When conducting surveys, an important factor to consider is the survey response rate. A high response rate is vital for ensuring the survey produces both accurate results and valuable insight. Response rates are often impacted by a few key factors. Let’s look at three of the most important aspects for increasing response rates and how to optimize your survey for maximum feedback.
Reduce survey length
The length of a survey is essential for predicting a general response rate. Longer surveys take more time and require more effort than their shorter counterparts and can significantly reduce the likelihood of respondents willing to participate. As such, it is important to limit the length of your survey to only the most essential questions in order to avoid distracting or overwhelming respondents. Our survey tool, SmartEvals’ surveys, make it easy to cut down the length of your surveys by including features for reducing the survey length, our surveys only display questions that are relevant to the respondents and demographic data such as age, gender, race, etc.
Optimizing your schedule
The timing of your survey plays an important role in encouraging an optimal response rate. Surveys are more likely to be completed when participants are prepared for them ahead of time and are given ample time to complete them. Timing is particularly important for surveys sent via email, where surveys might end up getting lost in inboxes or deleted if respondents receive them at an inconvenient time. Scheduling survey reminders at certain times throughout the week allows you to target respondents who are more likely to take part and lead to increasing the effectiveness of your survey. SmartEvals’ surveys allows you to schedule when and how often your survey reminders are sent out to ensure you are always targeting the right people at the right time.
Offer an incentive
Studies have shown that incentives including giveaways or local restaurant and store discounts can be an incredibly effective way to increase survey response rates. Offering these additional bonuses give respondents a more convincing boost of motivation to complete the survey and perhaps go on to encourage others who are applicable to do the same.
Personalize your reminders
Personalized reminders are more likely to appeal to respondents than generic messages. Leveraging personalized emails, such as including the survey respondent’s name and other relevant information like a request on behalf of an instructor or course taken creates a stronger connection and results in higher response rates.
Optimize mobile responses
Optimizing the survey for mobile users is essential for ensuring higher response rates. SmartEvals’ surveys makes the process for mobile and tablet users easy by automatically detecting the type of device they are using and displaying an optimized version of your survey.
Response rates are a vital factor when conducting surveys and using that feedback to its highest potential. By following a few simple tips and using the right tools, you can drastically increase the response rate of your survey and ensure the data collected is as accurate and valid as possible. SmartEvals’ surveys include features tailored to increasing response rates and optimizing for the highest quantity and quality of results. Sign up now to start increasing the response rate of your survey today.