A low survey response rate can lead to nonresponse bias. Certain demographics can be underrepresented in the sample. This can result in inaccurate or skewed results. Investigating the reasons behind the low response rate—such as poor survey design or lack of incentives for participation—is crucial. This blog explores six ways a low survey response rate can hinder decision-making strategies.

What is Survey Response Rate?

Survey response rate is the percentage of people who complete a survey out of the total number of respondents who participate. It is a key metric to evaluate the impact of a survey in collecting responses from the target audience.

The formula for calculating the response rate is:

Response rate = (Number of completed surveys/ Total number of participants invited) x 100

Example:

If 1,000 people were invited to participate in a survey and 250 of them completed it, the response rate would be:

Response rate: (250/1000) x 100 = 25%

Why should you calculate a survey response rate?

Data quality: A higher response rate typically indicates more reliable and representative data.

Reduced response bias: A low response rate increases the risk of nonresponse bias. The collected data does not accurately reflect the opinions of the entire target audience.

Decision-making: Accurate and representative survey data ensures better-informed decisions for marketing, product development, and customer experience strategies.

Disadvantages of Poor Survey Design

1. Incomplete data misrepresents respondents

A customer satisfaction survey with a low response rate does not offer complete insights. The main reason could be the effort required from customers to access and complete the survey. Only highly motivated customers, often dissatisfied ones, respond. This brings skewed dataset that doesn’t represent the entire customer base.

Without a representative sample, it becomes challenging to draw accurate conclusions about customer satisfaction metrics. Misrepresentative survey responses can mislead companies into making poor marketing decisions. This will hamper resource allocation and cause poor market positioning.

2. Loss of opportunity for improvement

Surveys are a primary tool to identify organizational loopholes, service gaps, pricing adjustments, and technology upgrades. A low response rate hampers the ability to improve in these areas. Without sufficient feedback, research and development teams lack the data to make meaningful improvements in customer experience CX.  

3. Delays in prompt action

Low response rates slow down data collection and analysis. You often need to put in extra effort to reach people who didn’t respond. All of this combined delays insights and action. High response rates help you collect data on time and make decisions faster and more effectively.

4. Hampered market positioning

If you don’t get clear feedback from customers, it becomes hard to position your products or services properly. Poor survey responses can lead companies to spend money on things that don’t match customer needs. This wastes resources and cuts into profits. Without useful insights, it’s also harder to stand out from competitors.

5. Damage to brand reputation and relationships

When response rates are low, customers may feel that their opinions don’t matter. This can hurt your brand’s reputation. People may start to speak negatively about your company and become less loyal. If you rely on limited feedback, you might make choices that push away both current and future customers. This will reduce brand trust.

6. Barriers to customer feedback sharing

Low response rates might mean that customers don’t want to or can’t give feedback. They may not be interested, may be short on time, or may find the survey poorly designed. If the feedback process is confusing or difficult, customers may feel ignored and lose interest.

How to Improve Survey Response Rates

To optimize survey response rates, businesses can adopt these strategies:

• Choose the right communication channels: Use messenger-based surveys from Merren to get in-moment customer feedback. This is effective to get instant customer feedback at touchpoints (post-purchase, after interactions etc). Customers are most comfortable with platforms they regularly use such as WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. 
• Simplify survey design: Make sure the survey is simple to read and answer. Keep it single click based. Too many layers and browser links will bring high drop-out rates. Easy to navigate surveys have a higher response rate. 
• Offer survey incentives: Reward participation with discounts, coupons, or exclusive access to features. This will prompt users to fill customer feedback forms to access the rewards. 
• Personalize communication: Tailor survey invitations to make customers feel valued and understood.   
• Leverage follow-ups: Send gentle reminders to encourage non-respondents without overwhelming them. Reach out to respondents as a follow-up and to let them know that the CX team has taken their grievances seriously. This will make them feel valued and will encourage future survey responses
• Test surveys before publishing: Pre-test your surveys among a sample of respondents. Identify potential issues and ensure they resonate with your target audience.

Conclusion

At Merren, we specialize in helping businesses achieve high survey response rates through optimized feedback mechanisms. Use messenger-based surveys or dynamic email surveys to reach our to your target audience without any manual effort. Want to create targeted campaigns and improve your survey’s response rate? Try Merren today. With multiple customized templates and incentivized options, you can experience high response rates during a 14-day free trial—no credit card required to sign up.