Background Art One of the problems frequently encountered in conducting surveys into customer satisfaction, especially in the service industry, is the difficulty in achieving a high enough level of customer compliance to make the survey cost effective.

Customers typically view completion of such surveys as an unwelcome chore particularly when they have no or only very minor complaints. They will therefore only take the time to complete and return a survey if the procedure involved is extremely user friendly or if some form of incentive is offered.

Methods of increasing user friendliness include using interviews, which many customers find intrusive, or making written forms easy to complete, for example by using"multiple-choice"techniques and/or by confining to a single, one-sided sheet.

Other methods include carrying out the survey at the point of sale, for example at the checkout desk in a hotel or when presenting the bill in a restaurant. This approach can further be simplified by not requiring the customer to seek out a place to deposit the survey sheet. In this latter case, however, the possibility of tampering with, and thus reducing the accuracy and reliability of, the survey is increased.

What is needed in such situations, therefore, is a procedure which combines user friendliness with a system for preventing tampering. It is the purpose of the present invention to provide such a device for use in such a procedure.

FR 658 830 A and FR 702 392 A disclose letterboxes, each of which has an associated notepad and with means for writing so that one can leave a message when a resident is out.

In the case of FR 658 830 A the letterbox comprises a closed receptacle having removably attached thereto at least one sheet, the receptacle having at least one aperture therein which is adapted to receive one or more sheets in a manner which hinders subsequent removal of the sheet. Specifically, one would be unable to retrieve a sheet posted through the aperture, except with difficulty.

FR 702 392 A describes a modified letterbox of the type described in FR 658 830 A. Here the sheets on which the visitor leaves a message are accommodated in a recess and biased towards the opening. Once the visitor has written a message he presses against the sheet which drops down through a slit into the interior of the letterbox.

DE 517 608 C discloses a device similar to the devices disclosed in FR 658 830 A and FR 702 392 A. In the case of DE 517 608 C a mechanism is provided which allows a visitor to write a message and then to press on a knob to release a note into the letterbox and present a fresh"sheet"for the next visitor to write on.

However, none of the devices disclosed in FR 658 830A, FR 702 392 A or DE 517 608 C obviously discloses a hand-held device.

Disclosure of Invention The present invention provides a hand-held customer survey device comprising a closed receptacle having removably attached thereto at least one survey sheet, said receptacle having at least one

aperture therein which is adapted to receive one or more survey sheets in a manner which hinders subsequent removal of the sheet.

As will readily be appreciated, the receptacle can take a variety of shapes and sizes depending upon the circumstances surrounding the survey which it is intended to carry out.

Suitable shapes for the receptacle would include cylindrical and boxlike, for example a receptacle having a square or, especially, substantially rectangular cross-section.

The size of the device will vary in accordance with intended use.

In particularly preferred uses such as for mobile presentation, for example with the bill at a service location such as a restaurant, hotel, petrol station, shop or the like, the receptacle is of a size which allows it to be hand-held as a separate device or incorporated into a pre-existing or customised device for presenting a bill.

The receptacle can be made out of any material which lends itself to being conformed in the desired manner. Examples of such materials include cardboard, wood, plastics, metal or combinations of these. The receptacles may be manufactured either as finished units or as partially prefabricated blanks which can be fully assembled when and where needed. This latter approach facilitates storage and transportation of individual units where widespread and large-scale use is contemplated.

Such blanks will typically be manufactured in the form of a single sheet of cardboard stamped out in a particular format by a suitably configured die. In order to assemble the receptacle, the sheet can be folded along appropriate lines and closed. The receptacle can be permanently closed by means of adhesive or can be reversibly closed by means of an adhesive strip which is torn on opening. The adhesive strip is preferably provided with means, such as a printed text, to show evidence of tampering.

The receptacles will also be constructed in a way which allows access to the completed survey sheets placed therein by a permitted person. This can be-achieved in a variety of ways for example by providing for one face of the receptacle which can be opened and re- closed. Alternatively, in a simple form such as the pre-formed blanks described above the device may simply be forced open and the sheets removed once a survey is concluded. The used box would then simply be discarded.

The customer survey sheets which are to be removably attached to the receptacle will typically take the form of a series of single sheets attached to one another along part of their edges or surfaces. For example, they can be glued together along one edge in the manner of a pad to allow removal e. g. by peeling off of single sheets either by tearing along a perforated tear line or by detaching at the glued edge.

Alternatively they can be attached to each other along part of one surface by applying a non-permanent adhesive thereto in the manner of Post-Its (Post-It is a Registered Trade Mark of the 3M company).

The individual sheets can be made from varying weights of paper for example from conventional paper to somewhat heavier card depending on the intended use.

Such pads of customer survey sheets will conveniently have a backing sheet of sturdier material such as heavy card which will be attached to the receptacle. Attachment can be permanent, for example by adhesive or temporary, for example by sliding into a pouch or slot in the receptacle. This latter arrangement would allow a replacement pad to be attached to an existing receptacle when the original pad has been used up or if it is desired to use the same receptacle for a different survey.

A preferred embodiment of a device in accordance with the invention is thus one wherein the customer survey sheets are presented

in the form of a peel-off pad the final sheet of which is permanently attached to the receptacle.

The aperture in the receptacle will be of a size chosen to facilitate the receipt of a completed survey sheet in either rolled, folded or unfolded form. Typically therefore it will take the form of a slot or circular hole in one face of the receptacle.

Preferably, the slot or hole will have dimensions slightly larger than the smallest dimensions of an unfolded, folded or rolled survey sheet. As will be appreciated such an arrangement will materially assist in the prevention of tampering by making it difficult to remove a survey sheet from the receptacle by inverting/shaking or by insertion of a thin object.

A further embodiment of a device in accordance with the invention is thus one wherein the receptacle is boxlike in structure and wherein the aperture is a slot in one wall of the receptacle, said slot being large enough to accommodate a customer survey sheet in rolled, folded or unfolded form.

The examples set forth above and below are in no way intended to be limiting of the scope of the invention or of specific embodiments thereof. Alternative embodiments for achieving the intended result will be evident to the skilled person.

Brief Description of Drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a particular embodiment of a device according to the invention; Fig. 2 is a top view of the device in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a reduced size view of the device in Fig. 1 in disassembled form;

Fig. 4 is a side view of the device in Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a side view of the device in Fig. 1 showing the opposite side to that shown in Fig. 4; and Fig. 6 is a rear view of the device in Fig. 1.

Modes for Carrying Out the Invention In Fig. 1 there is indicated, generally at 10, a box-shaped, hand- held customer survey device according to the invention. The front face 11 of the device 10 has attached thereto, via a backing card 12, a pad 13 of individually removable customer survey sheets 14 which are glued together along one edge 15 thereof.

The front face 11 of the device is further provided with a slot 16.

The fully assembled box carries security labels 17 bridging the joins between the back 18 and the top 19 and the bottom 20 (Fig. 2).

These security labels 17 are applied and printed upon in such a way as to indicate when tampering with the device 10 has occurred. The arrangement of the security labels 17 on the device 10 can be seen more clearly in Figs. 2 and 6.

In Fig. 3, there is illustrated a blank 21 from which the device 10 is formed. Dotted lines indicate score lines in the blank 21 to facilitate folding. The blank 21 comprises tabs 22 and a series of discrete areas separated by score lines which form the front face 11 with the slot 16, the back 18, the top 19, the bottom 20 and the sides 23 of the device 10 once assembled. As also shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the back 18 is longer than the front 11.

To assemble the device 10 the blank 21 is folded along score lines inwardly from the plane of the blank in such a way that the tabs 22 are located inside the device 10 and are then affixed, for example by gluing to the inside of the faces of the device 10 to which they correspond. The

security labels 17, which may for example be self-adhesive, are then attached as further indicated to bridge the joins between the back 18, the top 19 and the bottom 20 of the device 10.

The pad 13 is then attached to the front face 11 of the device 10 via the backing card 12 in such a way as not to obscure the slot 16.

In operation the completed device 10 is presented to a customer to be surveyed, for example at the same time as presenting a bill for a particular service rendered. The customer completes a sheet 14 of the survey which (s) he then peels off along edge 15. The sheet is then folded and inserted into the device 10 via slot 16.

It will be appreciated that insertion of the sheet in folded form into the slot 16 and the dimensions and location of the slot will make removal of the sheet, without damaging the device, difficult.