Filed in Respondents

Articles about recruiting and keeping your respondents—because without them, we just have pretty forms.

Consistency is never foolish in a survey: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do." Apart from the common misquote which drops "foolish," most people are unaware of...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on October 24, 2008 | Last updated October 24, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Questionnaires | Respondents; TAGS: Scales
Preventing duplicate survey responses: A common concern is how to deal with duplicated survey responses. In practice, this is an issue when the benefit to multiple submits outweighs the effort of making them. For most surveys, the challenge is getting people to complete once....; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on November 13, 2007 | Last updated April 28, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents | Technology; TAGS: Data validation | Passwords | Sampling | Web surveys
Real world sampling: If you pick up a classic market research text you'll come away with the impression that sampling is an integral part of every survey. It's not. The reasons sampling has historically been such a big deal are: High per-respondent cost...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on June 26, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 3; CATEGORIES: Reporting | Respondents; TAGS: Response rates | Risk | Sampling
Respondent incentives: When you've exhausted intangible payoffs, it's time to reach for the payola. Sometimes you'll get lucky and you can find an incentive that's cheap for you to provide—such as a product upgrade or free month's service—and sometimes it will be...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on April 23, 2008 | Last updated April 28, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents; TAGS: Incentives | Response rates | Sampling
Rule #2: Wear the respondent's shoes—it's a big payback: As much as I'm a general advocate for respondents, I know it can be a challenge when they're an amorphous group and your manager or client is an immediate voice. But, there are two very pragmatic reasons for putting yourself...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on October 5, 2009 | Last updated October 5, 2009; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Management | Questionnaires | Respondents; TAGS: Ann's Rules | Response rates | Risk | Scales | Writing questions
To pop-up or not?: Just as spammers have made e-mail invitations a perilous exercise, pop-up ads have made Web-based survey invitations challenging. Internet Explorer and Firefox install with pop-up blocking on by default, and people aren't exactly rushing to turn it off. So when...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on February 21, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents | Technology; TAGS: Sampling | Web surveys
Typical abandonment rates: One of my most popular articles via Web searches is about typical response rates. What many researchers forget to look at is the abandonment or completion rate. If you extend an invitation to someone for the survey (mail, e-mail, banner...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on September 27, 2007 | Last updated May 19, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents; TAGS: Incentives | Response rates | Sampling | Usability
Typical response rates: Like many researchers, you're probably wondering: "What's a typical response rate for a customer survey?" "What rate can I get if I use the Web?" "Only 50 people answered my survey—is that normal?"...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on March 20, 2006 | Last updated April 21, 2008; COMMENTS: 2; CATEGORIES: Respondents; TAGS: Incentives | Response rates | Sampling
Using survey respondent panels: When you're conducting market research, one of the challenges is locating potential respondents. You have a few options for reaching beyond your customers: Banner ads Viral spreading of the link Postal mail invitations Survey panels Note that some of these...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on October 11, 2006 | Last updated November 24, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents; TAGS: Market research | Panels | Response rates | Sampling | Web surveys
Your besieged respondents: As researchers, we're focused on how important our survey is. From that perspective, it's easy to lose sight of how little importance the survey has to our respondents, especially these days when they're deluged with questionnaires. To illustrate what respondents...; Read Article; BY: Ann Ray on February 21, 2006 | Last updated April 25, 2008; COMMENTS: 0; CATEGORIES: Respondents; TAGS: Macro environment | Response rates