What to consider before you send your survey: A checklist for distribution

To succeed with a survey that produces representative data, you need a high response rate. That sets a high bar for thinking strategically about the audience you want to reach and the channels you will use to distribute the questionnaire. Below is a checklist of what you should consider before you distribute your survey.

When you ask users for feedback, or want to capture customer insight on a specific service or event, you are competing against an army of other messages for the respondent's attention. So you need to work strategically with how you reach respondents — with the right framing of the questionnaire and the right distribution channels — to maximise the chance that they actually spend time answering your survey.

Survey distribution is the process of getting a questionnaire in front of the right respondents through the right channels at the right time. Effective distribution is decided in three steps before the survey is sent: focus the audience (who is answering, and what device or context will they be in), assess the survey type (length, complexity, depth — and which channel fits it), and consider whether the survey can be triggered by a specific event so the experience is top-of-mind for the respondent. Each decision shapes the response rate. 

When you ask users for feedback, or want to capture customer insight on a specific service or event, you are competing against an army of other messages for the respondent's attention. Email inboxes, SMS notifications, in-app prompts, all clamouring for the same minutes. The questionnaire that wins is not necessarily the most beautifully designed — it is the one that arrives in the right channel at the right time, framed for the right audience. Distribution decisions made before the send button is pressed determine whether your survey gets answered or buried.  

With more than ten years of management experience, Ulrik Risbøl Lange knows what it takes to achieve a high response rate on a survey. With Surveyxact, you can distribute your questionnaire through the following channels:

• Email
• SMS
• e-Boks
• QR code
• Pop-in
• Mail merge (printed letter)
• Self-creation with anonymous link

Three decisions, made before the survey is sent, decide most of your response rate: who is in the audience and how do you reach them, what type of survey are you running and which channel fits it, and can the survey be triggered by an event so the experience is top-of-mind for the respondent? Below is the checklist. 

The checklist for distributing a survey

Here are three things to consider before you distribute your survey, so you collect as much data as possible on what you want answered.

1. Focus on your audience

First and foremost, zoom in on the audience that will receive your questionnaire. A precondition for a good survey is collecting as much data as possible — and if you want to lift the response rate, you need to adapt the questionnaire carefully to the audience answering it.

If respondents are visually impaired, the questionnaire should be set up simply, and you can consider adding audio. If your questionnaire is going out to a younger audience, consider distributing it via SMS so you reach them on the device they use most: their smartphone.

2. Assess the type of survey

Once you have zoomed in on your audience, it is time to assess the type of survey you are running. Just as the audience dictates how the questionnaire should be designed, the type of survey is what determines which channel will work best to reach the audience.

If it is a long, complex survey with many text fields, distributing it via SMS will not make sense. Email is a better alternative there. The fit between survey type and channel is what protects both the response rate and the quality of the answers you receive.

3. Make it event-based

When you distribute a survey, you gain a lot by making it event-based. That means you send it out immediately after the respondent has had a touchpoint with your company, so your business, product or service is top-of-mind for the respondent.

That increases the chance that the respondent answers the questionnaire — and gives the most accurate, considered responses. Event-based distribution turns the survey into a natural extension of the experience the respondent just had, rather than an interruption that lands days or weeks later.