My friends built something similar - NiceReply <a href="http://nicereply.com/" rel="nofollow">http://nicereply.com/</a><p>It was originally custom built in their webhosting company, but now they've created a standalone product out of it. NiceReply has API, so you can integrate it in any CRM you're already using. It's really cool, check it out.
I traveled to China this summer, and in the Shanghai airport they use a very similar system to get quick feedback on customers' satisfaction with the customs agents. At each station, there's a little box with 3-4 buttons ranging from :-) to :-| to :-(. (For example: <a href="http://bit.ly/aoSXgP" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/aoSXgP</a>)
Their post is a tribute to the freedom to fail.<p>If you're willing to structure experiments like this to limit risk but be deep enough to yield genuine benefits, there's a whole lot you can learn. You've got to work in a culture that tolerates failure, obviously, but why work somewhere that doesn't?<p>Back during a horrifying phase of my life, I worked in the shudder-inducing industry of internet marketing. I wanted to try a new type of lead capture form that was less user hostile. It was extraordinarily simple, but between bureaucracy and a web development group that was sorely overworked, it took 12 weeks for the idea to work its way through the constipation of the organization and into existence.<p>And it didn't work that well. That earned me a bit of ire.<p>I gave up on finding something that did work and took another, less depressing job.
Nice ripoff of the Firefox 4.0 beta feedback:<p><a href="http://stefan.arentz.ca/stuff/grabs/1283385827.png" rel="nofollow">http://stefan.arentz.ca/stuff/grabs/1283385827.png</a>