you’re interested you can certainly take a stab for a possible 500 points. And you’ll find out whether or not they post in 4-6 weeks.

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