{"id":13391,"date":"2019-04-19T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/?p=13391"},"modified":"2019-11-12T10:08:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T15:08:23","slug":"how-to-improve-your-survey-form-response-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/how-to-improve-your-survey-form-response-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Improve Your Survey Form Response Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

Surveys are powerful ways to learn what your subscribers and customers think. But you only get useful information from your surveys if people actually take them.<\/p>\n

Your survey response rate affects the reliability of your data. If the response is small, the data could skew in a way that doesn\u2019t represent your audience. This means that a low response rate could completely invalidate your survey.<\/p>\n

A high response rate, however, provides you with valuable feedback from your customers and subscribers, makes your audience feel engaged with your brand, and reduces the effect of nonresponse bias<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When you design a survey, therefore, it\u2019s important to take steps to maximize your response rate. In this article, we\u2019d like to offer some tips to get more people to take your surveys.<\/p>\n

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9 Tips to Improve Your Survey Response Rate<\/h2>\n

Before you publish your survey and start blasting emails to your list, make sure you follow these critical tips to increase your survey response rate.<\/p>\n

1. Only Prompt the Right People<\/h3>\n

More responses means better data, right? Well, not necessarily.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to ask your entire email list to take your survey, but that won\u2019t capture the most reliable data. Instead, it\u2019s smarter to only ask the people on your list who can reasonably answer your questions.<\/p>\n

For instance, let\u2019s say you want to know about your customers\u2019 retail experience. It doesn't make sense to send this kind of survey to people who never visited your retail store. Instead of sending them a survey they can't complete, segment your email list and only send the survey to people who can give you reliable, actionable data.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, ensure your questions relate to your business, your products or services, or their experience with your brand. If the questions aren\u2019t relevant, they won\u2019t trust you. That said, avoid asking questions you already know the answers to. This just wastes your respondents\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

2. Send a Reminder to Nonrespondents<\/h3>\n

This is a simple trick, but it actually works. There are a lot of reasons people might not respond to your survey that have nothing to do with you. They might be willing to at a later point, but you\u2019ll have to remind them.<\/p>\n

Send a reminder email days later to the people on your list who failed to respond to your first message. Use a different subject line in your reminder email, but don't use words like \u201creminder\u201d or \u201csecond attempt\u201d or \u201clast chance\u201d in your email. That kind of language annoys people and decreases your open rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That said, don\u2019t pester people. Don't ask your subscribers to complete your survey more than twice. If they ignore both prompts, it most likely means they don't want to participate. If you bother them over and over, there's a chance they will ignore your future emails or unsubscribe from you.<\/p>\n

3. Make it Work on Everything<\/h3>\n

Mobile, browser, and device compatibility is extremely important. If someone can\u2019t access or use your form on their device, they usually won\u2019t find another to make it work. They\u2019ll just move on. So make sure your survey form displays and functions properly everywhere. This tip is especially important for the email you send asking people to take the survey since many email opens occur on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

4. Consider Using an Incentive Carefully<\/h3>\n

There's no doubt that incentives are great ways to get people to do something. If you promise your subscribers\/customers a free piece of content or a free product for completing your survey, you will surely get a lot of responses.<\/p>\n

Consider, however, that some people who wouldn\u2019t have completed the survey without an incentive will now rush through it to get the prize. They won\u2019t care about the results. Not only does this mean you will give out a lot of incentives, it also erodes the integrity of your data.<\/p>\n

So should you offer an incentive? We can't make that determination for you. You will have to decide if your audience will abuse your reward.<\/p>\n

5. Keep the Survey Short and Simple<\/h3>\n

Shorter surveys almost always see higher response rates. People have a limit on the amount of time they\u2019re willing to give. Net Promoter Score surveys<\/a>, for instance, can capture a lot of information with just two fields.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, keep each question<\/em> short. Your respondents shouldn\u2019t need a lot of time to understand what you ask, and they should be able to come up with their answer without much thought.<\/p>\n

Survey fields (like the kind that come with our Survey Add-On<\/a>) are critical here. These fields ask people to answer with a rating. Here\u2019s an example from Gravity Forms. You can label the columns anything you want.<\/p>\n

\"Improve<\/p>\n

Furthermore, use simple and concise language wherever possible. If your respondents have to decipher your language or pull out a dictionary to understand your words, there's a good chance they will abandon your survey. It's critical that you don't allow your respondents to become confused. Here are some things to avoid:<\/p>\n