A few days back, I spent almost 2 hours creating a beautiful, engaging, and all-inclusive B2C survey.

It was detailed, containing 10 questions, asking everything about the consumer’s journey from not knowing about the brand to using its features!

But I didn’t receive a great response to it.

Well, I built it, so they are bound to respond right? – NO

When it comes to surveys, it’s not TRUE.

It’s not about spending a lot of time creating the surveys. That’s just the BEGINNING.

In today’s world when your consumer is receiving hundreds of surveys from multiple sources, you need to be creative with yours.

You need to make your surveys stand out. Give them a reason to take those surveys. Ask the right questions. Know their preferences. And so much more!

You need to cut through the noise to reach them out and make sure that when they are ready to share their feedback, they DO NOT BACK OUT.

So, how can you do it?

How can you actually get them to respond to your surveys?

How can you make thousands of your customers take your survey and share realistic feedback?

To get that, we have collated some practical points yet very effective points that have helped companies improve their survey response rate for B2C surveys.

9-point Checklist to Increase Response Rate of B2C Surveys
Ask the RIGHT questions at the RIGHT time on the RIGHT channels
Make your surveys as short as possible
In case of longer surveys, incentivize your customers
Minimize the survey fatigue
Share the purpose of the survey
Pre-notify your customers
Seamlessly integrate surveys with the existing tools
Close the feedback loop
Believe in personalization
1. Ask the RIGHT questions at the RIGHT time on the RIGHT channels
Timing is everything. If you called Amazon customer service today and they send you a feedback survey 2 weeks after, over the email, how likely are you to respond to that?

Never, right?

Brands should know which survey should they send, at what time, and on which channels to their customers. Even the CX Guru, Shep Hyken agrees to it. He says, “Timing is everything. Send at the right time, which should be decided based on the situation.”

→ So, what can you do?

Know the right time: Send a satisfaction survey right after the ticket is resolved instead of after days.
Know the right channel: Here’s an example, 97% of the people in Indonesia prefer WhatsApp, so why should we send surveys via emails?
Ask the right questions: Many brands ask an NPS question immediately after onboarding them. Why would they recommend you? They haven’t even used your services yet. Instead, go for a CSAT survey!
ask right questions at right time on right channels
2. Go crazy to make your surveys as short as possible
Everyone in this world is super busy. They have a lot to do.

And if you are planning to ask everything on a single B2C survey, then you cannot be more wrong. Your respondents may answer the top two or three questions, then they’ll simply opt out.

→ So, what can you do?

Prioritize questions: Create shorter surveys with the most important questions at the top (Just in case respondents don’t complete them).
Ask for permission: If there are too many questions to ask, schedule an interview with them or ask after the third question, if they could answer some more. And don’t forget to thank them for it.
REMEMBER:

Always remember, every question you add to your survey, drives down your response rate. So, don’t ask what you already know (such as name, contact info, address), skip irrelevant questions, or the ones that take too much of your respondents’ time.

Also, deliver what you promise. Don’t promise a 2-minute survey in the email if you are going to ask a thousand questions in it. That is clearly not a great strategy to increase your survey response rate!

Further Reading: https://www.surveysensum.com/blog/increase-response-rate-for-b2c-surveys/