8/2/2019 Itbusinessedge-improve Survey Response

1/2

IMPROVE SURVEY RESPONSE .

IT BUSINESS EDGE - http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=90577, 25/11/2011

1. KNOW YOUR SURVEY AUDIENCEKnowing your survey audience allows you to tailor all of your survey questions and communications to them. For

example: Who are they? What type of topics are they interested in? When are they most likely to be available to

take your survey? What is the best communication channel to use to reach them (e.g., online, email, IVR, mobile,

paper surveys, etc.). Keep in mind that survey topics that may be of interest to some individuals or groups may be

of little or no interest to others. Whats more, people are more likely to respond to surv eys from companies or

people they know or have an existing relationship with versus a stranger, so plan accordingly.

2. KEEP YOUR SURVEY SHORTThe shorter your survey is, the more likely people are to take it, and the higher your response rate will be.

However, dont make your survey so short that youre not able to collect the information that you need. In general,

try to develop a survey that is no more than 5-7 minutes long. You should also make it as easy as possible forparticipants to take your survey. For instance: 1) Provide respondents with a way to save partially completedsurveys so that they can return and finish taking the survey later, if needed; 2) Put harder or more complexquestions at the end (to reduce survey abandonment rates); and 3) Put any sensitive questions at the end. Evenif you tell people that your survey is being conducted anonymously, many still may not trust that and may abandonyour survey once they come to a sensitive section. By asking this info, if needed, at the end, it will minimize yoursurvey abandonment rates.

3. ENSURE YOUR CONTACT LIST IS UP-TO-DATEMake sure that youre working with an updated, clean and valid contact list. Otherwise, invalid email or mailing

addresses will make it difficult to deliver your survey, and prevent some people from participating.

4. CONDUCT A PILOT TESTTest your survey with a smaller group of people before sending it out to your entire participant list. By doing so,

youll be able to identify any issues that may exist with your survey or your contact list and fix them before your

survey goes out. Doing a pilot test will also give you a general idea of what you can expect to see as an overall

response rate from the full list.

5. BE MINDFUL OF TIMING AND DELIVERY OF YOUR SURVEYTuesdays through Thursdays are generally the best days of the week to send out a survey invitation for B2B

surveys; the day of the week is less of an issue for B2C surveys. However, avoid busy times such as major

holidays or major events such as a presidential election, etc., as these types of holidays and events will adverselyaffect your survey response rates.

6. PRE-NOTIFY THOSE WHO YOU PLAN TO SURVEYPrior to distributing the survey, send out an announcement to all those you would like to participate. For the cost-conscious, announcements need not necessarily be sent via postcard or email. You can include theannouncement in a bill, in a newsletter, or on your website.In the announcement, let people know that youre

planning to conduct a survey and when to expect it. You should provide a brief explanation about what the surveywill be about, why youre conducting it and why the survey is important surveys that are perceived to beimportant achieve much higher response rates. In addition, include information such as how long it will take tocomplete the survey, what youre planning to do with the results and what your policy is for safeguarding

participants' personal information. Also, be sure to give people the option to opt out of taking the survey an opt-out should be included in all communications, including the survey invitation and reminder.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=90577http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=90577http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=90577

8/2/2019 Itbusinessedge-improve Survey Response

2/2

7. SEND OUT A COMPELLING SURVEY INVITATIONCreate a survey invitation that is short, concise and written in a friendly and welcoming tone. The invitation should

be personalized (i.e., Dear Susie Smith and/or Wed like your feedback about your service experience on Nov 1,

2009). If youre sending an email survey, use different subject lines for different groups to make them more

relevant to your audience. For example, if youre send ing out a product-related survey to your customers, you

might use the subject: Your use of our XYZ product. If youre sending out a survey to all of your employees, you

might use A message from our CEO. Also, the signature line needs to be from a top-level executive related to

the survey. For example, a survey related to support experience should likely come from the VP of Support, notthe CEO. To ensure that your survey invitation makes it into peoples email inboxes and doesnt get tagged as

spam, be sure to adhere to the CAN-Spam Act.

8. SEND OUT REMINDER NOTICESIts important to send at least one reminder note to survey participants around three to five days after sending your

initial survey. Your note should remind people that you need them to take the survey, convey a sense of urgency

about the importance of taking the survey, restate the survey deadline, and stress why its important for you to get

their feedback. Allegiance typically encourages its clients not to send out more than two reminders per survey.

Also, be sure to only send out a reminder to those who havent yet taken your survey. The one exception is if your

survey was conducted anonymously. In that case, consider sending out a reminder to everyone on your contact

list. Otherwise, if people find out that some people received the reminder and others didnt, they may question

whether or not the survey was conducted anonymously

9. OFFER AN INCENTIVE FORTAKING THE SURVEYIn some cases, offering people an immediate reward for taking your survey can help dramatically improve your

survey response rates (more than 40 percent in some instances). Survey incentives can be a coupon, a gift card,

cash, movie tickets, a discount off of a product or service, the chance to enter a drawing (i.e., fill out the survey

and your name will automatically be entered into a drawing to win a big prize), etc. The point is to offer a survey

incentive that your survey audience will care about and want. Also, keep in mind that survey incentives are

commonly used for B2C surveys and less so for B2B surveys, as there may be a conflict of interest policy

prohibiting offering incentives for B2B surveys. It is advised that you use incentives sparingly and keep theincentive focused on how you can better meet your clients needs.

10.GET HELP FOR ANY AREAS THAT YOURE UNSURE ABOUTIf youre unsure about how to develop a survey questionnaire, which survey methodologies to use for a particular

audience, whether or not to offer people an incentive to take your survey, and/or simply need help collecting your

data, you may want to consider hiring a third-party vendor to help you with this. Doing so can save you a lot of

time, headache and grief in conducting your surveys. Be sure to hire a firm that offers best practices support so

that you will have all of the support you need throughout every stage of your project.

11.ACT ON AND PROMOTE YOUR SURVEY RESULTSResearch shows that people are more likely to complete a survey if they believe that a company will act on the

results. Whenever possible, publish your survey results and your companys plans to act on the results. In

addition, promote the fact that your company is listening and what youve done with survey results. If people see a

pattern in your company gathering and acting on survey data, they will be more inclined to take your surveys in

the future, which will in turn, help improve your future survey response rates.

FINALLY, SHARE THE RESULTS WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. THIS ATTITUDE SHOWS GRATITUDE.

END.