I recently received a postcard from IPSOS to go online and complete a survey for BP. The instructions were on the back of the postcard. Click here to see it.
I could nitpick on this and point out that unless you know the BP logo you might not understand that this is a survey about where you buy your gas, but we’ll let that go. The real problem is getting to the survey. First, they give you a tough URL to type into your browser. Most people are familiar with URLs that start with "www" rather than the more mysterious "http://" so that is tough enough. Second, they’ give you a URL with a somewhat unconventional domain name with the "-" character in it. So just typing the URL correctly took me a couple of tries.
But the real puzzle unfolds when you get to the site and have to enter your ID and Password. The postcard says that this information is included on the front. You can see the front here. Somewhere on there is an ID and a Password, but it sure was not obvious to me where. After several tries of different combinations I discovered that my ID is 91646492 and my Password is SURVEY.
You have to wonder about the cumulative effect of all of this on survey participation. I stuck with it because I’m a survey geek. But who else will?