Online Surveys – How to Maximise Your Response Rate

Online surveys are undoubtedly probably the most value efficient method to collect vital information resembling buyer satisfaction and worker opinions. However how do you maximise your response price? This can be a downside incurred by most companies endeavor on-line surveys and there’s a lot literature accessible relating to the subject, all with various details and figures in relation to what response price to anticipate, methods for rising responses, what size of survey ought to be used and so forth.

The straightforward fact is that there is no such thing as a single guideline to observe when endeavor a web based survey, as every survey has its personal set of variables affecting its response price. Nevertheless, there are some widespread methods used to improve the chance {that a} potential survey respondent will full your questionnaire.

Having undertaken tons of of on-line surveys of consumers, staff, companies, membership teams and occasion company, I started recording survey response charges and the sorts of key variables seemingly to have an effect on them. The variables recorded have been:

1. Whether or not survey invites have been personalised (i.e. Pricey John Smith v Pricey buyer)
2. Size of survey (categorised into completion occasions of 1-4 minutes, 5-9 minutes & 10+ minutes)
3. If a reward/prize was supplied
4. Whether or not or not the survey was despatched to individuals with a recognized curiosity within the survey topic (i.e. job associated, earlier buyer, linked to social pursuits and so forth.)

The figures proven under have been derived from the information of 143 on-line surveys, which have been accomplished by a complete of 49,335 respondents. As a common course of, potential respondents have been contacted twice through electronic mail to encourage participation within the on-line surveys.

Please be aware that almost all of respondents had submitted their particulars to numerous databases or have been clients of my shoppers; subsequently, it’s seemingly that they have been conscious of the model/firm prior to receiving the web survey invitation. Folks sending electronic mail invitations to random sub-units of contacts shouldn’t anticipate to obtain response charges as excessive as these listed under.

Bearing in mind the 4 variables and their choices, there have been 24 doable mixture’s – this may make sense when trying on the dot-factors under. The combos with the 5 highest and 5 lowest response charges have been listed.

5 highest response charges

1. Personalised electronic mail & 1-4 minutes to full & reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 45.3% common response price
2. Personalised electronic mail & 5-9 minutes to full & reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 40.1% common response price
3. Non-personalised electronic mail & 1-4 minutes to full & reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 39.8% common response price
4. Personalised electronic mail & 1-4 minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 39.2% common response price
5. Personalised electronic mail & 5-9 minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 38.4% common response price

5 lowest response charges

1. Non-personalised electronic mail & 10+ minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents didn’t have a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 8.2% common response price
2. Non-personalised electronic mail & 10+ minutes to full & reward supplied & respondents didn’t have a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 15.5% common response price
3. Personalised electronic mail & 10+ minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents didn’t have a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 16.2% common response price
4. Non-personalised electronic mail & 5-9 minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents didn’t have a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 19.4% common response price
5. Non-personalised electronic mail & 10+ minutes to full & no reward supplied & respondents had a recognized curiosity within the survey topic = 19.5% common response price

So what works finest?

The above findings present some clear correlations between response charges and the variables affecting them. As a common rule, it seems that the next actions ought to be certain that you achieve the very best doable response price when endeavor a web based survey:

1. Personalise your electronic mail invites. Persons are extra seemingly to reply to emails that handle them by their title somewhat than ‘Pricey Sir/Madam’, Pricey Colleague’ or ‘Pricey Buyer’. When you have the names of potential survey respondents, use them! That is simply achieved utilizing easy software program resembling Microsoft Phrase in a mail-merge format despatched through your Outlook account. It hyperlinks immediately to your database, eradicating the burden of typing each single title into every electronic mail invitation.
2. Preserve the survey as brief as doable. Normally, the shorter the survey – the upper the response price. Clearly some on-line surveys want to be in-depth and can’t keep away from being 10+ minutes in size; nonetheless, strive to keep away from asking questions that solely collect irrelevant data. This can be a widespread crime amongst survey builders when getting ready questions for a web based survey.
3. Provide a reward. Everyone loves getting one thing at no cost, so attempt to provide a reward when sending out on-line survey invites. Some specialists resembling Kurt Knapton, Government Vice President of e-Rewards Market Research, recommend that you’re extra seemingly to achieve a better response price when you provide each respondent a small reward somewhat than an opportunity of successful a big sweepstakes prize. His research discovered that providing 4,000 individuals $2 every to full a survey achieved a 19.3% response price. Providing the identical quantity of individuals with an entry right into a $2,500 sweepstakes draw solely managed a 12.2% response price.
4. Discover contacts which can be seemingly to have an curiosity within the survey topic. That is no scientific discovery, however response charges are all the time going to be increased if the potential respondent has some curiosity within the survey topic. Job satisfaction surveys all the time achieve excessive response charges as a result of staff imagine that their solutions will affect useful modifications. Likewise, repeat purchasers of a selected product/service will undoubtedly have extra curiosity in a associated on-line survey than somebody who has solely used it as soon as or by no means in any respect.