Nobody wants to fill out another survey. It's an easy delete inside the email inbox for me. Surveys that say they just have 2 questions link me to a 25 question poorly worded survey. In the survey world, getting a 2% completion rate is a good day for most companies.
WHY IS THAT?
- People don't believe anyone will ever read their survey or make any improvements based on their survey response. (and they are usually correct)
- People are busy and don't like long surveys that slow them down.
- The same ppl get hammered with too many survey requests via email, text, phone, etc.
- Did I mention the user has zero belief that their opinion matters at all?
And yet surveys CAN BE such a fantastic way to gather data on what people think and feel and want. Customers do actually want to share their opinions. I love the potential that surveys have to give us solid data.
So I tried a few things that increased my survey response to a large group from 2% to 14% which is a 600% increase just from doing these things on a whim:
- I included a video from me in the survey email that told the recipients just how much I hate taking surveys and how I always delete them just like they do.
- I said out loud that surveys often never even get read or used to do anything different.
- I made the user laugh and ask themselves, "So why are you sending me another survey?!"
- I promised the user that I was personally going to look at the survey results including reading every single comment in the open comments box and that their time would make a difference in how we did business.
- I kept the survey reasonably short, like 10 questions or less and stated that in my email/video.
- I started sending fewer emails asking the same ppl to fill out surveys.
So first of all, send fewer email surveys...you're exhausting your list. Try the personal video plea. Then do what you said and actually read the results and make changes based on your customer's experience. Your customer will thank you and they will show it by giving you their opinion more often.
