Most customer feedback forms go unanswered for a simple reason: the customer gets nothing for their minute. A form on a receipt, or a card with a link, asks for attention and gives back a vague promise that "your feedback helps us improve". People who had a great coffee don't bother. People who waited twenty minutes for a sandwich sometimes do, and then leave a review elsewhere instead.
A coupon changes that. When the last screen of the survey says "15% off your next visit" and shows a code, answering is a small trade rather than a favour. And the trade is good for you twice: you hear what to fix, and the customer has a reason to come back and see that you fixed it.
This guide walks through setting that up for a café: a short survey, a coupon that only costs you when it is used, and a QR code on the counter.
The loop in one line
A customer scans a QR code at the counter, answers four questions in under a minute, gets a coupon on the thank-you screen, and uses it on their next visit. You read what they said the same afternoon.
Every part of that loop is something you can see in Hearsay: how many people opened the survey from the counter code, how many finished, how many coupons went out, and what they asked for.
What to ask: four questions, one minute
Keep it short. A café survey that takes more than a minute is a survey people abandon halfway. Four questions is plenty:
- How was your visit today? A five-star rating. It is fast to answer and gives you one number to follow week to week.
- What went wrong? Shown only to people who gave two stars or fewer, with options like "Waited too long", "Order was wrong", "Coffee wasn't great" and "Too crowded". Everyone else never sees it, so happy customers finish faster and unhappy ones tell you exactly what happened.
- What did you order? Multiple choice: filter coffee, cold brew, the seasonal special, something to eat. It tells you which part of the menu the feedback is about.
- Anything we should add to the menu? Open text, optional. This is where the good ideas come from: oat milk cortado, more plug points by the window, a smaller portion size.
The second question uses branching: a question that shows or hides based on an earlier answer. In Hearsay you can set it in the editor, or ask the AI builder to "add a follow-up for unhappy customers" and it adds the question and the rule for you.
You don't have to write any of this by hand. Describe the survey in one sentence to the AI builder, for example "A quick feedback survey for my café: overall rating, what they ordered, and what to add to the menu", and it drafts the questions. Every draft opens in the full editor, so you can change wording, question types or order before you publish.
The coupon: a thank-you that pays for itself
Attach a reward to the survey and every customer who finishes sees a coupon on the thank-you screen, with a copy button, your message, terms and expiry.
You have two ways to hand out codes:
- One shared code, such as
BREW15, with a limit on how many customers receive it. Simple to set up at the till: staff only need to know one code. - Unique codes, uploaded as a CSV (up to 100,000 per reward). Each customer gets a different code, so a code posted online can only be used once. Most point-of-sale systems and online shops can generate a batch for you.
A few choices matter more than the discount itself:
- Make it about the next visit. "15% off your next visit" brings people back; "15% off today" rewards a visit that already happened.
- Set an expiry. Thirty to sixty days is enough to feel generous and short enough to act on.
- Keep the terms plain. "One use per customer" and "Not valid with other offers" cover most cases.
- Keep the bot check on. Rewarded surveys run a bot check before issuing a code. Anyone who fails it can still answer, but gets no coupon. Each response gets at most one code, and a retried submit shows the same code rather than a new one.
The coupon only costs you when a customer comes back to use it, which is exactly the visit you wanted.
Where to put the QR code
A café's customers are in the room, so the best channel is usually physical. In Hearsay each place you share the survey is a channel with its own link, and every channel has its own QR code. That means you can compare places, not just count responses.
Good places to try:
- A card at the counter, next to where people wait for their order. They have a minute and a phone in hand.
- A table tent. Hearsay prints a tent from any channel: an A4 sheet folded in half, with your headline, the QR code and the short link. Paid plans print it in your brand's colours with your logo.
- The receipt or order ticket, if your system can print a QR or a short link.
- Instagram and WhatsApp, for regulars who follow you. Give each its own channel so you can see which one actually brings in answers.
Use one channel per place. After a week, the channel card in Analytics shows opens, completions and the conversion for each one. If the counter card converts far better than the table tent, move more of your effort to the counter.
Reading the results
Analytics catches up within a minute or so of each response. Four things are worth checking every week:
- The rating trend. Is the average moving, and did anything change the week it dipped?
- The follow-up answers from unhappy customers. If "Waited too long" keeps coming up on Saturday mornings, that's a staffing question, not a coffee question.
- The open text. Read it all. This is where menu ideas and small fixes live.
- Coupons issued, next to responses. If your coupon allowance is running low, pause the reward or add a pack before a busy weekend.
On paid plans you can export every response as a CSV, and on Business you can send each one to a Google Sheet or your CRM through a webhook as it arrives.
Mistakes to avoid
- Asking too much. Every question you add costs completions. If you need a longer survey, send it to regulars separately.
- A coupon that's worth more than the visit. Discounts that big attract people who only want the discount. A modest, generous-feeling offer works better.
- One link everywhere. Without separate channels you can't tell whether the counter or Instagram is doing the work.
- Not closing the loop. When customers ask for oat milk and you add it, say so on the counter card. It's the best reason for the next customer to answer.
Try it
Write your first survey in one sentence. Try this brief in the AI builder:
How was your visit? A four-question survey for my café: an overall rating, a follow-up if they were unhappy, what they ordered, and what to add to the menu.
Then attach a coupon, add a "Counter QR" channel, and print the tent. The Free plan includes a hundred coupons and five hundred responses a month, so you can run the whole loop before you pay anything.