You’ve spent hours designing your survey and getting it in front of all the right people. The last thing you want is to have someone leave the survey early, especially after all the effort it took to get them there. Respondent dropout is expected but high dropout rates seriously impact the quality of your survey results, and ultimately, decisions made from your data.
What triggers respondents to drop out? Some people will voluntarily leave a survey early because they are bored, the topic doesn’t connect, or they’re running out of time. Others will leave due to frustration, misunderstandings, or technical issues.
How do you increase engagement to help respondents get over the finish line? Read on to find out!
1. Hook respondents right away - clicking early is king.
Start strong! The sooner they click, the sooner they confirm their own engagement. Hook respondents right away instead of making them read for a few pages before taking any action. This could be as simple as opting into a prize draw or answering a simple question. When people take action they experience a sense of ownership and are more likely to keep going.
2. Review your language!
The wrong language can turn people off and can result in dropouts or angry responses. Focus on eliminating bias from questions and using clear and inclusive terminology. If you do not have a diversity and inclusion expert to help you make sure you reference a credible source.
3. Keep pages short
This especially holds true for invitations and the first page introduction. The longer the beginning pages are, the more likely people are to perceive the survey as being long and strenuous to complete, and the less likely they are to give your survey a chance.
Scrolling through too many questions can be exhausting and lead to decision fatigue. Some people may also only have a few minutes and just run out of time!
4. Remove unnecessary questions
You are always fighting against respondents getting bored or feeling like the survey isn't about them as it asks questions unrelated to them. As respondents get bored completing surveys, their overall engagement starts to drop. We don’t want people to be answering questions that don’t apply to them or are repetitive. Take advantage of more advanced survey building features such as show/hide logic or display logic. This will remove or add questions based on a respondent’s previous answers.
5. Provide an incentive
This one is optional and its effectiveness largely depends on the size and demographic of your survey. The 'closer to home,' or local a survey, the more respondents will be impacted by the results, and the more likely they are to respond. If your topic is more broad consider an incentive to draw people in. Depending on your budget you may want to give one larger prize that respondents have a “chance to win” such as a gift card or promotional goods. You may also want to consider something every respondent is guaranteed to win, such as a smaller $5.00 gift card, coupon, or discount code.
Learn More
Speak to our expert team about improving your surveys by booking a discovery call or emailing us at commmunications@thewgroup.ca. We will help you design and distribute a powerful and effective survey. We will also monitor dropouts and results in real-time to improve completion rates while the survey is still live!