Our team has been running successful WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger based surveys for a while now. 200+ such number of surveys which collected over 30,000 responses till date, if one is keeping a count. These online surveys have touched different categories, questionnaire lengths, audiences, and languages.
The data we accumulated helped us analyze something most successful surveys have a pattern.
After analyzing those patterns, we will share 8 lessons in this blog that gave us high response rate on customer feedback surveys:

1. Successful surveys felt like a conversation:

WhatsApp has positioned itself as a friendly brand accessible to everyone across various social strata. Creating a casual narrative of your survey questions will bring in more responses from people who will not feel intimidated with a business tone. This solicits more responses from the total number of people who could be sitting anywhere- at a park or a boardroom meeting.

Consider the following two versions of a segment from an ad test survey:

Version 2 is clearly more conversational. It personally addresses the respondent (addressing someone by their name is an undervalued hack!). This validates their response, makes them comfortable sharing their opinion and refers to something the respondent is very familiar with (movie rating process). The survey response rate from a version 2 survey technique increased by 15%

2. Localized surveys for the target audience are relatable :

A big advantage of messaging apps is that it comes with built-in language support. WhatsApp supports over 60 languages on Android and 40 languages on iPhone. WhatsApp also supports 11 local Indian languages. It becomes a no-brainer to take advantage of this feature and customize your survey for your target audience to comprehend. This pulls in better and higher completion rates along with authentic quality of responses.

When Merren conducted a WhatsApp survey in a rural part of India for a major consumer product, we added audio support along with each question i.e. if the respondent could not understand the question by reading, they could hear the audio version of it.

3. Surveys timed close to the interaction with the product saw high response rate :

A customer’s involvement with a commercial transaction is the highest during or immediately after the purchase process. The memory of customer, on the service they receive, is the best after the interaction has taken place. This keeps the customer feedback in context with the business transaction. While in context, the customer will be more aligned to respond to your questions about their experiences with the brand. Additionally, this memory is still fresh and the quality of response will be better than if the same question was asked a few days or weeks later. By then, the customer experience will have fizzled out. 

4. Short messenger surveys have a high survey response rate :

When brands interact with their customers once a year, they can get tempted to bombard them with questions out of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). Long format questionnaires, anywhere from 40-50 minutes will tire out the respondents. A tired respondent will not provide genuine feedback. We try to avoid this practice for any medium- offline and online.

While curating messenger surveys, one must remember that WhatsApp is not built for long surveys. It enables you to conduct several short and focused surveys throughout the year. Shorter surveys have higher completion rates, high number of responses and improves data quality.

Additionally, it avoids the blind spots that is usually created by inconsistent customer contact.

5. Strategically collecting user data even with a short attention span :

The digital age has brought in short form content and a short attention span to accompany. Twitter allows 280 characters which is tentatively 15 to 20 words. The average text length of WhatsApp Messenger is around 5 to 6 words which is shortened by emojis and one word responses. However, this definitely guides a brand or an organisation on how to frame their questions and keep an appropriate survey length.

6. Transparent exchange of information starts with the brand :

Most respondents are in a hurry to finish questions and wonder how long it would take. It is important to be transparent and give out this information clearly and frequently. Additionally, when the survey creator is generous with their information, the users feel obligated to consume and share information at the same time. Sometimes, it is about creating a trust with the consumer base, even via messenger surveys.

7. Surveys that assured privacy had greater collection and completion rate:

There is an increased awareness and concerns around privacy. Customers are constantly nagged by unsolicited marketers, most of which is unethical. This discourages our users to easily share their information on surveys. The priority of a survey creator is to assure the respondents that the data they collect would only be used ethically and only for the purpose it is collected for. If you are collecting personally identifiable information, make sure you take their consent on how this data can be used.

8. Keeping post survey incentives relevant to the user base :

Most users participate in surveys as they expect or receive some form of rewards or payback on completion. Stating the incentive upfront on survey participation will bring in more authentic respondents. Incentives work only they are relevant, accessible, and valuable to the survey respondents.

Example: Starbuck coupons for a rural research in India is neither relevant nor accessible to the audience.Similarly, if you are researching on users of high-end cars, a meager voucher of INR 50 is not valuable enough for the target audience.

Merren’s generation of successful messenger surveys have helped brands discover what their audience is looking for. You can book a trial session here and take a glimpse of how you can accelerate more data collection techniques to elevate your brand. Feel free to book a consultation call here. Happy to help !