58% of Respondents Don't Like Surveys
Posted by Vovici Blog on Fri, Jan 07, 2011
I admit that the headline for this blog post sounds like it came out of the satirical newspaper The Onion: “58% of respondents don’t like surveys.” But it’s a true statement. We asked 100 respondents to our Survey Nation study, “What, if anything, do you like about taking surveys?”
34% said “nothing” and another 24% said that they “don’t like” surveys. And this was to a question about what people liked!
The survey was designed to be representative of the population of American adults, and I think it was. We succeeded at reaching a population that rarely participates in surveys: 29% said they were not invited to participate in any surveys in a given month, 46% said that they did not start any surveys and 50% said that they did not complete any surveys. As one respondent commented, “I typically don't take surveys. This is the first one I’ve taken in a long time.”
Given the popularity of surveys among business people and the ease with which surveys can be created, it’s helpful to step back and realize that surveys are not ideal from the respondent perspective.
So what do respondents actually like about taking surveys?
- 13% want to voice their opinion. Sample comments: “I like to express my opinion”; “I can have my own opinion”; “Voicing my opinion about products and services.”
- 11% want an incentive. “When you get things for free, or coupons. I like that.” “If I get something out of it. Like a reward or coupons or money.” “I have no feeling one way or the other. Unless there is an incentive, then I really enjoy it.” Included within this category were three respondents who liked receiving free products to evaluate: “Surveys where they send me stuff to use.”
- 10% like to be helpful. “To see if I can help with research.” “I just do it to help people out.” “I’m just doing it to be nice.” “I guess it's research. I just do it to be polite. I like to give them more data.”
- 9% like interesting topics. “I'm interested in what they're surveying about.” “It depends if it is something I'm interested in.” Three of these respondents were interested in learning: “Valuable information on good topics”; “I like to read them.”
- 7% want their answers to make a difference. “I'm hoping it will change or make things better.” “Hopefully something good is happening because of taking them.” “The only thing I would like is to find out something that really matters. Like if it actually helped a human being and not just a big company or bad politician.”
What are the practical ramifications of these attitudes toward surveys?
- Survey people more strategically, especially customers. Use panel management to survey small subsets of customers rather than surveying everyone; strive to minimize the number of people you invite to surveys: for a probability sample, a sample size of 400 with a response rate of 20% will provide a high degree of statistical validity.
- Emphasize what respondents like in your invitations. Compelling survey invitations should discuss the opportunity for respondents to give voice to their opinions. Emphasize how their response helps and let them know how their participation will make a difference.
- Reward each respondent. Only one respondent said they liked points, and only one respondent said they liked a chance to win money. But most appreciated some form of compensation, even if it was only a coupon. If you are not going to offer any other incentive, give them an executive summary of the results of the survey. Find the right incentive strategy for your respondents.
Only 4% of respondents said they “enjoy” taking surveys. We have a lot of work to do.