The sands of time work against survey researchers. This what brought to my mind this morning by a survey that my wife received. It was a typical customer satisfaction survey, but it has asked her to recall events that took place over eight months prior. The two things that took me aback about this survey were its length (four pages and 63 questions) and the timeframe. Let’s look at these three strikes separately:
Any survey this long should raise an immediate red flag.
Strike one!
There was nothing in the invitation letter that stated an estimated time for completion, that they valued her time, or offered an incentive. In fact, the email survey invitation was written from their perspective (i.e. please do this for us) and in no way engaging. All in all, the email invitation completely missed the mark. So the invitation did little to encourage her interest and the four-page survey itself, complete with small print, made her eyes roll back. (Read up on email marketing best practices for survey invitations)
Strike two!
Then given the content of the survey, asking her to recall events from earlier in the year sealed the deal of non-response.
Strike three!
Several things could be done differently:
First, time the survey so that it is released closer to the service event. The sands of time slowly erode our ability to recall the granular details of an event. How can we provide accurate ratings if the event is a distant memory?
Second, with pen and paper surveys it costs little to send a heads up postcard or phone message to say that an important survey is coming. This can lessen psychological barriers to participation.
Third, why not employ a multi-modal survey giving the respondent the option to use pen and paper or go online within a secure environment.
Lastly, take a step back and check to see if a 60+ question survey is really necessary. Can the information needed to assess service levels be obtained with fewer items? Shorter surveys lead to higher response rates and I would argue, more reliable data.
In summary, if you are using surveys to measure customer satisfaction, time their release so that it works with the natural process of memory, not against it. Keep your questionnaire as brief as possible and consider an online option as well.