Survey Incentive

Response rate is an important part of any survey. The greater the response rate, the more likely you are going to get valuable data that is representative of the larger population. Researchers are always looking for new ways to motivate respondents to complete the survey in order to get the most value out of their survey research dollars.

Monetary (and merchandise) incentives clearly play a role. As a respondent if they’re more likely to complete a survey if they get paid $30 versus getting paid nothing and they’ll respond with the $30 every time. The research has backed this up, as some type of worthwhile incentive has been proven as a method of improving response rate.

Yet times are tough in the economy, and many businesses and researchers are struggling to offer a valuable incentive that will increase the response rate by any noticeable measurement. Luckily it turns out that there is a free incentive option that may help improve response rate and make it easier for researchers to afford a larger sample – offering the results to the survey respondents.

Though research in this field is slim, anecdotally many researchers will mention that one of the things they have heard from respondents is that they would like to know the results of the survey, whatever they may be. Respondents want to know why their information matters, and they want to see that they are a part of something important, especially if it may result in anything significant. So companies may want to start offering this information as an incentive to take the survey – allowing anyone that opts in a professional way of viewing the results of their participation.

There is reason to believe that this alone may increase response rate enough to make a meaningful impact. For both employee satisfaction and scientific research, there is reason to believe that adding this to any small incentive has the potential to vastly improve response rates, especially with those that have any type of intellectual curiosity. It would probably be beneficial to customer satisfaction as well, provided the research is likely to play a role in the company moving forward.

Human beings like information, and so providing the results of the data you collect (provided you are collecting truly valuable data and take the process seriously) is a worthwhile incentive option. The only thing to keep in mind is that depending on your results, you will need to change the way that you present your findings. Some ideas for this are in the next article.

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