Starwood Preferred Guest - Starwood surveys from outside vendors

So, today I got my second survey in two months from TNS (a market research firm) on behalf of Starwood. The email said it would take about 20 minutes to complete the survey.

I love Starwood and am happy to provide information. The survey only took 4 minutes (I guess I got the short skip pattern). It was a very well done and professional looking document. I appreciate Starwood's willingness and desire to learn from and about its customers.

But just as an FYI, asking somebody to do a 20 minute survey without offering any sort of compensation isn't so nice. (See OpinionPlace threads for strong opinions on survey compensation). Maybe Starwood could offer 100 or 200 points if it takes less than 10 minutes, and 300 or 400 points for more than 10 minutes. It doesn't have to be a lot, but something would be nice if you're asking people to commit 20 minutes of their time.

(by the way, I would be happy to participate in an ongoing customer advisory board for free...)

I completely agree! Why do they think that my time is not worth anything to me? While I may help with the improvement of service etc., that is for their benefit - not mine!

I had one of these TNS surveys last week. Went through the whole multiple choice section. Got to what I presume was the end and answered a free-format question about suggestions I had.

I'm not sure what I entered that their system didn't like -- probably too much text -- but I got an error page telling me that I'd made an invalid response, and then I discovered that their system is designed to disallow going back with your browser or re-sending a refreshed page. So I was stuck.

So 20 minutes wasted.