If you’re a marketer, it’s important to get meaningful data from prospective and existing customers. Surveys are needless to say, one of the most effective ways to collect that information. If you’ve done your survey well, you can get the right information to send the company in the right direction, but you want to make sure you’re focusing on the respondent experience, so they don’t give up or get frustrated halfway through the survey. Getting more respondents matter and here we share the seven most useful tips to get your respondents through your survey in a positive way while giving you the valuable information you need.
1. Be clear about why they should respond
When you want input from people, you’re asking them to take time out of their day to help you out, especially if there’s no incentive or reward for participating. Because of this, when you ask for feedback, you should be really clear why people should be responding, by explaining what you will do with the information, why respondents should care, and how it will benefit them. In your survey introduction, you should indicate the reason why, and how it will help your company serve their customers better; that will make people more inclined to take part.
2. Manage expectations
You want to be upfront about the survey from the very beginning, so your respondents don’t feel like they’re filling out a survey that never ends. As recommended by Jill Rivers, a business and marketing blogger at 1 Day 2 Write and Next Coursework, “from the start, tell your respondents exactly how long it should take them to complete it, or how many questions you’re asking, so they’re not rushing through it or giving up halfway through. If you want, consider using a progress bar at the top of the survey to show people how far into it they are.”
3. Tailor the survey to your audience
Marketers seem to make their questions very dry and straightforward, probably to avoid influencing the results of the survey. These aren’t supposed to be entertaining but should help you gather valuable information. However, that doesn’t mean they should be boring, and you should write your survey like a human being would say it. Use language and terms that respondents can relate to, so keep the acronyms and jargon to a minimum.
4. Finish positively
Once the survey is completed, give them the opportunity to share what they want. Thank them for taking the time to respond to your survey and explain how much their input means to your company and its ability to better serve its clients. Then, open the door if there’s anything they’d like to add. They can either put no or fill in a text field with additional comments. Whether or not they use it, they will appreciate the opportunity to share their opinion. This is a great area for people to point out things that you may not have even thought to ask, sharing questions that were unclear on the survey, giving suggestions of products or ideas, and providing you with more information on your client base.
5. Complete your own survey
Theresa Bridges, a marketing manager at Brit Student and Write My X, suggests that “when you’ve finished writing it, take a break then come back to it and complete it yourself. Take your survey critically and decide if each question will get you the feedback you need, and if your language is conveying the question in the way you wanted it to. Most importantly, consider whether this is a survey your target audience will realistically complete.”
6. Touch base with your respondents
After the respondents have finished the survey, you want to be able to close the loop by letting them know what the company has done with their valuable input. This will be very appreciated by your respondents and make them feel like your company really heard their voices and took action. This means they’ll be more likely to respond to future surveys, and share the experience with their network.
7. Share the results
If you’re able to without disclosing sensitive or confidential information, consider sharing the anonymous results of the survey with your respondents. This allows them to see how their responses compare with others and show the transparency of your organization. It goes without saying that any questions asking for personal identification information should not be displayed.
If you keep this information in mind when you’re designing your next survey, you’re sure to increase the number of respondents you get and valuable business insight.
