There comes a time when we need to be reminded. Sometimes a gentle reminder will do, other times we may need to be more forceful. Survey participants are no different.
Seldom will we achieve our desired number of completes without resorting to some polite arm twisting. The Inquisium survey platform offers survey invitation capacity. In this case the programs act and look more like email marketing platforms. There is nothing wrong with that because we need the tool to search for invitees who have not taken us up one our solicitation. However, we have to be careful.
We can use the Inquisium platform to select those participants who have not been registered as fully completing the customer satisfaction, brand awareness or other appropriate survey. Reminder emails can be set to process automatically at a certain time and date or be sent manually. I recommend waiting at least one day before sending a reminder. It is also best to stagger the time the reminder is sent. For example, if you sent your invitation in the morning, release the reminder in the afternoon. In order to avoid getting onto someone’s wrong side keep the number of contacts to a maximum of three (one invitation and two reminders).
When it comes to the actual text of the reminder, it is not necessary to use the same copy as your initial invitation. Reminder text should be a variation.
There is a special class of reminders for those who have not fully completed the survey. The partial response group can be identified using the Manage Respondents feature and filtering for partial completes. This group has already gone down the path and may have been pulled away by other pressing matters. The partial complete reminder will take participants to where they left the survey.
Judicious use of the reminder emails can effectively add to your overall completion rates. In today’s time compressed environment a gentle reminder can make the difference between project success and your head in your hands.
Written by Greg Timpany
