Online surveys play a pivotal role in collecting customer feedback, connecting with market research insights, and improving employee satisfaction rates.
But as much value as online surveys offer, there are common issues that can hinder your success and compromise the quality of your results.
By understanding these issues and knowing what to do to tackle them, you can create online surveys which will give you the actionable results for accelerating your business growth time after time.
Here, we’re going to explore these common online survey issues and how to fix them. We’re also going to explain how you can use ScoreApp to drive better results.
The benefits of tackling common online survey issues
If you know which issues are likely to stunt your online survey marketing success, you can hit them head on and adopt strategies for connecting with the data that counts.
Here are the key benefits of tackling the most common survey issues:
- Higher survey response rates
- Better-quality survey data
- Smoother and more streamlined processes
- Stronger customer or consumer relationships
- A better brand reputation
Common online survey issues and how to fix them
1. Low response rates
The average response rate for surveys is around 44.1%. But the hard truth is many businesses fall well below this benchmark – and it’s a common issue across industries.
Whatever your survey goal, low response rates mean fewer insights, and that can undermine the validity of your results and offer little to no informational returns for your efforts.
Common causes of low response rates
There are several possible reasons why your survey response rates are below average. Here are the most common culprits:
- Surveys being too long-winded or complex
- Participants not seeing specific value in completing the survey
- Poor marketing or distribution strategies
How to fix this
First of all, your online surveys should be concise and focused on a specific theme or subject. Avoid asking too many questions because this can cause overwhelm or fatigue – the sweet spot is around seven to 10.
To boost your response rates, you should also communicate the purpose of your survey with your participants. If people know how or why you’re going to use their answers, they’ll be more likely to take part.
Offering an incentive such as a deal, a discount, or an exclusive piece of content will also encourage participation.
ScoreApp’s customisable templates will help you create short, engaging surveys that work seamlessly across all devices.
2. Poor data quality
While some businesses earn solid response rates for their surveys, they’re often plagued with poor-quality data.
Ambiguous or irrelevant responses make it harder to derive actionable insights for improving key areas of the business. Essentially, it will make your survey a resource-sapping waste of time.
Common causes of poor-quality data
Poor-quality survey data is usually the result of weak communication and a poor structure. Here are two other common causes:
- Badly worded questions that confuse or mislead participants
- Attracting or reaching out to the wrong survey audience
How to fix this
For quality data you can use to your business-boosting advantage, your questions should be clear and concise. Remove unnecessary wording and avoid jargon at all costs.
You should also make sure your questions are neutral to inspire answers that are honest and unbiased. That way, the data will offer insights that will actually benefit your business.
Bonus tip: To encourage the right people to take your survey, you should set up a short pre-qualification quiz.
3. Survey abandonment
Survey incompletion or abandonment not only impacts on response rates, but it also affects the scope and quality of your data.
Common causes of survey abandonment
People tend to abandon surveys when they get bored or find the process frustrating. Here’s why:
- The survey is time-consuming.
- The user experience is poor.
- The questions are dull, irrelevant, or disjointed (they don’t flow well together).
How to fix this
It’s not enough for participants to click through and start your survey – you’ve got to keep them engaged. To move people through your survey seamlessly, you should ensure your design is clean and minimal. Your surveys also need to be 100% mobile-friendly.
To keep a consistent flow and prevent fatigue or frustration, you should start simple and save your more complex questions until later on in the survey when your participants are in a steady flow.
ScoreApp’s intuitive design features, including a survey progress bar and branding customisation options, will help keep your participants engaged from start to finish.
4. Difficulty analysing survey results
Making sense of survey responses and raw data is another common issue that not only saps time, but can result in key insights being missed – stunting commercial growth in the process. Raw data can also be hard to interpret, which can delay decision-making.
Common causes of data analysis issues
In most cases, businesses struggle with survey data analysis because they don’t have a streamlined process in place. Here are two other common causes:
- A lack of intuitive data visualisation tools
- Manual data sorting practices that are inefficient and time-consuming
How to fix it
Rather than manually wading through data, you can work with tools that filter, arrange, and present your survey insights in an accessible format for tackling the problem head on.
ScoreApp’s in-built data analytics features allow you to interact with your most valuable survey data with easy-to-understand visualisations from one central dashboard.
How ScoreApp solves common survey challenges
If you want to avoid these common survey marketing issues and connect with insights that will push your business forward, ScoreApp will deliver in every way. Let’s explore the platform’s key features.
Ready-made templates
Tailored to goals such as customer feedback, market research, and employee satisfaction, ScoreApp’s ready-to-go templates are designed with the best possible user experience in mind.
Interactive design
In-built platform features such as progress tracking and personalised participant feedback will keep your respondents engaged and connect you with the best-quality data.
Advanced analytics
The platform’s accessible visual dashboards make it easy to analyse survey results, connect with valuable data, and refine your most pressing commercial strategies.
Mobile optimisation
ScoreApp automatically ensures every survey is fully accessible and user-friendly for a flawless participant experience across devices.
Seamless integration
Offering seamless integrations with a wealth of CRM and email marketing tools, ScoreApp streamlines your survey creation processes and helps you develop a smooth workflow.
Overcome your online survey challenges with ScoreApp
With a strategic approach and the right tools for the job, your online surveys will prove priceless in enhancing key areas of your business and meeting your audience’s needs head on.
When you work with ScoreApp, you can tackle the issues we’ve discussed and use the platform’s mix of intuitive tools to not only design online surveys people want to engage with, but make sense of your data in a way that keeps you evolving in an ever-changing digital world.
Are you ready to enhance your survey marketing strategy? Try ScoreApp for FREE.
