Surveys are an important tool for businesses to gather insights and feedback from their customers. However, the success of a survey depends on its completion rate. If respondents don’t finish the survey, the data collected can be incomplete or biased. In this blog post, we will demystify survey completion rates and explain what they mean for your business. We’ll also discuss the factors that affect completion rates and how to improve them. From keeping the survey short and simple to offering incentives, we’ll cover all the best practices that can help you boost your survey completion rates. Lastly, we’ll look at common mistakes that can lower completion rates and how to avoid them.
By the end of this post, you’ll have a better understanding of how to design surveys that people want to complete and how to analyze the results to gain valuable insights about your audience.
What is a survey completion rate?
Survey completion rate refers to the percentage of participants who finish a survey out of those who started it. It is an essential metric to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of your survey process. Low completion rates can indicate several issues, such as poor incentivization, irrelevant questions, and lengthy or complex surveys.
For instance, if your survey takes too long to complete or contains confusing questions, participants may lose interest and drop out, leading to a lower completion rate. To improve your completion rates and ensure data quality, it is crucial to create surveys that are clear, concise, and engaging.
How is survey completion rate different from survey response rate?
While survey completion rate measures the percentage of participants who finished a survey out of those who started it, survey response rate refers to the total number of people who responded to a survey out of the total number invited or targeted. In other words, some participants may start the survey but not finish it, while others may not even start it at all. Both completion rate and response rate are important metrics for evaluating the effectiveness and quality of your survey process, and each provides unique insights into participant behavior and preferences.
Survey completion rate is a measure of participant engagement and interest in your survey questions, while survey response rate also depends upon the success of your outreach and recruitment strategies. Therefore, it is essential to monitor both completion rates and response rates to ensure that your survey results are accurate and representative of your audience’s opinions and attitudes.
Additionally, you can use these metrics to identify areas for improvement in future surveys, such as optimizing question formats, reducing survey length, or offering more compelling incentives. By focusing on both completion rate and response rate, you can get a more comprehensive
understanding of how your audience is responding to your survey and make necessary adjustments to improve participation and data quality.
Both impact the time it take achieve the desired survey sample size. Achieving a high completion rate is crucial to obtaining accurate and reliable survey data. A low survey completion rate jeopardizes the quality of data collected, especially towards the end of the survey. A low response rate can result in biased results and undermine the validity of your research. High survey response rat can ensure you get the desired number of respondents to make up your survey sample faster. Read how you can boost your survey response rate.
Understanding the importance of survey completion rates
Data is only valuable if it’s reliable, and survey completion rates play a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy of insights gained from data. High response rate and completion rate lead to more accurate results and can help draw actionable conclusions that drive business growth. On the other hand, low completion rates can skew data and make it difficult to generalize findings. Respondent engagement is key to improving survey completion rates, and offering incentives or rewards can be an effective strategy. However, it’s essential to use them strategically so as not to compromise data quality. Clear communication about the survey’s purpose and benefits can also go a long way in motivating survey respondents to participate.
Factors that affect survey completion rates
When it comes to survey completion rates, several factors come into play. One of the most significant is the length of the survey, which can greatly impact a respondent’s willingness to participate. Surveys that are too long or complex can lead to fatigue and disinterest, resulting in incomplete responses. Another crucial factor is the survey design, including question types and
formatting. Ensuring that questions are easy to understand and navigate can go a long way in improving completion rates. Additionally, targeting the right audience at the right time with customized incentives can further increase response rates. By prioritizing these key factors, you can maximize your chances of achieving high completion rates and collecting valuable data.
Length and complexity of the survey
Number of questions have a direct bearing on completion rates. Long and complex surveys can lead to survey fatigue for respondents and may discourage them from completing the survey, ultimately lowering the survey completion rate. To prevent this, it is important to keep surveys short and to the point with clear and concise questions. Keeping the survey short
Using skip logic can also help by tailoring the survey to the individual respondent’s answers, making it feel more personalized and less tedious. Using a lot of open-ended or matrix questions will also
Survey design and question types
Effective survey design and question types are crucial for obtaining high completion rates. Simplifying your survey questions and avoiding leading or confusing phrasing can help ensure unbiased responses from participants. By using a mix of question types, such as multiple-choice and open-ended questions, you can keep respondents engaged and increase the chances of them completing the survey. Additionally, including incentives or rewards for completing the survey can be an effective way to boost response rates. Remember to keep the design clear and easy to navigate with concise instructions and relevant questions that match the respondent’s demographics.
Timing and targeting of the survey
Effective timing and targeting can significantly impact the completion rates of your survey. Conducting surveys during peak business hours or holidays may result in lower response rates, as people tend to be busier during these times. Proper audience segmentation is crucial to ensure that the survey is sent only to relevant groups who are more likely to respond. Personalization based on demographics and past behavior can also increase engagement and completion rates.
What is a good survey completion rate? How does it vary across industries and audiences?
When it comes to survey completion rates, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. A “good” completion rate can vary greatly depending on factors such as industry, audience demographics, and survey length. Generally speaking, completion rates for online surveys range from 20-30%, although some industries may see higher or lower rates.
High completion rates can indicate engaged and satisfied customers, while low completion rates may signal issues with survey design or a lack of interest from respondents. Understanding what constitutes a good completion rate for your specific audience and industry is an essential first step in improving your results.
How can I improve my survey completion rate?
A good survey design can help improve completion rates. Shorter, conversational and engaging surveys enjoy higher completion rates. So do surveys that are highly targeted and relevant to the respondent. Here are a seven ways you can do to improve your survey completion rates
#1 Keeping it short and simple
In today’s fast-paced world, people are constantly bombarded with information and stimuli, making their attention span shorter than ever before. To capture respondents’ attention and improve survey completion rates, it is essential to keep surveys short and straightforward. Lengthy surveys can be overwhelming, causing respondents to lose interest and abandon the survey prematurely. By keeping your survey brief and focused on critical questions, you can increase the chances of respondents completing the survey. Additionally, including progress indicators and clear instructions can help keep respondents engaged and motivated to finish the survey.
#2 Keep it engaging and conversational
Another way to improve your survey completion rates is to make your survey engaging and conversational. Respondents are more likely to complete a survey when they feel like they are having a conversation with the surveyor rather than being interrogated. Use language that is easy to understand and avoid using jargon or technical terms. You can also add interactive elements like images, videos, or sliders to make the survey more visually appealing and interesting.
#3 Make it relevant
The relevance of the survey questions plays a crucial role in determining response rates. If respondents do not see the value of answering a question or believe it does not apply to them, they are more likely to drop out of the survey. To improve completion rates, make sure your questions are relevant and meaningful to the respondent. Consider tailoring the survey to the recipient’s interests or demographics. This customization can increase their engagement and decrease their likelihood of abandoning the survey.
By integrating with the CRM, the surveys can be sent while the interaction with the brand is still relevant and in-moment. For example, CRM integration can automatically trigger a transactional Net Promoter Score (NPS) post the interaction. As the customer has just finished the transaction and
experience is still relevant, their is a higher likelihood of the customer responding and completing the NPS survey. Moreover, the quality of the NPS data thus collected would be free of memory lapses.
#4 Offer incentives
Providing incentives can be a game-changer when it comes to improving your survey completion rate. People are more likely to participate in surveys if they feel they will receive something valuable in return. The incentive can be as simple as a discount code or as substantial as cash rewards, but it should be relevant and appealing to the participant. Being transparent about the incentive’s structure and ensuring that participants understand how to receive it can also help boost response rates. Testing various types of incentives can help determine which ones work best for your target audience.
#5 Customize the survey experience
When designing a survey, it’s important to consider the respondent’s experience. Irrespective of the survey type (NPS, customer satisfaction, product usage etc), customizing the survey experience can help increase completion rates by making it more engaging and personalized for the respondents. This can be achieved through various methods like using a branded survey design, tailoring questions to specific interests or demographics, and providing clear instructions and incentives. By creating a customized experience, respondents are more likely to provide meaningful responses and complete the survey, leading to accurate insights and data for your business or research purposes. Regularly testing and optimizing this approach can also help improve completion rates over time.
#6 Choose the right survey channels
Omnichannel platforms can have different response rates and may be more effective for specific types of surveys. Email surveys can reach a larger audience but may have lower response rates. In-app surveys, on the other hand, may have higher response rates but are limited to users who have downloaded your app. Social media surveys can be useful for reaching a broader audience, but they may not be as reliable due to self-selection bias. So choose the right feedback channel that best suits your target population and survey goals for improving the survey completion rate.
#7 Reduce friction involved in responding
Reducing friction involved in responding to a survey can also improve completion rates. Channel is a big source of friction often. If your customer is in an offline setting (like a physical store or bank branch), sending them an email survey invitation might not work. However, using messaging apps like WhatsApp might be lower friction because they carry their mobile phone with them.
Language and comprehension can be another point of friction. Using simple and clear language can help respondents understand the questions better and increase the likelihood of completing the survey. Using multilingual surveys also helps reduce language barriers and improve response rates and quality of survey responses among non-native speakers.
Creating a good survey that is optimized for high response rate can be intimidating. Alternatively, you can use the readymade survey templates on the Merren platforms or our AI survey builder to create surveys.
Analyzing survey completion rates for audience insights and better CX
Understanding and analyzing survey completion rates can provide valuable insights about your audience. Completion rates can indicate the overall effectiveness of your survey and identify factors that may be affecting participation. By analyzing completion rates by demographic or other segments, you can gain deeper insights into the preferences and behaviors of your target audience. Additionally, using incentives or personalized invitations can encourage participation and improve completion rates. Continuously monitoring completion rates and adjusting your approach accordingly can help optimize your survey and gather valuable data for making informed decisions.
Best practices for measuring survey completion rates
Measuring survey completion rates is critical to the success of any survey. To ensure you get accurate results, it’s essential to follow best practices when crafting your survey. One of the most
important things to consider is your target audience. Defining your audience and crafting relevant questions will help increase the response rate and improve completion rates. Keeping the survey short and straightforward can also encourage more people to participate.
It is also important to keep the objective in mind. If you are conducting market research using the survey, what is the end goal of the research, If it is a customer experience (CX) survey, what is the metrics you are tracking. Keeping these in mind would help you prioritize the question and optimize your survey length.
Additionally, offering incentives such as discounts and rewards can motivate survey respondents to complete the survey. Test your surveys for user-friendliness and clarity. Following up with respondents to thank them for their participation to encourage future participation. By implementing these best practices, you can help ensure that your surveys are effective in gathering valuable data about your target audience.
Conclusion
Be it market research or customer experience, survey completion rates are crucial for gathering accurate and reliable data. They help us understand our audience, make informed decisions, and improve our products or services. To supercharge your market research, sign up for a 14 day free trial with Merren today.
You can also now create WhatsApp surveys and Facebook messenger surveys with Merren. All in less than 5 minutes.
