How to boost your response rate

Zykrr does not only aim at providing a Customer Experience Management Platform but also believes in providing an end-to-end solution when it comes to managing the voice of customers and capturing instant real-time feedback. From designing the surveys through a DIY Survey Administration module to providing actionable insights on the same as well as managing any escalations raised by customers through our efficient escalation management platform, we have it all. We partner with our clients and strive to make their customer experience journey better every day.

We all know that the key factor that determines the success of an organization is how its customers feel about it. This is where concepts such as Customer Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score come into play. All these scores can only be achieved when the response rates of the surveys are used to calculate the increase. This is where Zykrr decided to add its expertise. Through this article, we aim to provide quick suggestions that can help anyone boost their survey response rates. Before we delve deeper into how we can improve this response rate, it is important to understand what response rate is. Response rate is nothing but the percentage of responses you have received on the surveys you have triggered. For example, say you surveyed 2000 people and 200 people respond, your response rate would be 10%. Ideally, studies show that a good response rate is 50%. Using Zykrr’s customizable and agile Survey Administration module that lets you design smart surveys, a promising rise in response rates from 4% to 20% has been observed.

1. Survey Personalization

By adopting simple techniques that make your surveys more appealing and interactive, response rates can be increased and more insightful customer feedback can be fetched. The aim is to make your surveys relevant to the users.

• Understand your target audience and design your surveys with colours and fonts that resonate with your brand. Don’t forget to add your brand logo. Remember, each survey rolled out represents how your brand communicates with your audience. Instead of just using a scoring scale, use colours that relate to the scores. Green is usually identified with high scores, while red is associated with lower scores. Using visually appealing colours results in quick responses.
• A great way of interacting with your target audience through these surveys is by addressing your customers by their first names. An instant feeling of warmth can be instilled when customers see their name pop up in the opening message of the survey. With that, we come to the very vital point of having a short, informative, and warm-hearted opening message for all your surveys. Make sure to send a thank you message expressing your gratitude after the completion of your survey.
• While framing the opening message, always keep in mind that it needs to be one with a high impact on the respondents. The message should greet the respondents warmly and inform them of the purpose of the survey.
• Conversational and comprehensible surveys show higher response rates. The easiest way to do this is by adapting the survey to your customers’ preferred language.
  A quick example could be: "Mr. John, we appreciate your willingness to provide feedback for your last store visit." Your feedback is extremely valuable to us".
  Zykrr’s survey administration module focuses on just constructing surveys but smart questionnaires with relevant questions that have an impact on your response rates.
• Apart from keeping your surveys simple and sweet, additionally, an innovative technique to increase response rates is to gamify your surveys such as quick tasks or quizzes to make them more interactive.

2. Choose the Right Channels of Distribution

Survey links can be distributed through various channels, but the most effective channel has to be decided upon. A quick way of doing it is by analyzing your target audience. If you feel your respondents spend more time on their desktops/laptops, choose email as the path of distribution, while if your respondents mostly belong to a younger crowd, go with social media platforms. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp are mostly used by all. In fact, given how we have replaced traditional SMSs with WhatsApp, it is more likely that surveys sent over WhatsApp will capture more feedback.

Needless to say, opening messages for surveys sent over e-mail should be impactful and crisp. Subject lines should be carefully considered because only when they elicit excitement in your respondents will they open and read them.

Some catchy subject lines, such as "You’re invited" or " Let us fix your issue" may invoke desired excitement.

3. Art of Framing Questions

What sets your survey apart is how you frame your questions so that they are more targeted toward your audience rather than going ahead with a generic NPS question. In most surveys, the NPS question asks " how likely are you to recommend our brand to your friends and colleagues?" The smarter way to do this is by asking "Considering your (recent) purchase/ feature experience, how likely are you to recommend (company/product name) to someone sharing the same interests/ similar business challenges?" If you closely observe, you’ll see how the following NPS question is more directed towards a specific target audience. Personalizing such questions makes your surveys only more customer-centric.

Open-ended questions are a great way of understanding the additional sentiments of your customers towards your brand. While a generic " Tell us more about how you feel about our brand" is a common way of gathering such feedback, it is often left unattended by the respondents. The primary reason for this could be that these survey links might not be delivered on a real-time basis. Therefore, by the time they provide the feedback, the urge to suggest more changes to your product or service or appreciate the same, fades out. A quick solution to this could be to direct the customers on how to answer these open-ended questions. Framing the questions as "What was missing in your experience with us?" or "feature/product do you value the most?" are effective ways of triggering your customers in the right direction. While capturing maximum responses is the primary focus, segmenting your customers and choosing only those responses that are impactful, is equally important.

4. Value your customers’ Time

Being considerate of its customers is a prerequisite for all organizations. They value your service only when you value their time. By valuing their time, we mean avoiding sending surveys during important or billable hours of the day, particularly during the beginning and end of the month. Avoid over surveying your customers. Also, note the preferable time when you receive the maximum responses and auto-schedule surveys accordingly. The first survey should be rolled out within 24 hours to 48 hours of your customers’ interaction with your organization. A survey too early could be disadvantageous, the reason being that it takes some time to understand the impact of your offerings. A general practice that we often miss out on is to pre-notify the customers of the forthcoming survey. Studies show that pre-notification creates a positive awareness amongst your prospective respondents, thereby increasing the response rates. Sometimes these emails and messages end up in spam folders. Using a dedicated IP address and by incorporating SPF and DKIM into your DNS (Domain Name System) settings, you inform the email receiver that you have an authorized NPS provider, providing surveys on your behalf. This mitigates the chances of your emails landing in spam folders, although your DNS and IP address are different. DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) and SPF (Sender Policy Framework) are email authentication methods that verify the security of the senders.

5. Safeguarding Your Customers' Details

To personalize the surveys, a lot of customer details have to be stored and used as metadata fields. Remember, these details are extremely confidential and need to be protected at all times. Ensure that you allow your customers to make changes to these details on your survey. They could either wish to save the details permanently, make changes to the existing details or delete the same information. In no way should they feel obligated to share their personal information with your organization. This is a critical step to building trust between them and your brand. Following all these best practices will surely help in garnering maximum feedback and increasing response rates substantially.