How to Increase Online Survey Response Rates

Online Survey Software and Survey response Rates


How do you Increase online survey response rates?  Survey response rates are a function of the

(1)   Clarity of instructions, purpose and questions
(2)   Motivation of the respondent to respond
(3)   Interest of the respondent in the survey
(4)   Survey length and ease of completing the survey
(5)   Incentives and rewards for completion

The Theory behind “How to Increase Survey Response Rates:
Why do people participate as respondents in a survey?” 

The question often asked by marketing researchers is how to increase online survey response rates.  Evangelista, Albaum and Poon (1999) investigated four behavior theories of motivation that can be developed into specific techniques (including inducements) for increasing online survey response rates. The following theories are among those that have been proposed (and studied to varying degrees) as answers to this question.  (This overview has been abstracted and edited with permission of Evangelista, F., Albaum, G., & Poon, P. (1999, April). An empirical test of alternative theories of survey response behavior. Journal of the Market Research Society, 41, 2, 227–244. )

Using Exchange and Incentives to Increase Online Survey Response Rates

The process of using survey techniques to obtain information from potential respondents can be viewed as a special case of social exchange. Very simply, social exchange theory asserts that the actions of individuals are motivated by the return (or rewards) these actions are expected to, or usually do, bring from others.

Whether a given behavior occurs is a function of the perceived costs of completing a survey and the rewards (not necessarily monetary) one expects to receive as a result of completing the survey.

Under this theory, survey response rate is increased by meeting three conditions:

1. The costs for survey response must be minimized.

2. The rewards for survey response must be maximized.

3. There must be a belief by potential respondents that such rewards will, in fact, be provided.

Larger incentives for survey completion will generally produce larger response rates.  These incentives are often offered in the form of random drawings or incentives to the first 100 respondents to the survey.  Respondents generally do not understand the probabilities of winning and like the case of lotteries, respond better to the change of a very attractive incentive.  Incentives distributed as drawings allow the researcher to control the costs of the survey and spread the budgeted amount across a large number of respondents.

Using Cognitive Dissonance to Increase Online Survey Response Rates

Cognitive dissonance theory when applied to increasing survey response, integrates a broad range of research efforts on inducement techniques for survey response. As used to explain survey response, the theory postulates that reducing dissonance is an important component of the “respond/not respond” decision by potential survey respondents.

The process is triggered by receipt of a questionnaire and cover letter asking for participation.  Assuming that failure to respond might be inconsistent with a person’s self-perception of being a helpful person, or perhaps at least one who honors reasonable requests, failure to respond will produce a state of dissonance that the potential respondent seeks to reduce by becoming a survey respondent.

Since the decision to participate in an online survey involves a series of decisions for some people, delaying the ultimate decision may be a way to avoid completing the questionnaire without having to reject the request outright (and thus experience dissonance). Delaying a decision, therefore, may in itself be a dissonance-reducing response.

Using Self-Perception to Increase Online Survey Response Rates

Self-perception theory asserts that people infer attitudes and knowledge of themselves through interpretations made about the causes of their behavior.

Interpretations are made on the basis of self-observation. To the extent that a person’s decision to respond to a survey is attributed to internal causes and is not perceived as due to circumstantial pressures, a positive attitude toward survey response develops.

These attitudes (self-perception) then affect subsequent behavior. The self-perception paradigm has been extended to the broad issue of online survey response. To increase the precision of this paradigm, the concepts of salience (importance of behaviors one has attended to), favorability (the affect or feeling generated by a given behavioral experience), and availability (information in memory) are utilized.

In addition, researchers should create labels (i.e., helpful, kind, generous) to enhance the effects of online survey response.  Labeling involves assisting the prospective respondents to classify themselves based on their behavior such that they will act in a manner consistent with the characterization. 

Self-perception would predict that using an invitation letter to label behavior as “helpful” would cause that person to view himself or herself as the kind of person who engages in such behavior; therefore, the likelihood of later label consistent behavior is increased.

Using Commitment and Involvement to Increase Online Survey Response Rates

Increasing online response rate may be a function of the range of allegiance an individual has for any system of which he or she is a member. Consistent behavior based on commitment and involvement requires that the respondent:

1. Has been involved or committed over some period of time

2. Has been involved or committed to the pursuit of at least one common goal

3. Rejects other acts of behavior inconsistent with an involved or committed individual.

Consequently, the major elements of commitment are most likely to increase online response rates when the respondent recognizes that they:

1. His or her decision to respond to an online survey has consequences for other interests and activities not necessarily related to it.

2. The person is in a position to respond by merit of his or her own prior behavior.

3. The potential respondent, as committed person, must recognize the invitation to respond to the survey is a result of their prior action (membership or involvement), and realize that their response is necessary.

Online response rates for individuals highly committed and involved with the survey sponsor are much less likely to terminate the survey than those who is uncommitted.

The theory of commitment (or involvement), as extended to increase survey response rates, indicates that we may attach commitment to many different aspects of a survey, such as:

• the source or the sponsor
• the researcher
• the topic and issues being studied
• the research process itself
  

To a large extent, commitment is manifested by interest in what is being asked of the potential respondent.

Evangelista, Albaum and Poon found that Commitment / Involvement and Economic Incentives were most effective in increasing survey response rates.  Our experience over thousands of surveys echoes this finding. 


Other Considerations That May Be Used To Increase Online Survey Response Rates
When designing a survey that maximizes survey response rate, the researcher must consider issues that can affect response rate and data quality, including:

• Clarity of instructions, purpose and questions
• Preliminary notification
• Time required of respondent
• Use of inducements
• Open coding of responses
• Identification of sponsor and source
• Follow-up policy
• Questionnaire (measurement instrument) design
• When to contact respondents
• Type of appeal to use
• Potential respondents’ interest and commitment to the topic and/or study
• Others unique to a specific technique of data collection (e.g., text only or text and graphics in the survey)

The final point of increasing response rates for online survey is the need for pre-testing the survey.  By conducting a pretest, you can:

• Identify problematic questions and rewrite them
• Identify problem points within the survey through discontinuation rates
• Identify points of confusion
• Estimate the real cost of data collection
• Estimate the response rate — and thus obtain a better estimate of list size and the associated resulting sample size
• Estimate the distribution of responses to key research questions

Pre-testing allows for optimization and testing of preliminary notification letters, incentives, follow-up letters and invitations, and types of appeals to be used.