You've successfully completed your survey, analyzed the results, and even established an action plan. So, is the entire process over? Not quite. The true value of a survey is realized when you take it a step further: by measuring the effectiveness of the current survey and using the lessons learned to develop an even better one next time. This means continuously improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your surveys through a process of inspection and enhancement, much like a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle.
1. How Successful Was This Survey? Key Metrics for Measuring Effectiveness
To objectively evaluate the effectiveness of your survey, it's important to look at several key metrics.
- Response Rate: This is the percentage of people who actually responded to the survey out of the total number of people it was sent to. It's a comprehensive indicator that reflects interest in the survey topic, the appropriateness of the distribution channel, and the appeal of the survey invitation message.
- Calculation: (Number of Completed Survey Responses / Total Number of Surveys Sent) * 100
- Typical Response Rates: For online surveys, the average is around 20-30%, though email surveys can be lower. Surveys targeting internal employees may aim for 30-40% or higher. However, this can vary greatly depending on the survey type, target audience, channel, and whether incentives are offered. What's important is to judge your relative success by comparing it to your own past survey response rates or industry averages.
- Completion Rate: This is the percentage of people who completed all questions among those who started the survey. It helps in evaluating the survey's length, the difficulty of the questions, and the appropriateness of the survey flow. A low completion rate likely indicates that there were elements in the survey content or structure that fatigued or confused respondents.
- Calculation: (Number of Respondents Who Completed All Questions / Number of Respondents Who Started the Survey) * 100
- Data Quality: This indicates how reliable and useful the collected response data is. It can be indirectly assessed through the rate of insincere responses (e.g., answering every question the same way, abnormally short response times) and the specificity of open-ended answers. You should also check whether complex skip logic resulted in the collection of unintended data.
- Time & Cost: Evaluate the total time and cost (personnel, tool subscription fees, incentives, etc.) spent from survey planning to analysis to check for efficiency.
2. What Went Well, and What Needs Improvement? A Post-Survey Review
Once the survey project is complete, it's crucial to hold an internal team review session, asking the following questions.
- Goal Achievement:
- To what extent did this survey achieve the originally set goals and specific research objectives?
- How much did the obtained data contribute to actual decision-making?
- Question Design:
- Were the questions clear and easy to understand? Were there any questions that confused or were misinterpreted by respondents?
- Were there any questions that could have introduced bias (e.g., leading questions, assumptive questions)?
- Were the multiple-choice options appropriate (i.e., no duplication, omission, or imbalance)?
- Did the open-ended questions elicit sufficiently specific and useful answers?
- Was the question order and flow logical and natural? Did the skip logic work as intended?
- Target Audience and Distribution:
- Was the chosen target audience group appropriate? Did we get enough responses from the desired group?
- Was the selected distribution channel effective? Would another channel have been better?
- Did the survey invitation message (email subject line, body text, etc.) contribute to increasing the response rate? What were the A/B testing results?
- Was the incentive designed and offered appropriately? Did it have a negative impact on data quality?
- Data Analysis and Utilization:
- Were there any difficulties in analyzing the collected data?
- Did we derive meaningful insights from the analysis results?
- Were the derived insights well-connected to an actual action plan?
- Other:
- Were there any unexpected problems or areas for improvement during the survey process?
- Was the survey tool used satisfactory?
3. Efforts for Continuous Improvement: Preparing for a Better Next Survey
A survey is not a one-time task but a process of continuous learning and improvement. Efforts are needed to make the next survey more effective based on the experience of the current one.
- Document and Share Feedback: Detail the problems, improvement ideas, and success factors that came out of the post-survey review. Share this within the team and accumulate it as a knowledge asset.
- Learn from Successes and Failures: Benchmark by studying successful survey cases from other companies or learn from their failures, in addition to your own past survey cases.
- Acquire the Latest Trends and Technologies: A continuous effort is needed to learn and apply the latest survey methodologies, data analysis techniques, and visualization tools to your work.
- Make Small-Scale Testing a Habit: Before conducting an important survey, get into the habit of running a pilot test with a small group to check the clarity of questions, the appropriateness of the flow, and the estimated completion time in advance.
- Standardize the Survey Process: For recurring surveys, standardize the process from goal setting to final reporting to increase efficiency and maintain consistent quality.
The effort to measure a survey's effectiveness and continuously improve it will play a key role in strengthening a marketer's data-driven decision-making capabilities, enabling a deeper understanding of customers and the market, and ultimately enhancing business performance. Rather than one perfect survey, the process of creating a survey that gets a little better each time is what truly matters.