Todd Hollander Market Research

In order to achieve a high level of confidence in the results of online surveys, it is vitally important to maximize the percentage of potential respondents who actually complete the survey.

Here are 10 tips that will help you increase survey response rates.

1. Tell potential respondents how long it will take to complete the survey. This should be included in the survey invitation. Be truthful. A maximum of 10 minutes should be the norm. Unless they have a significant financial or emotional stake in your company, many respondents will not complete a survey that takes longer than 10 minutes. If your survey exceeds this limit, find a way to pare it down.
2. Tell potential respondents why you are conducting the survey. This should also be included in the survey invitation. Focus on the benefits to them such as better product assortment, better product availability, enhanced service, etc.
3. Offer an incentive. Don’t rely on data only from those who participate out of the goodness of their own hearts. What could you offer to motivate those who might not respond without a chance for personal benefit? A discount on a future purchase? A drawing for an iPod or a prepaid gas card? Whatever you decide to offer, be sure to mention it in the survey invitation. (Note: as a rule, make the incentive optional. Not everyone wants an incentive, so include the ability to opt out.)
4. Send the invitation at a good time. The best times to email the invitations are typically: (1) Tuesday - anytime; (2) Wednesday - early in the day; (3) Monday - midday. The worst times are Fridays and weekends.
5. Make surveys as short as possible. Eliminate non-essential “nice to know” questions and include only the critical “must know” questions.
6. Make questions clear and concise. Write the questions with the respondents in mind. Use as few words as possible. Avoid jargon. Make it crystal clear what you are asking. If a fifth-grader wouldn’t immediately understand the question, rewrite it.
7. Make responses as easy as possible. Used closed-ended responses (radio buttons and check boxes) whenever possible. Minimize open-ended and ranking/allocation responses.
8. Make the first page short and simple. Let respondents start answering questions right away. Don’t include detailed instructions on the first question. The quicker they can start responding, the more likely they are to complete the entire questionnaire.
9. Send a reminder. Some people will take your survey right away. Others will need a follow-up email reminder with the survey link included. One reminder at the mid-point of the data collection period is best. Never send more than two reminder emails.
10. Use a progress meter. Respondents typically like to know how close to completion they are as they work through the questions. Using a progress meter relieves anxiety and reduces the percentage of incomplete surveys.

The bottom line: Low survey response rates run a risk of basing important marketing and business decisions on an incomplete set of data. Use these tips to increase response rates and generate a high level of confidence in your online research.

Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use grid responses.

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Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use text boxes.

Text Box

Text boxes are blank spaces in which users can enter free-form answers. Text boxes are generally used when a) the researcher wants to capture respondents’ opinions in their own words, and/or b) there are more response options than can be accommodated by a drop-down list. Recommendations:

• Use text boxes sparingly. As a rule, use a text box only if you cannot use a closed-ended question format (radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down lists, or grids).
• Because it takes respondents longer to complete text boxes than radio buttons or checkboxes, the more text boxes you include, the more incomplete surveys you are likely to receive because some respondents will consider the survey too time-consuming and taxing.
• Providing clear, concise instructions tends to produce the best results.
• Placement of text boxes is important. As a rule, you should avoid using them too early in the survey because most respondents prefer to start with easy single or multiple-choice questions.
• Respondents often fill the space provided, so it is important to allow sufficient space. If you want shorter answers, limit the space provided. If you want longer responses, use larger boxes to accommodate longer responses.
• Making text box responses optional increases the likelihood that respondents will not complete them, but requiring responses in text boxes that should be optional (such as "Please use this space for any additional comments") increases the likelihood that frustrated respondents will not complete the survey.

Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use drop-down lists.

Drop-down list

Drop-down lists typically appear in the survey as a box with instructions to "select one." This type of response format requires the user to click on the box, then locate and click on their answer. Drop-down lists are most appropriate when a) the number of response options is too large to format with radio buttons, and/or b) it is faster or easier for the respondent to select a response from a drop-down list rather than a list of radio buttons. Recommendations:

• Because all of the possible responses are not visible on the initial screen, drop-down options should be used for fields with which respondents are already familiar (such as year of birth or state of residence).
• When many possible responses are included in the drop-down list, it is important to organize response options in a logical way (e.g., alphabetically or numerically).
• Use drop-down lists when appropriate as research has shown that they do not increase the likelihood of respondents giving “don’t know” responses or leaving items blank. ^*

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* Couper, Tourangeau, Conrad and Crawford. “What They See is What We Get.” Social Science Computer Review. http://ssc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/22/1/111.pdf (2004).

Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use checkboxes.

Checkboxes

Checkboxes are used for multiple-choice questions. These response categories usually are not mutually exclusive and are used when multiple answers exist for a single question, as in the example on the left. Note that checkboxes are used when there are lists of options and the user may select any number of choices, including none, one, several, or all. In other words, each checkbox is independent of all other checkboxes in the list, so checking one box doesn’t uncheck the others.

Appropriate formatting is a vital component of effective online surveys. The right formatting will engage respondents, make it easier for them to navigate through the survey, and increase the survey response rate. Here are a few tips for how and when to use radio buttons.

Radio Buttons

In web survey design, radio buttons are represented as small round circles. Radio buttons should be used when the respondent is to select only one answer from a predefined set of options, as in the demographic question on the left: As a rule, radio button responses should be mutually exclusive. A few interesting findings:

• A 2002 experiment in Belgium demonstrated one advantage of using radio buttons. In this experiment, two groups were given the same survey: one with radio buttons and the other with drop-down lists. Participants using radio buttons were more likely to complete the survey (88.37 percent) than those using drop-downs (84.07 percent)1 .
• The use of radio buttons that offer the user noncommittal answers such as “don’t know” did not increase the likelihood of such non-substantial answers being selected1 .

In future postings, we’ll explore how and when to use the alternatives to radio buttons, including:

• Checkboxes
• Drop-down lists
• Text boxes
• Grids

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1Heerwegh and Loosveldt. “An Evaluation of the Effect of Response Format on Data Quality in Web Surveys.” www.icis.dk/ICIS_papers/A2_3_2.pdf (2002) and Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20, No. 4, 471-484 (2002)