Tips for Improving Customer Survey Response Rates

Even the best-laid plans can go awry. In consumer research, low response rates can throw off an entire research project. A dearth of consumer responses calls into question the statistical reliability of research results, so low consumer response rates usually require an extension of the study—at additional expense—to find more respondents. If your organization is going through the hassle and expense of designing, distributing, and dissecting consumer surveys, it behooves you to make sure you are receiving a high rate of return. The more customers who contribute their feedback about your company, the better information you’ll have to improve your business and increase Customer Engagement. By considering the tips below, you’ll reap the benefits of high response rates leading to more reliable results.

The traditional, industry-accepted factors of consumer response rates are:

When asked at the 2008 Marketing Research Conference how to increase online response rates, members of the American Marketing Association suggested the following techniques:

•    Make surveys more engaging
•    Limit the number of questions/time to complete
•    Better target surveys to individuals
•    Increase the use of incentives
•    Attempt to identify fraudulent responses

These are standard industry solutions for low response rates, and worth considering if your survey isn’t getting any traction.

Survey response rates are also directly related to the strength of the relationship a company has with the respondent.  It is easier to convince a long-term customer or employee to complete a survey than it is to convince a total stranger. Lost and prospective customers show lower response rates than current customers.  And fully engaged customers are far more willing than their less enthusiastic counterparts to complete surveys.

Top photo by Artem Finland.

~Kate Feather, Executive VP
PeopleMetrics

Tags: Customer Feedback, customer survey, Kate Feather, survey response rates

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 10:19 am and is filed under Customer Feedback, Engaged Customers, Market Research, Retaining Customers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.