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RateNow, GuideFrom the Suggestion Box to Satisfaction Terminals
Three centuries perfecting the same idea: letting anyone share their opinion without friction, right where the experience happens.
Collecting feedback at the physical point is not an invention of the last few decades. The suggestion box, with centuries of history behind it, was already trying to let anyone say what they thought without fear. Satisfaction terminals — button-based or touchscreen — solved its biggest problem: getting the average customer to respond too, not just the very angry or the very delighted. Today, QR codes and NFC add an extra layer of context without sacrificing immediacy. No channel has replaced the one before it: what has changed is that an opinion can now become an alert in seconds, rather than a note that nobody ever reads.
Diana Bardales, 2026 
7 min 
The suggestion box: when listening meant writing
The most distant ancestor of physical-point feedback is the sealed box where anyone could leave a complaint anonymously. One of the earliest documented examples is the meyasubako, the petition box that Japanese shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa installed in 1721 at the gates of Edo Castle: only he held the key, so complaints reached him unfiltered — and from there came initiatives such as the construction of a public hospital for the city. A century later, in Persia, King Naser al-Din Shah launched his own "justice box" with the same logic.
The leap into the business world came with industrialisation. In 1880, Scottish shipbuilder William Denny asked his employees to write down ideas for building better ships. In 1898, the Kodak factory rewarded a worker with two dollars for suggesting that the workshop windows be cleaned to let in more light.
The suggestion box, with paper and pen, became standard practice in factories and shops: whoever is on the front line — the operator, the shop assistant, and later the customer themselves — tends to spot the problem first, and with paper they could explain it in as much detail as they liked.
The good and the not-so-good
The suggestion box offered context and nuance: a note could describe exactly what happened. But it carried a bias that was hard to avoid.
It depended on someone being motivated enough to write, and those who write tend to be either very angry or very enthusiastic. The vast majority — those who simply leave feeling "fine" or "so-so" — never left a note. The result was a picture made up only of extremes, and it almost always arrived with a delay.
Satisfaction terminals: the mechanical button and the touchscreen
The way to solve that bias was to remove writing from the equation. First came mechanical push-buttons: a counter with a simple question — "Were you well served by our staff?" — and two or three buttons to answer, no paper or pen required.
For the first time, the average customer was also giving their opinion, not just the outraged ones — though in exchange, nuance was lost: a button tells you how many people are happy, but not why.
The button evolved into the satisfaction terminal with faces that everyone recognises today as a Smiley Feedback Terminal: a screen or panel with three, four or five emoticons that first became popular in airports and large retail spaces, then spread to shops, clinics and public administrations of every size.
RateNow works with both formats (Button Feedback and Tablet Feedback) and deploys them alongside AENA at more than 1,700 feedback points across 34 airports, where around 3 million opinions are collected each month on the experience of 280 million passengers a year.
40% more reliable
Responding right after living an experience is 40% more reliable than doing so 24 hours later, when memory has already been distorted by biases such as the halo effect or confirmation bias.
Source: Gartner study, cited on the RateNow blog.
QR and NFC: on-site feedback with more context
The most recent chapter tries to have both at once. A QR code or NFC tag on the table, on the receipt or next to the terminal itself takes up no space and costs almost nothing, and opens a survey on the customer's phone that can be as short or as detailed as needed. The trade-off is that it requires one extra step — taking out the phone, scanning or tapping — and depends on the person being in the mood to do so right at that moment.
That is why, in practice, many teams do not choose between terminal and QR: they combine them. RateNow's Smiley Terminals, for example, allow a QR code to be added to the button terminal itself to extend the response with a more complete survey, without interrupting the flow of people. It is the same idea that has been circulating for three centuries — giving anyone the chance to say what they think — solved with the technology everyone now carries in their pocket.
Quick comparison of methods
| Method | Main strength | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Suggestion box / paper | Lots of context and nuance | Low participation, slow response |
| Mechanical button | High participation, simple | No "why" |
| Smiley terminal | Volume and real-time data | Limited context |
| QR / NFC | Speed with option for detail | Requires an extra step |
Looking at all three centuries together, the lesson is that no format has fully replaced the one before it: there are businesses where a mechanical button is still the most effective approach, and others where a QR code or Smiley Feedback Tablet adds far more context.
What has truly changed is that today everything can be combined — buttons, touchscreens, QR codes, NFC, SMS, WhatsApp or email — and every response can arrive as an actionable alert in seconds, not as a note left in a drawer. That is why tools like RateNow do not bet on a single channel, but on covering the physical point and the rest of the customer journey from one place.
If you want to see how a Smiley Feedback Terminal, a QR code or a combination of both would fit into your own touchpoint, at RateNow we can show you how it works. Get in touch.
Bibliography
- Japanese Wiki Corpus / EBSCO Research Starters — Meyasubako and Tokugawa Yoshimune.
- Tedium — "Suggestion Box History: The Small Data Before Big Data".
- International Journal of Management Studies and Social Science Research — "Suggestion Systems (Kaizen Teian)", on William Denny and Kodak.
- RateNow — "Collect more feedback from your customers" (Gartner data and cost per respondent).
Who invented the suggestion box?
There is no single inventor. The meyasubako of Shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa around 1721 and the Persian "justice box" of the 19th century are cited as predecessors. In the industrial sphere, Scotsman William Denny installed one of the first in 1880.
What is the best way to collect feedback in a physical shop?
It depends on what you need. If you are looking for volume and a quick data point, a smiley terminal works very well. If you need to understand the "why", a QR or NFC code that opens a short survey adds more context. Many teams combine both.
Why are emoticons used instead of a regular survey?
Because they eliminate friction. A survey requires time and sometimes personal data, so few people respond — and almost always only the extremes. Anyone can press an emoticon in passing, which gives more volume and a more representative picture.
Is there any point in collecting feedback if nothing is done about it?
Very little. The medium (box, button, emoticon or QR) only adds value if the information reaches whoever can act on it. The difference today lies in turning each response into alerts and data that the team can use in the moment.
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