Ok, ok.

I received lots of responses from people about the idea of using an
incentive to encourage visitors to complete a survey (thank you very much
to all of you.  By the way, your free ticket to the museum is in the
mail--ha ha.)  The majority of respondents suggested not using an
incentive, other than letting visitors know their opinions are important to
us, for fear of biasing the sample.

Alright, so now I'm revisiting the idea of providing a seating area with
cookies, ice water, and hot water (with coffee bags, tea bags, and hot
chocolate).  What do you all feel about that?  Will that bias our sample,
too?  It seems to me that it wouldn't, because we're simply providing for
their comfort, but then I have a hard time being objective since I've had
to stand out there smiling for three days, trying to convince people their
opinions are important.

(For those of you who need a little background, here's the situation:
this survey is three pages long, takes five to ten minutes to complete, and
*must* be completed by visitors *after* they have finished their visit.
It asks what they've visited, how they liked each thing, and a pile of
optional demographics.  My ultimate goal is to find a way to shorten the
beast, but there are lots of people invested in this survey and changes
will take time.

Our experience has been that when visitors are ready to go, they're ready
to go *now*.   The most common response we've received is, "Sorry, we don't
have time."  And I truly believe that almost all of these people honestly
feel that way.  My hope is that free food and drink will make them think
twice about saying no.

I believe this time issue is only going to get worse, as our society allows
itself to become more and more hurried, budgeting even relaxation time down
to the minute.  But that's a much larger topic of discussion for another
time.  I would be interested in hearing what you all have to say about our
society's concept of time, but this exit survey thing is a little more
pressing since it's scheduled for Feb. 17, 18 & 19.)

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Bill

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William H. Stirrat  (Bill)
Evaluator/Market Researcher              ? !
Our Minnesota Science Hall                  o
Science Museum of Minnesota          /( )\
30 East 10th Street                                    /\
St. Paul, MN  55101
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As always, opinions expressed are my own.
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