Incentives, follow-up and other helpful survey know-how

Part four of four: Making sure you get some answers for that carefully crafted survey.

So, you’ve designed your survey questions and answers, you’ve picked your recipient list, and you’re ready to start collecting data. The next big challenge is designing your survey invitation so that people do you the honor of actually responding to your handy survey.

First, set a clear time-expectation on the front end.

This is crucial. We all hate that “standing in line at a theme park”-like experience when we’re taking a survey, when after completing 18 questions, we realize we’re only about 20 percent through the survey. Being respectful of your respondents’ time investment is important, and setting the right expectation will keep them from abandoning your survey and jumping in line at the log flume. Here at Emma, we even did a split test once and discovered that more people took our survey when we mentioned that it would only take five minutes. (You can read about it here.)

Then, weigh in on human nature.

Using language like “we need your help” (or a milder version like “your feedback is valuable”) can be a good way to get people emotionally involved. The feeling of being needed can be a powerful motivator.

Next, draw a connection between their participation and an outcome.

You can do this in two ways.

The first outcome connection you can make is results-oriented. If you’re surveying your loyal customers or people who have an invested interest in your results, you can let them know what decisions you’re making as a company based on the information you receive. This set of customers may be inspired to participate just from the knowledge that they will be taking part in the brand experience, or that they will be getting something from the results.

An example of a results-oriented survey incentive is the recent census survey. They launched a campaign alerting the public that the results would affect everything from budget allocation for hospitals and schools to the state’s seats in the House of Representatives. That education campaign was expensive but likely had a great impact on their return rate, which was 72 percent (which is pretty good, in my opinion, for such a large recipient pool).

Alternatively, you can use a prize-oriented incentive. This can be a good option if you’re not quite sure that your customers are going to participate based on their love for your brand. This naturally includes the old “you’ll be entered to win a free thingamajig” incentive, which can be a nice complement to subtler incentives. The reward can range from being entered to win one huge prize (large prize with a low win percentage) to earning a coupon just for completing the survey (small prize with a high likelihood of winning). Choose what works best for your budget and which type of nudge you think will inspire your audience.

Lastly, be sure to follow up with your respondents.

The ultimate reward for taking a survey is seeing that your opinion counts, so be sure to alert your respondents of the decisions you make based on their feedback. Don’t forget to close this loop, if you can – it demonstrates a devotion to your customers’ opinions that is hard to beat.

More from our recent survey series:
The ‘when’ and ‘where’ of surveys
The ‘why’ of customer surveys
The ‘how’ of creating an effective survey