Product category:
Market research
News Release from: Response Generation | Subject: DM surveys
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 14 January 2008
Top tips to increase response from DM
surveys
Compared with face-to-face interviews, mail surveys are a cost-effective method of obtaining information, but there are good and bad ways to construct and conduct them. Here is some advice.
Before embarking on a questionnaire it is important to define your objectives: What do I want to find out? From whom? Why do I want to find this out? How will this information be used? Who am I finding this out for and how shall I tell them the results? How much money do I have for this project? How much time? Unlike face-to-face interviews mail surveys do not include interviewer bias However, in a random sampling situation, your responses may still be skewed by socio-economic or demographic factors: for example, you may get higher responses from high-income, educated sectors, or lower than average response from young single males
As a general rule, long questionnaires get a lower response than short ones.
A maximum of five minutes for completion is ideal, although if the document is well written and proceeds in an orderly and interesting way, a longer completion time can be expected.
Answers should be easily captured into a database and therefore need to be presented in a yes/no, tick box, or rank order format.
Nevertheless, it is important to allow respondents to qualify some of their responses at intervals.
Using comment boxes allows free written comments, which can be a rich source of feedback.
The Top Tips.
1 Use the outer mailing envelope - putting a logo of a respected brand on the envelope will raise the communication above 'junk mail' status.
2 Use recycled paper and inform the recipients of this.
3 Include a covering letter from an actual person explaining why you are doing the survey and why you need a response; explain how the results will be used and also how the recipient's address was chosen.
4 Ensure that the status of the person writing the letter is as high as possible - a letter from the Chief Executive will raise response rates.
5 Include clear, concise instructions about how to complete the survey.
6 Keep your language friendly, simple and jargon free.
7 Include a postage-paid envelope and tell the recipient that return postage is free; instruct the recipient to use the reply-paid envelope in the letter.
8 Give your survey a title.
9 Put the client's address details on the questionnaire as envelopes sometimes get separated.
10 Make your first few questions non-threatening and topical.
11 Make questions as brief as possible - hold the respondents' interest.
12 Ask for one bit of information at a time; for example don't use 'Are you satisfied with the timing and quality of our collection services'.
13 Use bold text, italics and underlining to emphasise important points.
14 Make text as large and as easy to read as possible.
15 Use tick boxes and rank ordering where possible for ease of answering and data capture.
16 Do not ask the respondent to order or rank more than five items at a time.
17 Leave plenty of space in comment boxes - big response boxes and white space yield more information and make the survey look easier to complete.
18 Apart from introductory questions, place important questions in the first part of the survey; this is because respondents often send back only partially completed questionnaires.
19 Grouping similar questions and those that flow into each other make questionnaires easier to complete and thus produce higher response rates.
20 If possible offer an incentive to complete the survey; at the least offer to send respondents a copy of the results.
21 Thank respondents for their time.
22 Test the questions on colleagues for ambiguity.
23 Make name and address box optional - anonymous questionnaires produce more honest responses.
24 If respondents do provide name and address details, stress that the information will be confidential and explain your confidentiality policy.
25 Give the name and telephone number of someone they can talk to.
26 Mail questionnaires to arrive Friday or Saturday when recipients may have more time.
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