How to Format a Post-Event Survey That Drives Response Rates

You invest a lot into your events: time, money, and resources.

And without a tool to measure success, understanding the return on your investment can be tricky.

Thankfully, there’s post-event surveying, a fast and effective way to measure the success of your events and elevate it for the future.

Providing direct insight into customer preferences while also identifying ways to improve overall operations, post-event surveys give you actionable data to optimize event spend and win more attendees each year.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can get started with your post-event surveys and start distributing them for success.

Determine a goal

Drafting your post-event survey begins with determining an overarching goal. Think big: What are you trying to learn, from who, and why? The format of your survey and the questions you design will revolve around this unifying objective, so it’s important to assemble your team and nail one down.

7 tips for formatting your post-event survey

Now that your goal is in place and you understand the motivation for your survey, it’s time to start designing. Let’s take a look at seven effective ways to format your survey.

1. Start clearly and concisely

Every survey you send should have a flow. Start with short, basic questions that warm customers up, and move toward more granular or long form question types. Consider starting the survey with questions like, “What’s your name?” or “Which private event room did you book?”

Make sure you always have a narrative and keep the survey simple. The attendee should feel engaged and delighted within the first two to three questions.

2. Stay on brand

When your attendee opens your survey, they should know exactly who it’s from. The layout should follow your brand standard, including brand colors, typography, imagery, verbiage, and so on. Even something as simple as a logo at the top or a tag line included at the beginning of the survey can help attendees identify you and feel more comfortable filling out the survey.

3. Optimize for devices

For some attendees, filling out a survey on-site using their mobile device is common, while for others, this may be something they do later on at home on their desktop computer.

When formatting your survey, make sure it’s optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile responsiveness. If you’re working with a customer experience management platform, this could be a simple automation that’s taken care of. However, if you don’t, this will take some manual work. Consider omitting certain question types that aren’t as mobile-friendly, or simply reformatting the length of questions. Whatever you choose, always test your survey on all devices before hitting send.

4. Change up question formats

Nothing is more mundane than being asked a string of questions, all in the same format. Imagine: 10 multiple choice questions in a row … not so engaging.

When formatting your survey, consider a range of question types like:

• Smiley
• Pick-list
• Multiple Choice
• Boolean
• Long-Form

Including a variety of question types keep the customer alert and engaged, while also adding a fun visual element.

Pro tip: Save long-form questions until the end of your survey and don’t make all of them required. Be cognisant of the customers’ time; these question types take more time to answer and not all customers will feel willing to answer them.

5. Incorporate personalization

Personalization is a great way to build meaningful connections with customers for a greater number of responses. By simply using the customer’s name, event title, location, and more, you humanize the conversation and encourage a steady flow of communication. Further, if you’re utilizing a customer experience management system, you could even use conditional logic so the attendee is presented with tailored questions.

6. Keep it minimal

The key with the formatting of any survey is not to overwhelm your customer, but rather to make the process simple to navigate. Include clear verbiage, text that pops on a contrasting background, and text that introduces the survey in less than two sentences. The more straightforward and inviting your survey is, the more likely a customer will fill it out.

7. Be cautious of the number of questions

When designing your survey, be cautious of the number of questions you’re asking. The key is to ask questions in line with your objective and avoid fluff. Run a roundtable with a few of your employees, jot down a number of post-event questions, and narrow down the ones that make the most sense for your goal.

Follow up and take action

Once your survey is properly formatted and you’ve hit send, get ready for an influx of messages. Whether you have a dedicated team managing survey responses or a single person, it’s important to emphasize following up and taking action.

Set a goal for your team to respond. Whether it’s five minutes or five hours, it’s important to close the loop on feedback provided to your business. Further, make it a point to address every single comment that comes in, either by sending a simple thank you email or a more detailed response with a list of next steps.

Ensure that you’re reaching your audience

On top of formatting your survey accordingly, it’s important to map out how your survey will be distributed. Here are two key ways to amplify your post-event survey and drive more responses.

1. Create a customizable short link

Short links are a great way to send a survey via multiple channels. Whether in-app, SMS, Facebook Messenger, or email, it makes for a seamless transition to your survey page. Make sure to create a blurb that your team can copy and paste alongside the link that’s inviting and friendly.

2. Leverage QR codes

Engaging with customers while they’re at your venue is a great way to encourage filling out a survey. Whether through tent cards on venue tables, pull-up banners at the entrances, on signage on a panel stage, use a QR code to seamlessly direct customers to fill out your survey from their own devices.

Use the Loop Experience Platform and Tripleseat for automated feedback

Using the Loop Experience Platform with Tripleseat, you can collect feedback from your customers before and after an event has taken place. Create automated workflows that are configured based on event types. Set a schedule for pre-event and post-event feedback survey messages and easily report back on the actionable data that you’re collecting.

With Tripleseat and Loop together, you’ll be able to understand the event experience more deeply, using this automated feedback integration.

Editor’s note: This post was written by Sandra Holland, Marketing Manager for Benbria. Learn more about Benbria on Tripleseat’s Marketplace.