9 Top Tips for Online Surveys that work

Web surveys can provide a great way of gathering useful information from your customers about their preferences, needs, behaviours and level of satisfaction with the products and services you provide. Here are some basic tips that will ensure that you maximise the response to your web surveys.

1. Set Expectations

Clarify with your target audience the survey’s goals, what you are looking to gain from customer’s responses and how long it will take. Include this information in the introduction of your survey.

2. Avoid ambiguity

Avoid ambiguity in your survey questions and ensure your questions are easy to understand. By being straightforward and transparent with your customers, you can reinforce trust in your company and brand.

3. Choose your questions carefully

Think about setting up your questions with the most appropriate question type. To allow multiple answers to a question, set up the answers as checkbox options. For just one answer, choose a radio button or a drop down menu.

4. Simplicity is key

Structure your survey questions into logical sections and include a headline on each page. Avoid having too many questions on one page to make the survey easier to understand and get through.

5. Ask only relevant questions

Apply conditional branching to your survey so that recipients only see the questions that are relevant to them based on how they answer previous questions.

6. Know your audience

If you have an existing relationship with your survey recipients, don’t ask questions about their name or email address if you already have these details, instead link the survey directly to your database for enhanced reporting functionality.

7. Set-up instant notifications

Set up email alerts so that you are notified when a respondent answers a key question in a particular way. For example if a customer answers “no” to a question about their satisfaction with your company, you are instantly notified to reconcile this issue.

8. Test your survey thoroughly

Test your survey carefully and check that your results are being captured accurately. Make sure that the layout is browser-tested and correctly represents your brand’s look and feel.

9. Maximise survey responses with incentives

To maximise responses, offer relevant incentives to customers to take your survey, remembering they are taking the time to give you their valuable feedback.

Need More Info?

Talk to us if you would like more information about creating effective online surveys. We are happy to work with you to set up your surveys and help you get the most value from your results.

We also run in-house workshops for our clients on creating effective online surveys. Please contact your Ubiquity Account Manager to enquire about these.