Survey Nation: 7 Billion Survey Invites a Year
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Tue, Dec 28, 2010
As part of our ongoing research on research, we at Vovici completed a project to estimate how many surveys American adults take each year, why they take them and what they would like to see done differently. After surveying a random sample of 400 Americans and asking them about how many surveys they participate in, we estimate that American adults as a whole are invited to take surveys 7.0 billion times each year and claim to complete 80% of the surveys they start, for a total of 2.6 billion survey responses a year.
Respondents to the study did not see a big change in the number of surveys they were being invited to: 24% reported that they were being invited to take more surveys than a year ago, 22% reported fewer, 48% reported the same, and 7% didn’t know.
The survey industry has rightfully been concerned about demonstrating respect for the respondent. It’s easy for survey authors to forget what it is like to be reading or listening to a long sequence of questions. We wanted to give voice to the respondents’ point of view so that survey researchers would do a better job about meeting their needs.
We split the sample into four groups of 100 respondents and asked each a different open-ended question about survey practices. Of the 100 who were asked why they take surveys:
- 24% said it was simply because they were asked to
- 14% said it was to be helpful
- 14% said it was because surveys are interesting or fun!
- 9% said it was to share their opinion
- 7% were curious about what a given survey would be about.
Regarding making surveys more engaging to them:
- 18% said simply that surveys should be short: “Keep them brief and to the point”, said one; “Keeping it short and sweet, that’s about it!” said another.
- 13% said that they should be offered incentives. Many requested a practice that is typically frowned upon by market researchers – tying incentives to the brand being researched. Respondents asked for “a promotional incentive”, “a discount coupon for the product they’re endorsing” and reimbursement “with a coupon, token or cash.”
- 10% said that surveys should be interesting: “Make them relative to something I'm interested in or concerned about,” said one. “It has got to be about something interesting to me,” said another respondent.
The most common complaints about surveys were related to time management.
- 21% of respondents said that they are too busy to take surveys, which are too time consuming: “I don't like them; they are ‘time invasive’”; “If I have time for one, I will do it. If I don't have time, then I don't.”
- 16% said that survey requests, especially by phone, came at inconvenient times: “They call when I’m fixing dinner”; “The calls come at a bad time.”
- 16% said that surveys ask too many personal questions
- 12% said that surveys are too long
- 7% said that surveys, or the organizations sponsoring the surveys, can’t always be trusted.
To extrapolate to the U.S. population, Vovici surveyed 400 American adults by telephone using a Random Digit Dialing sample of landline households. While this overrepresented women and underrepresented the young, the number of surveys that respondents were invited to each year did not correlate to age and did not vary significantly by gender. Of course, an unsurveyable number of people refuse to take any surveys, including surveys about surveys.
Based on this research on research, we advise companies conducting survey research to strive for surveys that are as short as possible. For customer satisfaction questionnaires, one of the key techniques to shorten survey length is to embed already collected personal information from CRM systems within the survey without asking the questions again; this also addresses respondents’ disquiet with requests for personal information. Such information should be used to branch respondents to the appropriate section of a questionnaire automatically, making the questionnaire more relevant – addressing another common complaint about surveys, which often make it clear that a company doesn’t really know its customers.
With 7 billion requests for surveys going out a year to U.S. adults, it’s important to make your invite stand out from the clutter. Compelling invites are short and to the point, emphasize the importance of participation and discuss how your organization will use the information gathered.
Treat them right, and members of Survey Nation will take your surveys, too.
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