Saturday, May 16, 2009

Lunch and a Survey






*UPDATE* - A culturally deprived and gastronomically-challenged Canadian asks (gasp), "what are Hawkins Cheezies"? Answer: a company that's great at making cheezies, not so great at marketing. See picture, above.

Canada has three national icons -- the apostrophe-challenged Tim Hortons, Swiss Chalet, and Hawkins Cheezies. Every Canadian embassy should have a Swiss and a Tim's on the property -- along with bowls of Hawkins Cheezies. Am I right?

Anyway, we ate at Swiss Chalet after church on Sunday. The bill had a survey on it good for a free appetizer, so I took it. I was one of those surveys drawn up by marketing types. They don't ask you when it was you visited the restaurant, they ask you the date of your last experience; they don't ask you if you came because you like the food, they ask if you were drawn by the product. Then they asked me this:

"Did your server enhance your experience with recommendations from our menu?"

No, my server enhanced my experience by not making recommendations from the menu. But this response was not an option.

So, this is what I said at the end of the survey:

"Did your server enhance your experience with recommendations from our menu?"

This is an ambiguous question. The server may make recommendations from the menu that do not enhance the diner's experience -- the diner may find them unnecessary or annoying. If you meant, "Did your server recommend items from our menu?", then you should just say so.

*+*

I liked the food better than the survey. What they really need is a survey about the survey.

And that's the way the "Yes, I'd like fries with that!" Ball bounces.

5 comments:

Reid said...

Swiss Chalet has not business on a list of "Canadian Icons." Both Smarties and Old Dutch Ketchup potato chips are more iconically Canadian than Swiss Chalet.

VW said...

No, I wouldn't put Swiss Chalet on the Icons list. Same with Harvey's (owned by the same company).

Who would I put on the list?

Canadian Tire
A.L. van Houtte
Mott's Clamato
President's Choice

G said...

As a Canadian, I have to ask what the hell are Hawkins Cheezies?

Canadian beer is far more recognized. Molson Canadian (American owned now, sadly) is served in nearly 200 countries.

BallBounces said...

LT -- you must live in a Hawkins-free zone of Canada. See the photo I've added. Maybe you can prevail on the Hawkins company (located in Belleville Ont.) to make an emergency shipment to whereever you are. Shoppers Drugmart sometimes carries them. The Superstore sometimes has them.

G said...

oh, those! Its kinda funny actually, cause most people i know call those the "cheap cheezies." But then, us Albertans have always been a bit off compared to the rest of Canada. xD

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"