Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information
Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information
have real information about what your customers and prospects are
actually looking for. And you send the survey to your in-house list--but
the flood of responses you're expecting is only a trickle.
While direct-mail marketing typically enjoys response rates of 0.5
percent to 2 percent for sales pieces, survey responses are often far
lower.
You're never going to get 100 percent participation. People are too
busy, or some of them are simply not your target audience. But still, you
want to do better than a few hundredths of a percent. How can you boost
responses up to meaningful levels of 10 percent or more?
Make it EASY to Respond
The less work your respondent has to do, the more responses you'll get.
One click should go right to the survey form, without requiring
registration. You can easily use software to flag duplicate responses, so
ballot-stuffing is not a problem. And the form itself should be simple,
clearly worded, easy to understand, easy and quick to fill out. Unless
there is a strong business reason for using them, avoid distractions such
as animated GIFs and Flash intros. Depending on your audience, they
could get in the way of the survey or increase the likelihood that the form
will give error messages.
Explain Why Responding HELPS the Respondent
You want this information to better serve your customers--to offer
products and services that more closely meet their exact needs. Use
effective copywriting to convey this point--that not only do you sincerely
value their input, but that their responses will help you bring products to
market that directly reflect their exact needs. Help them to feel
"ownership" of their role in making these new products happen.
This may be the most crucial factor: your headlines and body copy
should convey that you see your respondents as allies in solving their
problems or increasing their convenience together. It's all about them,
not about you.
REASSURE Your Participants
Everybody worries that if they participate in surveys, they're going to be
hounded with high-pressure sales pitches. Do it differently; earn your
prospects' respect by promising them that salespeople won't bother
them. And keep your promise! If you design the entire process properly,
survey respondents will seek YOU out to do some business together.
You will, of course, provide them with every tool they need to follow up
with you.
Provide the Chance for REAL Feedback
Include at least one comment field, where respondents can explain or
qualify their answers. You'll get extremely meaningful information from
this technique--well worth the extra labor in hand-analyzing the results--
and once again, you make your respondents feel valued and important,
so that they have a vested interest in feeling that they're a part of your
enterprise. It may even be worth your while to put a comment field in for
every question.
FOLLOW UP With the Best Respondents
People who make useful comments are prime candidates for focus
groups, beta testing, or simple one-to-one follow-up--focused on
additional research, not sales. They'll be so grateful that you really value
their opinions that they may become evangelists for your company.
Won't they be surprised and delighted to get a telephone call or a
personal e-mail from the president of your company, thanking them for
their response and asking if they'd like to help you refine your research?
(Be sure to present this as genuine; don't wrap it up in a sales pitch.)
Offer INCENTIVES For Responding
Offer thank-you gifts to every entrant, or add all your respondents to a
raffle drawing. The prizes should be relevant to your company--perhaps
one of your own products, or a product or service that complements
yours. At the end of the survey, ask for contact information if they'd like to
receive the gift or be entered in the drawing.
The more people participate honestly in a survey, the more useful your
market research. And if the incentives are strong and relevant enough,
you know that the responses you get will be honest, identifiable, and
useful.
So there you have it: Make your surveys user-friendly, show why
answering the survey benefits the participant, reassure them that you
won't unleash the sales dogs, offer prospects the chance to actually
influence the direction of your products and your marketing, follow up
appropriately, and offer incentives. Then watch your survey numbers
grow, and put all that useful information into practice in your product
development, customer service, and of course, your profits.
This article was originally commissioned and published by
Hostedware.com, a leading provider of web survey and
online testing software for research, education and performance
improvement. Used with their permission.
Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information - To learn more about this author, visit Shel Horowitz's Website.
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So... you spend time and effort putting together a survey, so you can
have real information about what your customers and prospects are
actually looking for. And you send the survey to your in-house list--but
the flood of responses you're expecting is only a trickle.
While direct-mail marketing typically enjoys response rates of 0.5
percent to 2 percent for sales pieces, survey responses are often far
lower.
You're never going to get 100 percent participation. People are too
busy, or some of them are simply not your target audience. But still, you
want to do better than a few hundredths of a percent. How can you boost
responses up to meaningful levels of 10 percent or more?
Make it EASY to Respond
The less work your respondent has to do, the more responses you'll get.
One click should go right to the survey form, without requiring
registration. You can easily use software to flag duplicate responses, so
ballot-stuffing is not a problem. And the form itself should be simple,
clearly worded, easy to understand, easy and quick to fill out. Unless
there is a strong business reason for using them, avoid distractions such
as animated GIFs and Flash intros. Depending on your audience, they
could get in the way of the survey or increase the likelihood that the form
will give error messages.
Explain Why Responding HELPS the Respondent
You want this information to better serve your customers--to offer
products and services that more closely meet their exact needs. Use
effective copywriting to convey this point--that not only do you sincerely
value their input, but that their responses will help you bring products to
market that directly reflect their exact needs. Help them to feel
"ownership" of their role in making these new products happen.
This may be the most crucial factor: your headlines and body copy
should convey that you see your respondents as allies in solving their
problems or increasing their convenience together. It's all about them,
not about you.
REASSURE Your Participants
Everybody worries that if they participate in surveys, they're going to be
hounded with high-pressure sales pitches. Do it differently; earn your
prospects' respect by promising them that salespeople won't bother
them. And keep your promise! If you design the entire process properly,
survey respondents will seek YOU out to do some business together.
You will, of course, provide them with every tool they need to follow up
with you.
Provide the Chance for REAL Feedback
Include at least one comment field, where respondents can explain or
qualify their answers. You'll get extremely meaningful information from
this technique--well worth the extra labor in hand-analyzing the results--
and once again, you make your respondents feel valued and important,
so that they have a vested interest in feeling that they're a part of your
enterprise. It may even be worth your while to put a comment field in for
every question.
FOLLOW UP With the Best Respondents
People who make useful comments are prime candidates for focus
groups, beta testing, or simple one-to-one follow-up--focused on
additional research, not sales. They'll be so grateful that you really value
their opinions that they may become evangelists for your company.
Won't they be surprised and delighted to get a telephone call or a
personal e-mail from the president of your company, thanking them for
their response and asking if they'd like to help you refine your research?
(Be sure to present this as genuine; don't wrap it up in a sales pitch.)
Offer INCENTIVES For Responding
Offer thank-you gifts to every entrant, or add all your respondents to a
raffle drawing. The prizes should be relevant to your company--perhaps
one of your own products, or a product or service that complements
yours. At the end of the survey, ask for contact information if they'd like to
receive the gift or be entered in the drawing.
The more people participate honestly in a survey, the more useful your
market research. And if the incentives are strong and relevant enough,
you know that the responses you get will be honest, identifiable, and
useful.
So there you have it: Make your surveys user-friendly, show why
answering the survey benefits the participant, reassure them that you
won't unleash the sales dogs, offer prospects the chance to actually
influence the direction of your products and your marketing, follow up
appropriately, and offer incentives. Then watch your survey numbers
grow, and put all that useful information into practice in your product
development, customer service, and of course, your profits.
This article was originally commissioned and published by
Hostedware.com, a leading provider of web survey and
online testing software for research, education and performance
improvement. Used with their permission.
Six Ways to Boost Response on Your Surveys and Gain More Useful Information - To learn more about this author, visit Shel Horowitz's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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