- Keep the survey short and focused – To ensure high response rates and avoid misleading survey results, keep your surveys short and ensure that your questions are well written and easy to answer.
- Embed the survey in email invitation – Embedding the first question of your survey directly in your email invitation does wonders for the response rate of your questionnaires. It’s all about reducing effort. Respondents can start your survey directly in the email – less clicks means more responses.
- Offer incentives – Depending upon the type of survey and survey audience, offering an incentive is usually very effective at improving response rates. People like the idea of getting something for their time. Research has shown that incentives typically boost response rates by 50% on average.
- Multi-lingual surveys – It is a great survey practice to create multi-lingual surveys as it gives the participant an opportunity to answer the survey in the language they are most comfortable with.
- Use close ended questions whenever possible – Closed ended survey questions give respondents specific choices (e.g. Yes or No), making it easier to analyze results. Closed ended questions can take the form of yes/no, multiple choice or rating scale.
- Mobile compatible surveys – In the era of smartphones it is essential to design surveys that renders to any screen size. In recent research it is observed that 69% people tend to answer the surveys on their phones.
Are you currently using online surveys for your business? Did you find these tips to be helpful? Please join the conversation in the comment section below.
