The success of your satisfaction surveys mainly depends on your method! Timing, questionnaire size, quality of solicitation… Discover the 8 best practices to succeed in your surveys.

Best practice 1: Be brief

The secret to the success of your survey lies in its brevity and conciseness! A too-long questionnaire will discourage respondents and negatively affect the response rate. This is especially true for online surveys, where respondents can interrupt the process at any time.
When creating their first survey, there’s a temptation to write long customer satisfaction questionnaires to gather more information. This tendency arises for two reasons:

• Traditional survey methods (telephone or paper) are very expensive, leading to the tendency to “offset” the study cost by adding as many questions as possible ;
• The enthusiasm of conducting the first survey and the excitement of finally getting answers can easily lead to an overkill!

Online surveys typically cost 10 to 20 times less than phone or paper surveys, so there’s no need to overcomplicate them!

With the low cost of online surveys and easy-to-use software like Vocaza Jouney, it’s possible to conduct multiple surveys and address various study topics over time.
The maximum number of questions in an online survey depends on the nature of the survey and especially the respondents’ motivation. However, don’t exceed 25 questions when interviewing people outside your company.

💡 The KISS Principle
This simplicity principle is applied in many disciplines, including satisfaction surveys. K·I·S·S is often humorously interpreted as “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”

Best practice 2: Pay attention to your questionnaire’s presentation

The satisfaction survey is both a measurement tool and a marketing tool. Therefore, the questionnaire must be flawlessly presented as it reflects your image and shows that you care about them.

Follow the brand guidelines

Your questionnaire should follow your company’s brand guidelines. If these aren’t formally defined, a good solution is to take elements from your website (logo, images, colors, fonts).

Ensure clear navigation and layout

Navigation and layout should be as clear as possible to make it easier for users. It’s also essential that your survey is mobile-friendly (via responsive design).

Use multiple pages for online surveys

Online surveys can be split into several pages, so take advantage of this to make your questionnaire flow smoothly. For example, separate different themes or sections of the survey onto different pages, keeping the number of questions per page limited.

Two pitfalls to avoid in survey ergonomics:

• Avoid excessive page splitting: Don’t make a page with just one or two questions and risk tiring respondents with too many page changes.
• Avoid overly dense pages: This makes reading difficult and requires excessive scrolling.
  
  

Best practice 3: Test your satisfaction surveys

It’s not when sending a questionnaire to thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of people that you should be wondering if there are any mistakes or if the questions are relevant. Before launching your satisfaction survey, have it proofread and tested to identify potential improvements or errors that you may not have noticed.

The test should ensure the questions are well understood, unambiguous, and that:

• The vocabulary used is familiar to the respondents (be cautious with technical terms and acronyms).
• The questions cannot be interpreted in multiple ways.

Best practice 4: Interview the right people

Unlike phone, mail, or face-to-face interviews, email surveys allow you to reach your customers, employees, or suppliers easily and cost-effectively. However, wide distribution is not necessarily a guarantee of success or representative responses. Therefore, choosing the right people to interview is crucial.

Target your respondents

Ensure that the people you invite to respond are relevant to the survey topic, representative of the population being studied, and enable you to assess the overall satisfaction with your products or services.

Choose the right sample size

The ideal sample size allows for enough responses to perform relevant and representative analyses.

Example:
A good method is to calculate based on the desired number of responses and the expected response rate. If you need 500 responses and your response rate is 25%, you need to contact 2,000 people.

Avoid fatiguing respondents

Too much solicitation can reduce the response rate. Manage your respondent panel and don’t interview the same people too often.

Best practice 5: Refine your emails

The email invitation is the most common method for distributing an online survey. The quality of your email is essential for the success of your survey as it directly impacts your response rates.

Sender and subject line

Your goal is to get as many recipients as possible to open your email! The decision to open an email is based on two things: the sender and the subject line.

• The sender should be a recognizable name (like a person the respondent knows or an explicit service name and email address).
• The subject should be compelling and direct, such as “Give us your feedback on XX” or “Your opinion matters! Participate in our study on XX.”

Respect personal data and legal obligations

Remind your contacts of their rights regarding their personal data and provide clear instructions on how to exercise them.

Best practice 6: Send emails at the right time

When an email is received, it’s either read immediately… or never! From experience, we know that when a survey works well, most responses are collected within 24 to 72 hours after distribution.

Choose the date to maximize the chances that respondents will be available, meet project deadlines, and avoid special event days (holidays, sports events, etc.).

You’ve followed the first best practices, and now the responses are rolling in. It’s time to make the most of the collected data.

• Share response rates and key results with your team in real time.
• Present selected and focused analyses to your audience without overwhelming them with all the responses.
• Thank respondents for their participation and share key findings with them. This strengthens their motivation to answer future surveys and helps build brand loyalty.

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