With businesses of all sizes increasingly relying on customer feedback to inform their decisions, it’s important to ensure that you get as many survey responses as possible when running a campaign.
The more responses you receive, the more accurate and reliable your results will be. But getting people to take part in your survey can be challenging.
To help increase response rates, here are eight tips for improving survey participation and gathering better data from customers.
Why a High Response Rate Matters
If you’re sending a survey out to 100 people and 5 people get back to you providing thorough, actionable data, it can seem like that’s enough.
However, limited responses, regardless of how in-depth they seem, can lead to greater problems like a lack of statistical significance.
Statistical significance is the likelihood that any results obtained from a survey are representative of the population being surveyed.
In other words, it measures the probability that a given result is not due to chance, but rather reflects what would be expected under normal circumstances.
To ensure reliable results, it’s important to have enough participants in a survey so that any conclusions are statistically significant.
The larger the sample size, the more reliable and applicable your results will be. That’s why it’s important to have a high response rate when conducting a survey – so you can be confident that any conclusions you draw from it are accurate and significant.
Understanding the Difference Between Response and Completion rates
When running a survey, it’s important to consider not only your response rate, but also your completion rate.
The response rate measures the percentage of people who received an invitation to participate in the survey and responded – regardless of whether they completed all questions or not.
The completion rate is the percentage of people that started the survey and finished all available questions.
It’s important to understand the difference between these two rates because they can provide different kinds of insights.
The response rate tells you how many people were interested in participating and how well the invitation was received, whereas the completion rate can tell you how much effort people are willing to put into completing the survey once they’ve started it.
How to Calculate Completion Rate
Calculating the completion rate of your survey is easy. All you need to do is divide the number of people that completed the survey by the total number of people who were invited to take it, and then multiply by 100.
For example, if you sent out a survey invitation to 200 people and 120 of them finished all questions, your completion rate would be 60%.
Knowing the completion rate can help you to compare your survey results to a minimum threshold. In general, it is recommend that there is at least a 50% completion rate to be considered excellent.
However, a good range can dip as low as 5 to 10%. In any event, the more responses the better for establishing trends with general close-ended questions and analyzing valuable data that might be available in open-ended questions.
12 Ways to Increase Survey Responses
With the importance of survey responses in mind, including the value they can provide, it’s time to consider ways that you can increase those replies. Here are 12 methods for upping the number of survey responses your next survey collects.
1. Provide Incentives
One of the most effective ways to increase survey responses is to offer an incentive for completing them.
People are much more likely to take surveys if they are promised something in return, whether it is a discount or a free product.
It’s important to note that not all incentives work the same way; research indicates that people respond more positively to physical incentives like discounts or free products, rather than virtual rewards and gift cards.
2. Create Engaging Questions
When crafting survey questions, you’ll want to ensure they are engaging and interesting. People are more likely to respond if the questions are relevant and easy to understand.
Responding to surveys should always be relatively quick and pain-free. Surveys should focus on what the respondent knows best, while allowing them to answer in their own words.
By following through with this step, you help to encourage more survey responses.
3. Personalize Invitations
When sending out survey invitations, make sure to personalize them as much as possible.
People are more likely to respond if they feel that the invitation is tailored specifically for them and not a generic email sent out to a large group of people.
Personalizing invitations can help make the recipient feel valued and appreciated, which encourages them to take the survey.
4. Use Multiple Channels
Reaching out through multiple channels is another way to increase survey responses.
Surveys should be distributed on various platforms such as email, social media, and even through text messages.
This will ensure that the survey is seen by as many people as possible, increasing the chances of it being filled out.
5. Optimize for Different Devices
When creating surveys, it’s crucial to ensure that they are optimized for different devices.
Many people today access surveys through their smartphones, so it is important to make sure that the survey looks good and works properly on mobile devices.
Surveys should also be easy to navigate, with clear instructions and concise questions, helping to make survey responses more likely.
6. Implement a Progress Bar
Adding a progress bar to the survey can also help boost response rates.
Seeing the number of questions left and having an idea of how much longer it will take encourages people to continue with the survey until they’ve finished it.
This gives them a sense of satisfaction that makes them more likely to complete it.
7. Diversify Question Format and Layout
Using different question formats and layouts can help to make the survey more visually engaging.
Instead of just using text-based questions, consider including images, videos, or even audio recordings.
This will help to break up the monotony and keep respondents interested in the content.
8. Make It Easy to Respond
Having a streamlined process for responding to surveys can go a long way in increasing response rates. It should be easy for respondents to access the survey and fill out their answers.
The survey should also be available on multiple devices so that it can be accessed from anywhere.
Using a tool like Typeform or ProductLab can make it easier for respondents to fill out the survey quickly and accurately.
9. Ensure Anonymity
Making sure that all responses are anonymous is important if you want people to respond with honest and accurate information.
People are less likely to take the survey if they think their answers will be linked to them in some way. Having a policy in place that guarantees anonymity can increase response rates dramatically.
10. Keep It Short
Surveys should be kept as short as possible without sacrificing key questions that need to be answered.
People are more likely to take surveys if they aren’t too long and don’t require too much time to fill out.
If a survey is lengthy and complicated, many people will avoid it altogether, limiting the number of survey responses you receive.
11. Consider Language and Culture Barriers
When sending out surveys, it is important to consider language and cultural barriers.
People from different cultures may not be able to understand the questions or terminology used in the survey.
It is best to use language that is widely understood among various demographic groups and also keep certain dialects or slang words out of the questions if possible.
12. Follow Up
Sending follow-up emails or reminders can also be effective in increasing survey response rates.
Follow ups should be done in a timely manner and should not be too frequent or intrusive.
The goal is to encourage people to take the survey without being overbearing. Because of this, it’s best to limit follow-ups to around two nudges.
This way, those who planned to the survey have a reasonable chance of seeing the reminder but not being overwhelmed.
Finding the perfect balance of reminders can lead to additional survey responses!
How to Analyze Survey Results Effectively
It’s not enough to simply have X amount of replies.
Those responses then need to be harvested for insightful data that can improve a business’s operations in one way or another.
As such, properly analyzing survey results is an important part of understanding the data collected. The following tips can be used to effectively analyze survey results:
1. Organize and sort the data – Sort the data into meaningful categories such as demographics, answers to individual questions, or responses to multiple choice questions. This will make it easier to identify patterns and trends in the data. When opting for a survey platform for administering, many will have built in data compilation tools for your analysis.
2. Look for patterns – Identify any patterns or trends that may stand out from the data. This can help to identify areas where further research is needed, as well as what strategies may be most effective for a particular population or group of people.
3. Create reports – Utilize reporting tools to create charts or graphs that clearly illustrate the results of the survey. These can be used to communicate the findings in an easy-to-understand manner.
4. Identify areas for improvement – Once patterns have been identified, identify areas that need to be improved upon. This could include changes to survey questions, changes in the way surveys are conducted, or changes in how data is collected and analyzed.
5. Take action – Once areas for improvement have been identified, take the necessary steps to make them happen. This could involve training staff in survey best practices or implementing new software or tools that can help automate the process of collecting and analyzing data from surveys.
But what if there is just not enough data to analyze?
How to Deal with a Low Survey Response Rate
If a survey is getting too few responses to gather sufficient data, it can be difficult to analyze the results. To increase response rates, there are several strategies that can be employed.
Firstly, it’s important to understand why the response rate may be low in the first place. Sometimes people may not have enough time or may not be interested in the survey topic.
In these cases, it’s important to make the survey as accessible and easy to complete as possible.
In addition, providing incentives for completing the survey can help boost response rates. This could involve offering gift cards or discounts on products or services.
Finally, it is also important to ensure that the survey is properly promoted. This may include sending out marketing emails or advertising on social media.
Final Thoughts
Surveys are a powerful tool for gathering valuable customer feedback and insights. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can increase your survey response rates significantly.
It is important to organize, sort and analyze data effectively in order to identify patterns or trends that could be useful for making decisions about future strategies.
With these steps in mind, you should now have all the knowledge necessary to start creating surveys that will drive results!
FAQ
Q: What is the best way to analyze survey results?
A: The best way to analyze survey results is by organizing and sorting the data into meaningful categories, looking for patterns in the data, creating reports using reporting tools, and identifying areas that need improvement. Data collected should be used to identify patterns or trends that could be useful for making decisions about future strategies.
Q: How can I make sure my survey is well-designed?
A: A well-designed survey should have a clear purpose, understandable questions, and an organized structure. Surveys should not be too long or too complex and should always include a thank you message at the end. It is also important to consider language, cultural barriers, and other factors such as age or gender when writing survey questions.
Q: What are some common mistakes to avoid when creating a survey?
A: Common mistakes to avoid when creating surveys include using confusing language, asking too many open-ended questions, making the survey too long or complex, not taking cultural barriers into consideration, and not including a thank you message at the end. Aways make sure survey questions are relevant to the topic or purpose of the survey.