Quick Tips for Increasing Survey Responses, RSVPs, and Other Feedback

In a time when we’re inundated with Slack messages, emails, etc., obtaining survey responses, event registrations, and customer feedback can sometimes prove difficult.

You may be tasked with gathering feedback on how to improve the Tableau dashboard user experience or getting the word out about your human-centered design training course. Whatever the case, follow these tips to increase your chances of receiving the feedback you need:

General Tips

• Plan ahead: Strategize how to increase feedback responses. Tailor the strategy to your audience (e.g., Is your audience on Slack? What jargon should you avoid?).
• Employ a multi-channel approach: Spread the word on Slack (e.g., oit-all and topic-based channels such as #cms-api-community, #cms-hcd-community, #oit_health-and-wellness-lounge, etc.), email, community calendars, and anywhere your users will be. Link to events and surveys in your email signature. Involve leaders in promotional efforts.
• Specify the time commitment: Most people are willing to set aside five minutes to complete a survey. The longer the commitment, the less likely participants are to follow through.
• Incentivize users: Illustrate how participants will benefit or why they should care, e.g., “Improve employee training: Tell us what you think!” 
• Generate buzz: Use impactful marketing language and visuals. Many people respond to humor and emotion.
• Keep it short and simple: Response requests should be brief, avoid walls of text, and use plain language. 
• Send reminders: Reach out at least two to three times and send deadline reminder emails or calendar reminders to respond or RSVP.
• Build opportunities: Send a ‘thank you’ note for participation. Use this opportunity to advertise your next event or let users know how their feedback helped or will help create change (e.g., a course’s content, a process, etc.).

A Few Tips for Sending Surveys

• Make people feel comfortable. Sensitive surveys should be anonymous whenever possible. Inform participants of how data will be kept confidential to gain their trust (e.g., explain that personal identifiers will be removed, etc.) 
• Offer alternative ways to respond. 
  • Designate a contact person for users who aren’t comfortable filling out the survey themselves. This point of contact could be someone outside your team who acts as an intermediary, sharing only the feedback and not who it came from.
  • Allow respondents the option to provide feedback in an interview. One member of your team can speak to the respondent and ask questions (often the same questions in the survey), while a second person can take notes. This allows you to ask for more context around their responses.  
• Conduct surveys or polls during live events or allow 5 to 10 minutes near the end of an event to increase response rates.
• Provide designated short answer choices (e.g., multiple choice, true/false) but include an optional space to record longer answers.
• Follow up. Reach out to survey respondents to inform them of any changes made based on their feedback. People are more likely to respond to future requests if they know their opinions are valued.