One of the best ways to ensure you maximize your potential to get survey completions is by setting expectations with your potential participants. I recently was on a website, where I used a free service, and then it asked me to take their 1-2 minute survey. I appreciated knowing how long it would take and thought it was worth blogging about. Here are some ways to get as many survey completions as possible by setting expectations:
- Let participants know how long the survey will take.
It seems all too simple (I know) but this is one of the best ways to let people know that "this won't take you that long and we would appreciate the help if you have the time." Most people have a couple minutes so if you keep your survey short and let people know that it's short, you will get people to complete your survey. - Let potential survey participants know how many questions your survey is.
It is a different take on letting people know how long a survey will take them to complete, but (again) letting potential survey participants know how many questions they will have to answer can usually get you more participants to complete your survey. Keep the amount of questions short, if possible, so that you are able to get survey completers. - Track survey participants' progress in the survey.
People like to know where they are in a journey. Letting people know how many questions they have until completion is a great way to get people and keep people involved in a survey.