Once you have decided who you need to survey and have a survey specific to each group, the next phase involves sending them. Before you do this, consider the following questions:
What’s the best way to reach your target group?
It depends. Alumni might be easier to reach with an online survey. Current students in a face to face setting could be reached with a paper survey at the end of a class. You might consider a telephone survey a better way to reach community partners. You’ll also want to consult with Institutional Research and Planning for advice on what tools are available and most appropriate for what you want to do. For more information on the pros and cons of different ways of deploying a survey, check out the National Business Research Institute.
What’s a reasonable amount of time to give respondents to reply?
Research by Survey Monkey indicates that the majority of responses come within the first week of a survey being sent out. After that, response rates drop dramatically ( Survey Response Rates) . Timing of when a survey is deployed is also important; administering a survey to students during exam period will likely not get the best response rate.
What rate of response are you looking for?
A number of factors influence the response rate you can expect; for example, how you’re deploying the survey and the kind of survey used (e.g., multiple choice format, short answer etc.). See Survey Anyplace.
Tips for improving survey response rates:
- avoid asking more than 12 questions or surveys that take longer than 5 minutes to complete
- send out a reminder 3-7 days after the initial invitation to respond
- be specific in your introduction so respondents know the purpose of the survey and why their input is important
- only ask relevant questions. For example, some surveys ask for a respondents gender or age, when such information is not directly relevant to the analysis.
- make sure the survey is visually appealing and user-friendly in terms of how you expect respondents to complete it.