Why You Should Treat Your Surveys like a Grocery List

Chelsea Kaefer on May 4, 2016

Remember your mother’s advice not to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry, making it easier to stick to your grocery list?

What you might not realize, is that this advice applies to more than just shopping. Survey Monkey says the same way a person’s physical state affects their shopping habits; their mental state can affect their response to your survey. With this in mind, you can prime your audience and improve survey results with some strategic planning.

Curious about how? Here’s your grocery list:

  1. Less is More: You have your audience’s attention for a short amount of time, so only ask the questions that help obtain the insight you need. This can be achieved by having a clear idea of how you will use the data and help to eliminate any questions that don’t get to the heart of what you want to measure.
  1. Target Your Audience: Design your survey for your audience, with the user experience in mind. I like to suggest putting yourself in the shoes of your audience to ensure you’re sending the survey at the right time, in their preferred channel, and ordering/phrasing questions in such a way that aligns with survey goals.
  1. Share Results & Future Plans: While your pre-survey notification should explain how your audience will benefit from answering your survey, be sure to follow through on promises. This can be sharing results, or demonstrating how survey responses have influenced business decisions. This will help build the customer relationship and increase response rates in the future.

With these items as your main ingredients, your respondents won’t finish their survey on an empty stomach. Applying these tips will empower surveyors with the ability to develop a clear, concise survey that delivers optimal response rates, and demonstrates impact through valuable feedback.

For information on survey programs that are concise, targeted, and insightful, click here.

Topics: Surveys