6 Rules for a Responsive Survey to Make It Works!

Businesses are rapidly making and modifying strategies in order to keep up with the ongoing competitions in the market. Every business wants to stand out with a marketing campaign that specially targets their potential and existing customers.
 

You may design the finest of your campaigns by making assumptions, but the question is, “How will you exactly know what your customers are expecting from you?”
 

One of the best ways is to simply ask them.
 

Speaking in other terms, you can simply survey your customers or prospects and know what is going on in the real world. Surveys are nothing but a set a questionnaire that you send to your customers in order to collect the necessary data for your business.
 

The questions of your survey are specific to your business and requirements. However, surveys can be used for a variety of reasons. You may want to identify the scores of your customer satisfaction or make a decision regarding the appropriate positioning of your products in the market.
 

For example, if you are bringing an entirely new product to the market, you can conduct new research with the help of surveys.
 

Even surveys have to be carefully designed just like your emails. Deciding what you want to know from the customer might seem easy but creating a responsive survey can be a bit more complicated task. The purpose of your survey is to collect the required data from your audience.
 

A survey that is unplanned and thoughtlessly created becomes mere piece of trash. Nobody wants to put in efforts in something that is not benefitting them. So unless your surveys are visually attractive and sorted, your audience will not participate in it.
 

If you want to design a response gathering survey, we bring the best practises that you need to know and start working on them right now.
 

1. Make a decision about the survey data

 

You need to decide the fate of your survey data. Think of basic questions like, “What am I going to use this data for?” or “Will this data give me the required solutions?” Listing down a clear picture of all the ways that you are going to use your data, will help you develop an initial draft of your survey. Ultimately, your questions depend on the type of answers you want from your survey.
 

2. Question formatting

Formatting your questions forms an important part of the survey. Consider for example, your purpose from the survey is to create infographics or charts. In cases like these, try to pull out as many numbers from the survey as you can because your charts will show figures like 8-10 rather than ‘better than previous year’ comparisons.
 

Similarly, if you are creating an annual report, try asking similar questions that you did last year. One thing you can do is to tweak them a bit to get a comparative results. I have seen people liking a comparative result more than a new one.
 

Image source: SurveyMonkey

 

3. Consider your tone

 

A research conducted in the market reveals that survey that has an informal tone gathers more response than one with a formal tone.

 

Design a survey as if you are having a conversation with the customer as it helps in receiving more detailed answers from them. The most essential requirement is to incorporate the art of communication and make the customer feel casual with the survey. Try not to put additional burden on your customers by asking too many questions that might be unnecessary.

 

It is beneficial to provide a brief background before asking a question. Too many questions can make the customer feel fatigued, which is why it is advised to keep the environment of the survey comfortable.
 

4. Definite answers

Instead of asking too many subjective questions, give options. Long answers might not compel the customer or prospect to answer your survey, while just marking one of the options provided, seems a quick and easy approach.
 

For example, provide a rapid Yes or No answer selection in your survey. This is an evergreen trick to engage attraction that never fails.
 

Image source: The Tory Party

 

Another way is to provide a rating scale. The lowest score on the rating scale indicates ‘strongly disagree’ while the highest score tells ‘strongly agree’. Try to use a standard scale as such 1-10 or 1-6.  In case you have your own scale, don’t forget to mention it clearly and distinctly in your survey. Most of the companies consider it a great strategy to include rating scales. These scales can also be used to gather feedbacks of your products in an easy manner.
 

Image source: SurveyGizmo

 

5. Time your survey

 

Market analysts suggest that there is a sharp drop in responses as the length of the survey increases. If your survey takes more than 5-7 minutes, be ready to expect considerable drop of responses from your audience.  

 

Try to keep your survey as short as possible. The advised time duration roughly makes up 30 questions. One way to know if your survey is getting lengthy is to test it in your business departments. Make sure that an average person takes not more than 10 minutes to answer your complete survey.
 

6. Compensate people for their time

When you have too many things to ask your customers, make sure you compensate them well for their time. I’ve seen famous brands offering a chance to win an iPad or $500 or other goodies in return for the time their customers spend in answering the survey.
 

Image source: PrizeRebel

 

Creating a responsive survey requires complete dedication and analysis of your requirements. It thus becomes important to place your questions in a correct order and send it to your customers in a presentable format. Design a survey with the clarity of language and appropriate branching. And don’t forget to thank your customer for their precious time.