Survey fatigue happens for numerous reasons. The survey might be too long, and the user might grow weary of endless questions or run out of free time to complete them. Other reasons include receiving too many surveys or asking complex questions that hurt the customer’s brain. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) will get a higher survey engagement rate when they keep surveys short, to the point and minimal.
What Steps Can SMBs Take to Reduce Survey Fatigue?
If you’ve noticed most people not completing your surveys, it’s probably due to survey fatigue. You can take specific steps to avoid customer burnout while collecting crucial information to help you improve the customer experience (CX).
Customer Thermometer studied survey fatigue, exploring how people develop it and why they choose not to complete surveys. They found people were willing to devote very little time to the process. Around 9% of respondents said they would thoughtfully answer a long survey, while 70% said they abandoned surveys due to length or complexity. Surveys longer than 10 to 15 minutes could overwhelm respondents, which reduces the quality of the answers they do give.
Fortunately, SMBs can help the situation by being aware of survey fatigue and taking steps to combat it. Here are the top things you can do to reduce respondents’ reluctance to participate while still gathering valuable data to build your brand:
1. Ask What Is Crucial
The idea of sending surveys to customers and getting their insight is addictive. It’s tempting to send them questionnaires and get their input constantly. Unfortunately, your users will get tired of filling out so many surveys and will either rush through their responses or not answer your questions at all.
Surveys should ask the bare minimum and be few and far between. Consider your business metrics. What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you need to measure to create results for your business? Throw out any questions not related to your KPIs.
2. Offer Incentive for Participation
Encourage participation by offering incentives when users complete a task. You could give your customers rewards, like a coupon for free shipping on their next order.
You’re asking them to spend their time providing you with invaluable data. Incentivizing completion helps the customer and your business. Details that help you reduce customer churn improve your revenue over time.
3. Tweak the Format
How you lay out your survey can affect whether people answer the questions. Since so many people use mobile devices to access the internet, you should make your questions mobile-friendly.
Yes-or-no questions and options to select from pre-filled answers can speed up the survey process and still provide insight without weighing down the user. Try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Test the survey on a mobile device to see how easy it is to make and submit selections. How long does the survey take? What length of survey do your users tolerate before bouncing from your site?
4. Use Number Ratings or Scales
Customers hate feeling as though they are endlessly typing out questions. Using scales from one to ten reduces survey fatigue by saving the respondent time and effort. You can see how well your customer service is performing or if your tech support needs improvement. By getting a general customer rating, you know where to start improving processes.
Since there are different types of survey fatigue, scales can reduce burnout from being overwhelmed by the sheer number of questions. Yes or no questions and options to select from pre-filled answers can speed up the survey process and still provide insight without weighing down the user. Try to put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Test the survey on a mobile device to see how easy it is to make and submit selections.
How long does the survey take? What length of survey do your users tolerate before bouncing
from your site?
5. Use Clear, Concise Language
Complex questions confuse users. For example, you might ask something like:
If you had a good experience at checkout, how likely are you to return to our store for a future purpose and why?
Although you could get a few good answers by asking an open-ended question, you’ll also find some users don’t know where to start answering such an extensive one. The shorter and more succinct the question and answer, the more detailed the results. Users will be more likely to click Yes or No.
6. Use Smart Topic Flow
Consider user flow design when choosing the order of your questions. Each topic should flow logically into the next, with related subjects grouped. Loops and varying paths might work best, depending on each user’s answers. Mapping out the layout beforehand allows you to rearrange anything that seems out of place.
While the order might make sense to you, does it work best for your customers? Run split tests, trying different variations to determine which gets the best response. You can even watch bounce rates in real-time and make adjustments on the fly.
7. Explain Why You Need the Survey
It might seem obvious to your company leaders why you need survey results, but customers could find it unnecessarily intrusive. Explaining how you’ll use the data to improve CX can encourage customers to answer your questions.
You could also share past surveys and improvements made after seeing the results. How did those surveys benefit users and the company? The more you can connect the dots for people who aren’t privy to insider information about your brand, the more likely they are to help you by completing the surveys.
Relationship Should Trump Everything
Surveys are an excellent way to gather crucial details you otherwise wouldn’t have data on. However, if they create survey fatigue or push customers away, they could damage your relationship with your users. Always err on the side of a positive UX rather than collecting data. Limit the number of surveys you send and ensure each has a purpose and is as succinct as possible to avoid respondent burnout.
About The Author
Eleanor Hecks is the Editor-in-Chief of Designerly Magazine, an online publication dedicated to providing in-depth content from the design and marketing industries. When she's not designing or writing code, you can find her exploring the outdoors with her husband and dog in their RV, burning calories at a local Zumba class, or curled up with a good book with her cats Gem and Cali.
You can find more of Eleanor's work at www.eleanorhecks.com.