Has your survey response rate dropped recently? Or is it a constant struggle for your market research consultants? There could be various reasons for a low response rate, but solutions are available to fix this issue. All you require is to understand your audience segmentation better and perhaps, be more creative and thoughtful while designing your surveys.

Let’s see what measures can help you improve your survey response rates.

5 Easy Solutions for Poor Survey Response

    1. Personalize Your Surveys

Don’t treat each respondent the same way. You won’t like to be bombarded with ads regarding winterwear when you stay in tropical regions. Would you? And hence personalize your surveys.

Use user segmentation to send the surveys apt to age, gender, locality, area of interest, and preferences.

You should always show your gratitude to your respondents for their precious time. Use messages like:

     (i) Thank you for your time and participation.

     (ii) We appreciate your responses and opinions.

Such messages make your users feel valued.

Keep your users updated on how far they are in the survey. Use a progress bar for this. Also, mention the tentative time and the number of questions your users must invest in. This helps them know how much of their time and energy are needed for your surveys.

Send out thank you notes and details about their rewards once they finish the surveys. Such gestures help them remain loyal to your brand.

    2. Reward Your Respondents

Why would a respondent invest time in your surveys if they aren’t compensated for their time? Not to forget their other resources like phone memory, energy, and network bandwidth. So, you must incentivize your users who complete the surveys.

Most panel companies (and brands) offer gift vouchers and discount coupons that can be redeemed at shopping outlets during online purchasing. Some platforms reward points, and after a certain amount, users can redeem these points against cash via PayPal or a similar paying channel. A few survey companies also pay in cash.

Also, never ask for a fee for offering a survey to your users. Not only is this unethical but also wrong at so many levels. This can tag your brand as a scam.

At Opinionest, we offer online surveys for money in India to our respondents for free and reward them with vouchers redeemable against good brands and shopping apps.

   3. Make Surveys to-the-point and Succinct

Don’t clutter your survey with too many irrelevant questions. Off-topic questions can make your respondents abandon the survey. If your survey is about breakfast cereals, don’t ask them about your other products. Don’t ask about the coffee or tea flavors you offer.

When you can embed videos in a survey, do that. This avoids a lot of verbose content and establishes a personal connection with your audience. Keep your questions crisp and avoid long questions that explain too much. Users might lose their interest in the survey while reading epic-length surveys. Videos come in handy in such situations.

    4. Provide Right and Better Choices to Opt for

In case you have been limiting your survey questions with responses like agree, disagree, and in between, your users might turn away from such limited options sooner than later. Provide more holistic options with which they can opt to answer but not really reply. Something like:

     (i) Prefer not to answer

Also, making questions optional is a good idea unless they really are mandatory. Would you not want your users to be honest if they don’t have an answer or prefer not to?

Give clear options. Offer them to skip if the survey isn’t relevant for them. If your users are answering the initial questions negatively or aren’t using your product, let them skip to the submit button. Use logic to direct them to the right section based on their previous answers.

    5. Remain Active in Your Users’ Minds

Sending surveys via emails is the most common norm for panel companies and brands. But don’t rely only on emails. People use mobile more than they use a laptop during the hours when they can fill out surveys—lunch, travel, free evenings, holidays, and weekends. And every brand has its own app these days.

So, reach out to your users via an app. Whether you have your company’s own app or use a panel company, both options are fine. Also, remind your users about the survey you sent via SMS, text, and your social media pages.

Using an omnichannel approach not only encourages your users but can also help in adding more strength to your user base. Know where your users are hanging around and bank on those channels to reach out to them.

But remember, don’t overdo your outreach endeavors. This can miff your users, and they can turn away or block your emails and social media handles. For this, use proper user segmentation to know whom you’re supposed to communicate with. Sending emails about your painting products to a coder won’t help you get survey responses.

How Opinionest Can Better Your Survey Response Rate

Opinionest creates free online surveys for brands’ audiences and helps them make easy money online in India and other regions. We have been associated with multiple industries for years. Whether you need online videos or organize a focus group, if you want to use the latest technologies in your market research, we are here to help you. Please get in touch with us for all your online survey needs.