Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Response Rate

Posted by Anonymous on 2/2/2010 at 4:29 AM ET 125 Points
HI Folks,

A qucikie for you.

Can you tell me on average what a good response rate for an annual client survey would be?

Is there a range that is deemed acceptable?

Many thanks,

PG
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/2/2010 at 4:46 AM Accepted
    It depends....are we talking several hundreds/thousands of clients or a few dozen? Is your product a large chunk of their purchasing budget or a small one?

    If we are talking thousands of clients and a moderately important product to them (my experience), I find a 25% response rate to be acceptable. This typically yields enough information for tracking trends over the years, and also for differentiating among a few segments.

    Of course, you can also go the statistical route and calculate how many respondents you need to have your sample findings stay within a certain range of that for your full population of clients...

    Cheers
  • Posted on 2/2/2010 at 4:49 AM Author
    Hi Koen,

    Thanks for the reply.

    The sample size was 650 clients and we woud account for a small percentage of their overall spend but would provide a an important service.

    Regards,

    PG
  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/3/2010 at 1:22 AM Member
    Hi PG,

    In that case, I would call 25%-50% a good response rate, and over 50% excellent (it is unusual that the majority of customers respond to an annual survey unless there is an obvious benefit to them).

    If the response rate is below 25%, I would carefully examine the survey: do you provide an appropriate motivation for respondents to start answering? Is the survey too long? etc.

    How much was your response rate?
  • Posted by mgoodman on 2/3/2010 at 8:03 AM Moderator
    Koen clearly knows this stuff very well, and his experience should be a good baseline for you. My own reaction is that, as he says, "it depends."

    Response rates for these kinds of surveys can range from single digits to 50% or more. Coming up with an average is almost certain to be misleading.

    That said, a sample size of 650 is pretty good, unless (a) your total population is in the tens of thousands (or more), and (b) the respondents in your sample are not representative of the larger population in some way.

    Also, client surveys run the risk of appealing to those who are most satisfied with your company or those who have had problems dealing with you. You'll need to be sensitive to this when you analyze the data. You could have a bi-modal sample.

    Did you survey 100% of your client base, or did you sample just 650? It's not clear if 650 is the number of respondents or the number of clients you selected for the survey. Obviously, that makes a big difference!
  • Posted on 2/3/2010 at 9:04 AM Author
    Thanks Guys for the insightful responses.

    I should have, of course noted that the 650 is my entire customer base.
  • Posted on 2/4/2010 at 4:41 AM Author
    Thanks Solut,

    At the moment I have a response rate of 27%. So given the recent comments I am very happy with this. Hopefully we can poush above 30%.

    Solut you mentionned offering an incentive. Do youthink that offering an incentive to respond to a client survey can cloud true responses? And what are your opinions on offering to make a donation to charity for every response received.
  • Posted on 2/8/2010 at 9:57 AM Author
    Hi Guys,

    I am going to close thsi question as there have been no activity over the last couple of days.

    Many thanks for all of you valuable replies.

    Regrads,

    PG
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