Data Collection - junk or useful, practise or opportunity

Every time we go to a restaurant or a pub, we are given a form to capture our feedback and some personal details. As a rule, my wife religiously fills the form (as I am paying for the bill). My guess is she does this to pass the billing time or is probably expecting something.

Most of the places just increase their junk and do it because it is done as a practice, everywhere. The live data collected is gone to thrash as soon as you leave the place. I want to quote 2 interesting incidences –
1. We went to a restaurant on our anniversary. Like always, she filled the form (with the date), while I was paying the money. We tipped and left. What have they done with the feedback. I guess no one even saw what we wrote – forget positive or negative comments. No one from the waiter to the manger even wished us (leave giving us a complimentary dessert). Did they miss an opportunity to connect on an emotional level with us?
2. This just happened a week back; she filled the form, we paid and we left. After about 2 days, I received a mail from the restaurant thanking us for our visit and also giving a touchdown on events like karaoke night, happy hours, etc. Now this was superb coz I (or for that matter, anyone) did not expect it. They could have done more but let’s leave that for further debate.

The point I am making is – how many of them who collect data, make real use of it. Now data comes at a price and using at a much bigger price. But, there are simple things one can do (without huge cost implications or heavy infrastructure) to –
* make an emotional connect
* look at ways to attract repeat visits
* helps to build relationship with your customer
* basic: acknowledging a customer’s visit

Running fancy loyalty programs, rich data analytics software or spamming sms’s is not what I want to propose. Generally, that is not the answer to some basic questions or concerns. I think – It always pays to treat a customer like the way they would like to get treated.