The ideal survey

The ideal survey from the respondents’ perspective has:

• No costs
• High rewards

How to get there?

Help increase the response rate by reducing costs to respondents:

•                 Making the questions appear to be brief. For mail survey, one page is best.
•                 Reduce the physical/mental effort to answer the questions
•                 Eliminating any question that can cause embarrassment. Be aware that some questions can have a higher nonresponse rate such as family income, age sexual behavior etc. therefore avoid those. These questions can be interpreted be on sensitive or invasive topics.
•                 Respondent should never have any direct monetary cost

Help increase the response rate by rewarding the respondents:

•                 State at the beginning of the survey any tangible reward that will be offered.
•                 Make the questionnaire attention-grabbing
•                 Giving verbal appreciation and positive regard
•                 Establishing trust and using a consultative approach. Implication of subordination must be eliminated.