6 Easy Hacks To Improve Your Survey Response Rates

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Customers are constantly evolving and their behaviour has been significantly impacted on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more businesses are working hard to keep a pulse on their customers to better understand their needs. In doing this, they strategically reposition their operations, product, services as well as processes to meet those needs.

Customer feedback surveys as pointed out by the National Business Research Institute (2021) are a great tool for businesses to understand how customers feel about their products and services. However creating an awesome survey is one thing, and having the target participants complete the survey is another.

Response rate is one of the biggest challenges in survey research. Having a good response rate is crucial for reliable results that can guide strategic decisions. The response rate is calculated by dividing the total number of people invited to participate in the survey by the number of people who completed the survey. The result is expressed as a percentage.

Survey response rates are an indicator of survey quality. A poor response rate can create sampling bias. (Sampling bias occurs when some members of a population are systematically more likely to be selected in a sample than others). An example of this is a study about health issues, by Choung et al., (2013) where participants with existing health issues had higher response rates compared to those who had none. 

A good response rate is important to ensure your survey results are a good representative of your target sample audience. The next question you probably have on your mind is “what is the ideal survey response rate?”

The answer is not so straightforward, as response rates can be influenced by factors such as the demography of participants and the method of survey delivery.

While it is almost impossible to achieve 100% response rates, a response rate above 50% is considered excellent. However, response rates between 5%-30% are far more typical. 

In customer feedback surveys, response rates are also influenced by the relationship between the business and the customer. Businesses with strong customer relationships will see survey response rates on the higher end of the range.

Expected response rates for Email surveys

 

In this article, I will be sharing 6 hacks that can help you maximize your survey response rates. 

#1. Create a good survey experience

A good survey experience would increase both survey response and completion rates Key elements of this would include;

  • The survey invitation – The survey invite should be personalized and set the respondents’ expectations on what the survey is set to achieve. The survey invitation should also give respondents an idea of the survey duration.
  • Survey design – An attractive and user-friendly survey contributes to a great survey experience and minimizes survey dropouts. The design of the survey should be consistent with the branding used by your organization.
  • Clear & Concise Questions – Ask clear and concise questions to avoid confusing participants and increasing survey fatigue. The clarity in this case is essential to respondents as shown below.
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Image: Avoid vague questions and answer choices
  • Mobile Friendly – Your survey tool of choice should be able to optimize your survey for mobile devices such as Smartphones, Tablets and Kindle devices. This ensures survey design elements such as text, formatting and buttons are not distorted, making it easy for participants to read, understand, and respond on their mobile devices.

#2. Use the right language 

Ensure the survey invitation and questions are set up in the right language for your participants. This is especially applicable to multinational businesses whose customer base stretch across a vast linguistic demography. 

The survey invitation and questions should be translated as necessary and sent to specific language groups to ensure higher response and completion rates. 

#3. Send your survey as quickly as possible

Timing is very important in customer feedback surveys. It’s important to deploy your surveys while interactions are still fresh in the customers’ minds, so they can clearly recall the details. This increases their likelihood to participate in the survey as well as the accuracy of the feedback received.

For transactional/touchpoint surveys, a great rule of thumb is to send the survey to participants as soon as possible following their transaction/interaction. Ideally within 24 hours of the encounter. The faster you can deliver the survey, the more likely you are to get a response.

#4. Leverage on multiple channels

To ensure higher participation rates for your survey, deploy across multiple channels like Email, In-app and SMS.  This ensures you are meeting the customers at their preferred channel. 

If a customer typically reaches out to your business using live chat, send them a pop-up survey in the chat window after resolving their issue. If another customer opts for SMS or Email, send a follow-up SMS/Mail with a survey link.

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Tailoring your surveys to channels your customers prefer and use gets you better results than defaulting to a specific channel.

#5. Send a reminder

Send reminders to participants who are yet to respond to your survey invitation. This will draw more participants to your survey and improves response rates. A well-crafted survey reminder as shown below will drive more participation in your survey, remember to keep the follow-up invitation short and simple.

#6. Keep it short and sweet

Respect the participant’s time and avoid lengthy surveys. The longer the survey, the more effort it requires for respondents to participate in the research.

No one wants to read through and answer a 10-page survey with 100 questions. You’ll lose the initial commitment of the participants, as well as their attention span. Keep the survey short and sweet by aiming for a maximum of 10-15 questions. These 6 hacks when implemented drive higher response rates to your survey campaigns. The next step will be to review and analyze feedback from the customers and take necessary actions based on findings from your survey.

 

PS: Revamp your customer surveys and unlock the power of customer insights with our eBook, ‘150 Essential Customer Survey Questions for Business Success.’ Get access to 150 unique survey questions across seven categories, including website UX and customer service satisfaction, and make data-driven decisions to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Kelechi Okeke
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