TOPIC 8

TECHNIQUES FOR
INCREASING
RESPONSE RATES
ASSIST. PROF. PETAR PETROV
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Increase respondent convenience by keeping the survey as
short as possible.
• To increase survey participation, make your invitations concise and
straightforward.
• If you already have information about respondents (name, age, gender,
organization, title, etc.), don’t make them enter this information again.
• Irrelevant or not important topics should be avoided.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Craft an effective email subject line and begin emails with an
engaging question.
• Don’t use a dull subject line. Avoid the word “free”.
• Examples:
- Topic “Employee satisfaction”. Introduction: “How would you rate the
work-life balance of your work place?”
- Topic “Customer loyalty”. Introduction : “Why are you a loyal customer to
your favorite laptop brand?”
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Craft an effective email subject line and begin emails with an
engaging question.
• The point of the opening line is to connect with your audience in a way
that immediately captures their attention and communicates how much
you value their opinions.
• Make it crystal clear who you are and the purpose of your study.
• Be up front about the survey’s benefit to the individual and to your
organization.
• Use requests that focus on altruistic self-perception appeals – “Your help
means a lot to us…”, “We need your support…”
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Make it personal.
• Personalize the message to the specific respondent.
• Do not show all of the other recipients (use bcc instead).
• You can boost your response rates by at least 5 percent – sometimes
even more – by addressing the e-mail recipient by first and or last name!

• Brand your message with the look-and-feel of your

organization’s website and logo as well as any affiliation and
partners.
• Leave contact data and links to detailed information about the research.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Target the message.
• The content and tone of your email should be crafted based on your audience (first-time
respondents vs. past respondents, executives vs. employees, customers vs. vendors).
• Reflect your audience’s specific interests and needs.

• Offer meaningful incentives.

• Research increasingly shows that small incentives (coupons, free or low-valued
merchandise) are not as effective as offering to share the survey results and explaining
how the feedback will impact your organization’s decisions.
• State this in the beginning!

• Offer multiple methods to access the survey.

• Direct link in the email.
• Active copy/paste link.
• Survey website.
• Links in forums, groups, websites, etc.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Keep your email database up-to-date.
• Monitor the emails that bounce back or are undeliverable.
• Offer a way for survey participants to update their contact information in the
email or survey.

• Determine the best time to launch.

• Send emails when people are most likely to receive them and will respond.
• This takes an understanding of your specific survey audience.
• Studies have shown that the best time to send an email is mid-week on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

• Send reminders to increase the response rate.

• You should not, however, send more than two reminders.
• You should not send reminders to those who have already responded!
HOW MANY EMAILS?
• First – information about the selection of the respondent to
participate in the survey.
• Second – invitation with a link to the questionnaire.
• Third – a thank you letter / reminder.
• Fourth – results or follow-up.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Communicate the privacy policy, data security and anonymity.
• Give the option for text-only email.
• Versions without images and multimedia.
• Consider a variety of venues for posting your survey with the idea
that more is merrier.
• Don’t forget employees, friends, family, colleagues, and other survey
takers. Ask for ideas about where to post the survey online and
encourage your respondents to share the survey with others who may
be interested in sharing their opinions.
• Do not deceive your audience!
• Give estimated time for filling in the questionnaire.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Keep your instructions short.
• If there is anything unusual about your online survey, be sure to make
that clear up front or you could skew your results.

• One of the key questions people want answered – “Where will

this information be used?”
• Develop clear, concise questions.
• Use graphics sparingly – they may distract the respondent.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Avoid table questions, open questions and asking for email,
phone number or address.
• Aim for no more than 10 minutes length.
• No more than 15 questions.
• Messages for missed questions.
• Make it interesting and involving.
• Make the results public.
INCREASING RESPONSE RATES
• Do not send the same survey twice!
• To discover the best survey methods, try using several different subject
lines, content, branding, etc., to see what is most effective.

• Enable respondents to save surveys and to opt-out.

• Test, test and test!
• The questionnaire.
• The invitation.
• On different servers, operating systems, browsers, devices.
EXAMPLE INVITATION
Dear colleagues,
It is our great pleasure to bring to your attention one sweet
questionnaire. The questionnaire itself isn’t actually sweet, but
we expect it to provoke such feelings. And even more, you will
dive into the world of chocolate temptation and this is an
adventure, you don’t want to miss!
Thank you for your cooperation!
EXAMPLE 1
• The first survey consisted of a short 10-question survey entitled
“What Do Women Want . . . For Valentine’s Day?” This
somewhat whimsical survey was sent using a single e-mail
blast (with no second communication) to a “random sample” of
Internet users through an e-mail list broker. Recipients of the
survey were offered the chance to win $500 cash in a random
drawing and in addition were promised a copy of the results.
This combination of incentives plus a short, interesting survey
produced an amazing 43 percent response rate.
EXAMPLE 2
• A second e-mail survey, a very long academic survey of more
than 100 questions, focused on developing a demographic,
psychographic, and technological expertise profile of the online
shopper. This survey measuring attitudes and behaviors was
sent through the same panel broker to a random sample of
“Internet shoppers”. Respondents were promised the chance to
win $500 cash in one of seven random drawings. The university
sponsorship of the survey was identified in the cover letter that
contained the professor’s name, contact information, and link to
the survey. The response rate was 11 percent.
EXAMPLE 3
• A third survey sent to brokers by a leading investment firm
resulted in a .002% response rate after two mail outs. Further
follow up revealed that the potential respondents were a fast
paced group of professionals too busy to be bothered with a
survey.
EXAMPLE 4
• Many airline passengers making a connection in Cincinnati
during July, 2009 encountered an interviewer in the terminal
who was giving travelers a business card with online survey
taking instructions and an online survey code. She requested
that the traveler complete the airline satisfaction survey when
they returned home or to their office. The contact was quick,
novel and non-intrusive. Most travelers kindly accepted the
card, but the researchers thought the actual follow through to
completion would be low. Nonetheless, some respondents would
feel committed and be recruited with relatively little effort.
Thank you for the attention!