It really bugged me that I got this “survey” invitation last week, in part because it conforms so well to many of the best practices we advise for designing effective survey invitations. Take a look: It offers a generous incentive. It has a nice graphic saying how long the survey takes. It has a prominent…
An unfortunate consequence of NPS (Net Promoter Score) mania is that now zillions of surveys stalk us everywhere. Therefore, the likelihood of any particular survey being completed is extremely low. That might be okay if you are a large company with hundreds of thousands of customers to burn through with e-mail blasts. But if you…
To get a more robust and representative sample, there are lots of things you can do that will encourage people to participate. You can send them reminders. You can call them. You can invest in snazzy designs to make your survey invitations ever more appealing. But here is one of the best investments you can…
Of all the many components that need to come together for great research, one piece not often discussed is the art and science of getting people into your study. Recruiting respondents is part targeting, part persuasion, and part persistence. For researchers, it is probably the closest thing we do to actual marketing. In the Versta…
If you have trouble getting people to fill out your surveys, you ought to be paying them. There is nothing wrong with it. It does not mess up your data with phony information that people were paid to provide. On the contrary, paying an appropriate incentive helps signal the importance of your survey such that…
Difficult or lengthy surveys require hefty incentives, which unfortunately makes it tempting for some respondents to lie. We are facing this predicament in a survey right now. The survey requires two people from the same household who share household finances to complete parallel surveys. We are recruiting from an online research panel. Person 1 gets…
Two things bugged me about the market research survey invitation I got from my alma mater. First, it was a mediocre three star survey that asked me a bunch of information they could easily have gotten from my LinkedIn profile. Second, it offered a chance to win a prize if I participated, and the effort…
I received this e-mail invitation because I subscribe to Bon Appétit: Important survey from Bon Appétit – We need your help to get 100% participation. At Bon Appétit, we really care what you think. That’s why, as Vice President & Publisher of Bon Appétit, I’m personally asking for your help with this online survey. As…