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Association Management

5 Easy Ways to Boost Survey Participation

MemberClicks Avatar MemberClicks August 24, 2016
Table of Contents
2 min read

Creating a survey is one thing, but getting people to complete it is a whole different story. People just don’t have the time – or often, the incentive.

So how do you change that frustrating behavior? Here are five tips:

1. Personalize your email invitations

The first step in getting someone to complete your survey is getting them to open (and read) your email. How do you make that happen? By including their name in the invite!

Now don’t panic. Let’s say you want to survey 2,500+ people. That’s a lot of emails to personalize. But if you’re using an association management system, the AMS will do that for you. All you have to do is write the email copy. (More about how an AMS can help your association here.)

2. Keep the survey simple

This one’s obvious. The longer your survey is, the less likely people are to complete it. Would you fill out a 50+ question survey? Me neither, so don’t do that to your members.

Keep the length of your survey short and the questions clear and concise. Confusing questions can be just as detrimental as an overly long survey.

3. Set a deadline upfront

Often, when people receive an email asking the recipient to do something, they brush it off and claim, “I’ll do it later.” But later usually doesn’t come. Or by the time it does come, it’s too late – you’ve already shut the survey down.

To prevent that from happening, tell people upfront when you’ll be taking the survey down. That way, they know exactly when they need to complete it by (rather than pushing it off indefinitely).

4. Tell members what you’ll do with their responses

People receive surveys all the time. So much, in fact, that it often feels pointless to complete them. Will anyone even USE these responses?! Let your members know that you will, and more importantly, tell them HOW you’ll use their responses. Will it be to plan your next event? To amend your member benefits? Make your intentions clear.

5. Remind people to take the survey

Sometimes, when it comes to sending emails, you might just catch people at a bad time. Because of that, it’s always wise to resend the survey in a quick reminder email. The second (or third) time’s the charm!

At the end of the day, surveys are all about gathering feedback to make your association better. The happier your members are, the more likely they are to stay.

But surveys aren’t the only way to boost member retention. Want a few more ideas? Check out our free Guide to Member Retention below!

Free Member Retention Guide

Ready to retain members and keep them coming back forever and ever? This guide will teach you everything you need to know about member retention. We cover all the basics, like the first steps to member retention and how to map out your member journey. From there, we dive a bit deeper into retention tips.

Download