How Do I Ensure a High Response Rate?

Define your target group

Decide who you want to target with your survey. Is it the entire population of your country, your customers, a select group of your employees, new customers, potential customers, or even members of your tennis club? Strictly define who should be included within the group.

Information about the survey

When distributing the survey, be precise in your communication. Tell the respondents why they have been picked, how long it will take to answer the survey, and the purpose of the survey. This will help ensure that the respondents are properly focused when answering the survey.

Example:

Dear customer,

In our ongoing effort to improve our service level, we are conducting a survey targeted at selected (or a random selection of) customers. Your name has been picked out from our customer base, and we hope that you are able to spend 5 minutes telling us how you feel about our company and the level of service that we provide to you our customers.

Your response will be 100% anonymous, and our use of QuestBack to create this survey guarantees that you will remain anonymous.

Should you have any questions regarding this survey, we would be more than happy to respond to them. Please contact Director of Marketing, Jane Doe at jane.doe@company.com (Phone: 555 132 132).

Everyone that responds to this survey will be entered into a prize draw with the possibility of winning xx travel gift token of $xxx

Best Regards

Jane Doe

Company Inc.

Anonymity

When conducting a survey, you will in most cases be interested in the response, not the respondents themselves. QuestBack recommends that anonymity is used in most scenarios. It is an excellent way to ensure the most honest response from the respondents. From a technical perspective, QuestBack’s solution is designed to allow you to send out reminders or follow up surveys without violating the anonymity of those who have or have not answered.

Use of incentives

In surveys targeted towards customers, the use of incentives may help increase the response rate. But remember to make sure that the incentives offered are relevant to the target group. Offering gift tokens at for example amazon.com will appeal to a broader group than offering MP3-players. When it comes to internal surveys, incentives should not be necessary. However, securing the support of upper management when distributing a survey should increase the willingness of employees to respond. This may involve the survey being sent out by the CEO or information being posted on the company intranet, in internal newsletters etc.

When to send a reminder

Most people that respond to a survey will do so within 5-6 working days. So the best time to send out a reminder is approximately 1 week after the survey was published. We recommend that you pay close attention to the response log. All answers are recorded real time, and in most cases it is easy to see when a reminder is due.

How long should the survey remain active?

Based on experience, most responses are received within 5 to 6 working days after the survey is published or a reminder is sent out. But there are always people that respond after the deadline. Please make sure that the survey remains active one or two weeks after the deadline to avoid provoking late respondents who find that they are unable to submit their answers. You will still be able to generate a report prior to the final deadline of the survey.