If you are of a certain age (like me), you probably know what game show this post's title refers to* but this post is not about game shows - it's about surveys. I have been asked to complete a survey at least 3 times in the past week and I have also asked subscribers of my free safety training ezine to partake in a survey. Since I rarely answer survey questions myself (I'll tell you why in a minute), I wanted to make sure my little survey would have a greater chance of success. Just this morning, I received a survey from a professional organization I belong to. The email headline said "Please help by taking our survey" and although I wouldn't generally click through, I did. I was faced with a full page full of questions with 5 different answers for each one. That was bad enough but I scrolled to the bottom of the page and saw that this was page 1 of 8! There was no way I was going to sit and answer 8 pages of questions. Only recently, I started to try to determine the length of the survey before starting one and this came after several other experiences where I would start a survey and after patiently answering a page of questions, come to find that there is another page - and then another page and more. Usually after page 2 or 3, I abandon the survey completely.
My ezine survey has only been active 4 days but I am pleased with the response rate. When I designed my survey, I wanted to make it short to encourage participation (it's only 5 questions) and I wanted to tell people up front how long it would take to complete it (5 minutes). I also wanted to thank them in some tangible way for giving me 5 minutes of their valuable time so I offered to give them 5 free gifts in exchange for their 5 minutes. So far, the response has been very positive. If you are planning a survey, first, think why you want to do one (more on that tomorrow) and then second, plan carefully so you get maximum participation.
*The game show was Family Feud
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