Editor’s note: David Ensing is vice president, automotive research consulting at research and software firm MaritzCX, Toledo, Ohio. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared here under the title, “Improving survey response rates through incentives.”

From time to time customer experience managers hear the following questions from their internal clients: “Is our response rate too low?” “What can we do to increase our response rate?” “Should we provide an incentive for people to respond?” Like many things in research, these relatively simple questions have somewhat complex answers.

When faced with these questions, the first thing to address is what issue is really being raised. Is the question about increasing response rates (the percentage of people who respond to a survey invitation), increasing the total number of responses at a given level of the organization (e.g., dealerships) or improving the representativeness of the responses obtained? Improving the response rate is often not the most effective way to increase the total number of responses and/or improve representativeness.

Part I of this two-part series will look at increasing responses and considering the cost-benefit analysis consumers make when considering taking a survey. Part II will look more specifically at appropriately using monetary incentives to increase response rates.

Increasing responses 

To increase responses at the unit level and improve representativeness, the first place to look is the sampling scheme. Is the program sampling only a small percentage of customers in an attempt to control costs? If so, it is often more economically feasible to sample more customers and not use an incentive than it is to provide an incentive to increase response rates of a smaller sample.

Another aspect of the sampling scheme to examine is whether important segments of customers are being excluded from the sample frame. For instance, in the automotive industry it has typically been the practice that customer-pay customers (as opposed to warranty) are excluded from dealership service experience surveys, even though most dealerships do more customer-pay service work than they do warranty work. This practice started because of difficulties getting access to customer-pay records. Now that mechanisms are in place for most manufacturers to obtain customer-pay records, these customers should be included in the sampling frame.

Inclusion of these customers will increase representativeness of the returns because an important part of the dealership’s business will now be included in
the responses.

Cost-benefit decisions

If the question is indeed about improving the response rate or if improving the response rate is likely to be the best way to improve representativeness and/or the number of responses, providing a monetary incentive to customers to respond is often not the most effective tactic. The choice of whether to respond to a survey invitation is a cost-benefit decision for the customer. How much will completing the survey cost
the customer vs. the benefit he or she will receive? At first glance, one might think that there is no cost to the customer to respond. However, costs have been increasing over the past few decades:

  • Time: People are now more pressed for time and they are more often solicited for research.
  • Effort: Many surveys are long and complicated.
  • Hassle and boredom: Some customers feel duped by agreeing to take what they think is a short survey and then finding out it is quite long – and many surveys contain boring and repetitive questions.
  • Potential loss of privacy: Many customers worry that their information will not be kept confidential.
  • Potential of being put on numerous mail/e-mail/phone lists: Many customers are concerned that their contact information will be sold to other companies and used for marketing purposes.
  • Possible sales pitch: With the increase in selling under the guise of research, customers are more skeptical about the legitimacy of survey invitations.

In the past customers often felt special and valued because they were being asked for their opinions. Unfortunately, as survey research has proliferated, being asked for your opinion is no longer a unique experience. Customers also seemed more motivated to contribute to the greater good by providing feedback about products and services than they are today. Some argue that the younger generations are less interested in the greater good and have even labeled Generation Y the “What’s in it for me?” generation. Also, those interested in providing feedback now have many ways of doing so outside of a survey, such as blogging and posting comments at customer-generated media sites.

Looking at both sides 

To increase response rates, researchers should look at both sides of the customer cost/benefit equation by seeking to decrease the cost to the customer and increase the benefits of participation. The following are some suggestions for reducing the customers’ costs:

  • Coordinate customer touchpoints. Many companies inadvertently over-survey their customers because different departments or divisions conduct independent research programs.
  • Make the task as easy as possible.
  • Make the survey as short as possible.
  • Make the survey interactive and entertaining, while maintaining collection of valid information.
  • Give customers the opportunity to choose how and when to respond.
  • Give customers the ability to tell their story rather than only answering many specific closed-ended questions. Then use text analytics to gather insights from the customers’ comments.
  • Be very specific about how the information will and will not be used.
  • Avoid “nice to know” questions that are often included “because we have them responding anyway.”
  • Avoid sensitive questions (e.g., income, sexual orientation) unless they are necessary. If they must be asked, explain to the customer why you are asking the questions and what will be done with the information.

Here are several ways of increasing the benefits of participation to the customer:

  • Send customers a thank you.
  • Show customers how the information is being used. For example, some companies have posted signs in their retail outlets telling customers what improvement efforts are being made due to customer feedback.
  • Assure customers they will get a personal follow-up if they request it and they will not get a follow-up if they don’t request it. It is very important that companies keep these promises, otherwise it will cause dissatisfied customers to become even more upset.
  • Consider allowing respondents to see other customers’ feedback. People are social beings and they often want to know if their experience was typical or atypical.
  • Provide an appropriate reward with monetary value to respondents.