How to increase survey response rate
To increase survey response rate, make the invitation come from a real person, say how long the survey takes and why it matters, keep the survey short enough to finish, send one or two reminders only to people who have not answered, and remove any step that blocks people on a phone. Measure the rate you get, so you can see which change helped.
What the number measures
A survey’s response rate is the completed surveys divided by the number of people invited. Two surveys with the same rate can differ in who they reached, so the rate is a check on coverage rather than a score of quality. Pew Research Center’s 2012 study of telephone polling found that the typical response rate had fallen from 36 percent in 1997 to 9 percent, and that weighted samples still gave accurate data on most measures. The bias it identified as a concern was civic engagement: people who answer surveys are more engaged than those who do not.
That finding is why a higher rate is worth chasing mainly for the groups you are likely to miss. If the people who do not answer are the ones with the problem you are trying to measure, the rate matters a great deal.
Start with the invitation
- Send it from a named person the respondent can reply to, not from a no-reply address. Vendor guides on response rates commonly recommend this.
- Say how long it takes in the first line, and say what happens with the answers. A time estimate lets people decide now, rather than later.
- Write a subject line that names the purpose, such as “Two minutes on the onboarding week”, rather than a generic “Survey invitation”.
Cut the length, then the steps
Length is the most controllable lever. Remove any question that will not change a decision, then count the steps a respondent takes: sign-in, page changes, required fields. A survey that asks for an email address before the first question can lose people before they answer anything. The types of survey questions guide explains how to choose a format that answers faster.
| Change | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Drop questions that feed no decision | Fewer questions to finish |
| Ask for names only if you need them | No personal field to stop at |
| Show progress through the survey | People can see how much is left |
| Put one question on each page where the flow is long | Each screen asks one thing |
| Test on a phone before sending | A layout that breaks on a small screen loses people at once |
Reminders: fewer than you think
SurveyMonkey’s post-event guidance suggests one or two reminders over about two weeks, a limit of three messages in total, and no more reminders after about a month, when people remember fewer details. Send reminders only to people who have not answered, or you will annoy the people who already did.
Do not chase the people who finished
Incentives and other levers
Vendor guides list incentives, survey panels and phone interviews as ways to raise response. They do raise it in some settings, but the cost and the effect vary, and many of the claims come from vendor blogs rather than controlled tests. Treat them as options to trial, not defaults. Being clear about why you are asking and what will happen with the answers costs nothing and is worth doing for every survey.
A worked example
A team sends a 12-question onboarding survey to 80 new hires. Twenty answer in the first two days. The team cuts the survey to seven questions, adds the time estimate and the name of the person who will read the answers to the invitation, and sends one reminder to the 45 who have not answered. The response rate is then measured again on the next cohort, so the change can be compared with the first.
The numbers in that example are illustrative, not measured. The useful habit is the comparison: record the invited count and the completed count for each survey, then change one thing at a time.
Before you send: a checklist
- The invitation names the sender, the time needed, and the purpose.
- The survey has been timed on a phone by someone who did not write it.
- Every question is needed for a decision you have already named.
- The reminder list excludes everyone who has already answered.
- You have recorded the number invited so the rate can be calculated afterwards.
Build it in Seagit Forms
The one-question-per-page layout in Seagit Forms shows a progress count such as “3 of 8”, which helps people see how far they are. Start from the NPS survey template to test a very short form, or from the customer satisfaction survey template for a longer one. The email notifications guide explains how to be told as responses arrive, so you can see how the first days go.
Sources
- Pew Research Center, “Assessing the Representativeness of Public Opinion Surveys” (2012): response rate from 36 percent in 1997 to 9 percent, weighted accuracy on most measures, civic engagement bias.
- SurveyMonkey, “Post event survey questions to ask” (reminder count and timing).
Common questions
- What is a good survey response rate?
- There is no universal target. A response rate is completed surveys divided by people invited, and what is good depends on the audience and the method. Pew Research Center reports that a telephone survey with a 9 percent response rate could still give accurate data on most measures once weighted to the population, so a low rate is not automatically a failure.
- How many reminders should I send?
- SurveyMonkey’s post-event guide suggests one or two reminders over about two weeks, with no further messages after about a month, and a limit of three messages in total. Reminders should go only to people who have not answered yet.
- Do incentives always raise the response rate?
- Vendor guides commonly list incentives as a way to raise response, but the effect depends on the audience and the size of the reward. Test one approach against a control group before you budget for it across the whole sample.