We’ve been conducting an annual member survey for the Ontario Hospital Association for the past three years. And for the past three years we’ve had response rates above 60%! 

Here are three simple ideas that you can use that will help improve your survey response. I can’t promise 60%+ but I can promise an improvement.

1) The pre-survey notification – A few days prior to the launch of your survey send out a short email to your members letting them know that your survey will soon be arriving in their in-box. Highlight the importance of the survey and why it’s imperative that they respond.

2) Phone calls to non-responders – We track who has responded to the survey. This insures that these individuals are not receiving follow up emails. It also means that we can phone non-responders and ask them to complete the survey. We work with a simple script that reiterates the purpose of the survey and politely requests participation. This single step has made a huge difference in our response rate.

3) The follow up thank you email – When the survey is completed it is important to thank respondents for their participation and outline the next steps. While this will not improve the response to this year’s survey, it will be of benefit next year. Letting your respondents know that their contribution is important makes a big difference in subsequent surveys.

Contact us if you’re interested in knowing more about improving your response rates. Also, you can download whitepapers related to online surveys and member surveys from our website.

We will delivering a workshop at the upcoming Trillium Summer Summit. http://bit.ly/2thts8G with Melinda Moore, Manager, Corporate Governance, Ontario Hospital Association. The title of our workshop is:  The Annual Member Survey…Best Practices – A View From the Front Lines