13 Tips for Getting Good Response Rates
1. Ensure your survey is relevant to your sample group
Ensure your survey is relevant to the people in your sample group – it will have a big effect on your response rates.2. Make the purpose of the survey clear
Keep the title of your questionnaire short and relevant. This will help respondents immediately understand what your questionnaire is about.
3. Advise how long it will take
Provide an accurate estimate of the time it will take to complete the questionnaire. Consider using a time band, e.g. 5-10 minutes. Don’t underestimate, people may abandon the questionnaire before it is completed.
The more relevant a survey is to a person the more time he or she will be willing to spend on completing the questionnaire. However, shorter questionnaires normally get better response rates.
4. Be clear about privacy protections
Respondents need to know who will have access to the survey results and the degree to which their identity is protected.If respondents are unclear about privacy and confidentiality issues they may be apprehensive when answering certain questions.
For example, if individual staff can be identified in an employee survey and they know the results will be made available throughout the company they may not answer some questions truthfully or at all.
In other cases, it may be an essential part of the survey to be able to attribute responses to individuals. That’s OK, just make it clear.
5. Make the questionnaire easy to complete
Good questionnaire design contributes significantly to good response ratesGo to 17 Tips for Questionnaire Design
6. Provide advance notification of the survey
Research indicates that advance notification of a survey increases response rates by between 7-8%This can be of particular importance when sample sizes are small and when every response counts
Communicate ahead of time. Explain the value and importance of the survey and encourage participation.
7. Use cover letters
Cover letters can determine whether a questionnaire is completed or not. Cover letters need to be short, clear and friendly.It is good practice to:
- Explain the purpose of the survey
- Explain how to complete the survey
- Explain the privacy protection policy
- Explain how long it will take to complete the questionnaire
- Explain how the survey information will be used
- Offer to share the (anonymised) results of the survey
8. Present questionnaires attractively
Keep things simple. Use an attractive well presented first page. Don’t overuse graphics. Avoid complex instructions.9. Follow up non-respondents
Sending reminders to people who haven’t responded increases response rates. It is good practice not to send more than two reminders. If someone hasn’t replied after receiving three invitations, they are unlikely to do so – and they may be annoyed if they keep receiving reminders.For online surveys reminders can be sent that contain a link to the online questionnaire. For postal surveys it is good practice to send a copy of your questionnaire with each reminder – together with a prepaid return envelope.
Contacting non-respondents by telephone can be very successful – for both online an postal surveys.
10. Provide incentive
Incentives can increase response rates. Incentives don’t have to be large to work well. The average increase in response rate for monetary and non-monetary incentives has been found to be 19.1 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively.Incentives work when received at the point of invitation rather than being received after a completed questionnaire has been returned.
11. Provide reply envelopes and postage
Using pre-paid reply envelopes for postal surveys increases response rates.Stamped envelopes get a higher response rate than Freepost envelopes.