7 Proven Ways To Increase Survey Response Rates

A survey response rate is the percentage of people who actually take your survey and provide feedback. It’s an important metric to track when looking for feedback on a product or a service because it tells you how many people are interested in your topic. There are tons of ways to manipulate this number, but those strategies work best when they’re employed at the right time and with the right amount of effort. In this guide, I’ll cover not only what a good response rate looks like but also seven proven ways how to increase survey response rates.

[lwptoc]

What Is A Survey Response Rate?

A survey response rate is a statistic that measures the number of respondents in proportion to the number of total people who have been contacted (or attempted to be contacted) for the survey. This rate is calculated by dividing those who were surveyed and filling out a questionnaire by those who were approached for participation in the survey. The higher percentage means more customers gave feedback (and you’re doing well). The lower percentage means your customer service could use some improvement.

Guide To Improving The Survey Response Rate

The main reason why many small businesses don’t convert survey respondents into actual customers is that they don’t work hard enough to get them. Plenty of different variables determine how likely someone is to take your survey in the first place. Here are some of the most important ones:

Offer Something In Return For Participation

Wouldn’t expect anyone to sign up for a survey and simply provide feedback without any incentive? Returning customers are an obvious value-add, but not every customer will want another shirt or a pair of socks from you. 

You can offer discounts, freebies, coupons, and other perks – anything that will make them feel like they’re getting something for their money. Whatever it is, just remember that offering a token of appreciation goes a long way toward increasing the number of people who will actually participate in your survey.

Pick The Right Time To Survey Customers

It seems obvious that you should choose a time of the day when the least amount of people will be around. For example, you typically want to do opt-ins during business hours. However, I’d recommend giving customers the option to take a survey at any time of the day, if possible. 

Not only will more people answer your survey during this period, but it’s also more likely that they need or care about your product or service for them to fill it out. Also, consider the time of year. Depending on your business’s product or service, choosing a seasonal time for surveys can boost response rates.

Keep Your Survey Short And Sweet

Survey response rates are low but go even lower when people get bogged down with questions. Keep it brief and to the point. If you are looking for qualitative feedback, you want to make it as easy as possible for your respondents to provide that information. 

That said, don’t underestimate the value of quantitative data. If you have a conversion goal in mind, don’t be afraid to gather some hard information – just keep the survey short enough, so people have time to see what they’re getting into before deciding whether to take it.

Use Fullscreen Mobile-Friendly Forms

One of the most common reasons for low response rates is that many people don’t want to download apps or bookmark another browser window on their device just to take a survey. That’s why fullscreen mobile-friendly forms are so important. 

You can even make your surveys mobile responsive, so they will look good on all devices regardless of whether or not they are smartphone-optimized. This way, you’re also saving people time by eliminating the need for them to download an app to fill out your form when they’re on the go.

Give Your Customers A Gentle Nudge

If you want people to follow through on a survey, maybe you should consider giving them a gentle nudge via email. A gentle nudge is simply an email that politely responds to a customer’s opt-in and reminds them about the survey or special offer. It’s an easy way to remind people that they don’t want to miss out, as well as some of the benefits they stand to gain from responding to your survey. Gentle nudges get more results than anything else.

Pick The Right Channels To Display Surveys

Depending on your particular business, you might want to reach out to customers through different channels. For example, if you’re a property management company, you might have clients searching only for properties on their mobile devices or through an app. You can then send them surveys via those channels to get the most results from each survey. You can also do this when it’s not yet convenient for people to fill out your surveys directly from social media networks like Facebook or Twitter.

Make Sure You Approach The Right Audience

Just because you’re getting some people to give you feedback doesn’t mean they’re interested in signing up for your service. It could be that they are merely curious about it, or it could be that they’re not willing to give you their personal information. You need to make sure both of those things are true before investing in sending them a survey – or if you already have, make sure to test out different types of surveys and the approaches that might get the best results.

The Bottom Line

So, is it worth it to spend money on surveys? It’s important to find something that can improve the customer experience that will be an investment best-suited for you.

If you follow these tips, you should have a much easier time getting people to fill out your surveys. You’ll also have a much easier time getting them to take the next step, which means you can quickly turn them into actual customers and enjoy the benefits of customer feedback and all the other great things we’ve been talking about.

Read more: 5 Successful Marketing Tips For A Business