As the French saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That’s especially true of respondent engagement.
Technology has transformed every part of the research process. The customer insights business can feel like a different game than it was 20 years ago. But some guiding principles still apply, including the central role of respondent engagement.
Finding and reaching the right people is only half the battle in primary research. Engaging them deeply enough, and long enough, to capture quality feedback is what drives survey completion rates and successful research. And it’s never been more important, or more challenging.
The Respondent Engagement Sweepstakes
Researchers have always competed for respondents’ attention. Over time, that contest has only grown more intense and more complex.
What’s a Landline?
Not long ago, we could assume survey participants sat at a desk at home or at work. Or, within living memory, they answered their home phone. Either way, they faced limited distractions.
Even when qualitative research moved online, respondents were tied to broadband connections at home or at work. There, they could (and usually did) control interruptions.
Today, almost everyone is mobile. People use smartphones and tablets everywhere they go and engage with media whenever it suits them. We can’t predict or control where or when someone takes part in research. So we need to capture and hold their attention against whatever else is happening around them in that moment. That’s the new reality of respondent engagement.
Everyone’s a Digital Native Now
Not literally everyone, but close. As the population ages, the share of people who grew up with technology keeps growing. And when pandemic lockdowns pushed work and school online, they created a whole new group of “naturalized” digital citizens. That brief but sweeping shift changed everything, and there’s no going back.
What does this mean for researchers? As more people treat the digital world as their natural habitat, they expect more from their online experiences. And as they spread their time across more digital activities, the competition for their attention heats up even further, raising the bar for respondent engagement.
Everything’s a Game Now
People are debating whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, we’re seeing the gamification of almost everything. Points, badges, prizes, and leaderboards now show up everywhere, as marketers, educators, and others use them to keep people engaged.
This matters to researchers because it has shaped what people expect online. The bottom line: to keep respondents engaged, we have to consider what’s in it for them. Incentives get respondents to the first page. After that, it’s up to the survey designer to keep them engaged to the end.
Best Practices for Respondent Engagement
Those are the challenges. Here are some best practices to help you win the respondent engagement sweepstakes.
Keep It Short and Sweet
Be as concise as possible. Respondents are a limited resource, and a tedious survey discourages them from taking the next one.
Managing length of interview (LOI) has been a challenge since the first researcher picked up a clipboard and knocked on a door. The urge to add one more “nice to know” question never goes away. But even the most interesting survey wears thin once its length of interview passes 15 minutes. Keeping it closer to 10 to 12 minutes can boost survey completion rates significantly. Our own research on survey fatigue found that attention starts fading within minutes, especially on open-ended questions.
Use skip logic and branching so each respondent only sees relevant questions. If you need a very long list of answer options or product features, consider splitting the sample and showing each group part of the list.
Put Mobile Survey Design First
Most respondents will take your survey on a phone, so mobile survey design matters. Use thumb-friendly buttons, avoid wide grids and horizontal scrolling, and test every survey on a phone before launch. Poor mobile survey design is one of the most common survey design mistakes, and it drives respondents straight to the exit. That’s a fast way to hurt survey completion rates.
Honesty Is Always the Best Policy
Always use a friendly, straightforward tone. Data privacy concerns are rising, and younger generations are often skeptical of institutions’ motives. So it’s more important than ever to be transparent about your survey’s purpose and how you will (and won’t) use the data.
State clearly, but briefly, how the insights will benefit customers and users. Transparency builds trust, and trust drives respondent engagement.
Skip the Gamification, Try Storification
Gamifying a survey can trivialize it for respondents. You want them to take it seriously enough to give thoughtful, honest answers. Game elements can also clutter your dataset. A better strategy is storification: keep the survey interesting and give it a sense of progress.
You don’t need a literal plot. Instead, think about pacing and sequencing, the way musicians arrange an album or a recital. There’s an art to combining elements so they flow and carry the listener, or in our case, the respondent, to the end.
Most surveys have several sections. Data needs will dictate some of the order, like asking unprompted recall questions before prompted ones. But you can still apply “programming” principles to keep things engaging:
- Start with a few easy questions before moving to ones that take more thought.
- Mix up question types.
- Make sure the respondent can follow the logic from one section to the next.
And what’s a good story without illustrations? The digital world makes it easy to add multimedia to surveys. Just don’t get carried away. The goal is to enhance your main storyline, not distract from it. A good story is one of the best tools for respondent engagement.
Respondent Engagement That Lasts
Our hyper-mobile world brings real challenges to insights research. But none are impossible to meet when you combine new tools and methods with proven guiding principles.
Want more respondents to finish your surveys, and give better answers? Download our Cracking the Code on Survey Engagement deck for practical ways to keep respondents engaged from start to finish.
