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5 tactics for boosting customer response rates

Leonie Brown, a senior XM scientist at Qualtrics, shares five tactics for ensuring high quality feedback data as today's successful retailers are those who stay ahead of the competition by measuring both experience data and operation data.

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July 30, 2019

By Leonie Brown, senior XM scientist, Qualtrics

Receiving and utilizing customer feedback is essential for any organization to survive in today's market. Gone are the days when companies can afford to sit back and wait for responses to come pouring in. Smart companies are staying ahead of the competition by measuring both experience data (the human factor data) and operation data (hard numbers).

As companies continue to build their foundations of data, increasing customer response rates are vital to conducting quality studies that will generate valuable and representative information. But how do companies increase response rates?

Here are five need to know tactics for ensuring high quality feedback data:

1. Get the right sample size

Companies must first determine what they want each study to achieve and then identify the correct variables — audience, confidence level, preferred margin of error, etc. — to get them to their intended goal. For example, if the desired result is to inform a multi million dollar customer initiative, then the company might need to set a high data confidence level and reduce the margin of error.

Once the variables are set, the company can calculate a sample size that will properly represent and provide the desired level of confidence in the data. This process can be easily conducted with online software tools. The rest is basic math: If the calculator returns the desired sample size of 1,050 people, and the company has an average response rate of 10 percent, then it needs to reach out to 10,500 customers.

2. Cover enough of your population

In determining the ideal number of contacts, a company will need to identify a population for the study. This can begin as broadly as an entire customer base or as narrowly as a specific segment, such as enterprise customers. It is important that this population is segmented in a meaningful way to the company. For example, a B2B study might be arranged by organizational size, while a B2C study might utilize size of spend.

3. Utilize the best channels to match the audience

With the contact list in hand, the next determination is which channel will produce a desired outcome. By balancing needs against costs, companies can determine which approach is most appropriate. The most successful studies generally use one or more of the following channels: email, website or in-app, interactive voice response (IVR), one-way SMS, or two-way SMS. Providing the proper vehicle to deliver your study will lead to higher participation and response rates.

4. Send a strong invitation

One thing I've learned from my years of conducting studies around the world is this: people want to feel special. Personalizing the subject line of your study, by telling the participant they've been "chosen" or that their feedback is "critical," can increase both the quality and quantity of the feedback.

For example, in my travels I receive many emails asking for feedback on my experiences. I will almost certainly ignore a subject line of, "How was your flight?" but if it reads, "Hey Leonie, how was your flight from Munich to Paris?" then I'm far more likely to open the email. Not only is the company asking about a specific flight, but the invitation is personalized. Remember, a catchy subject line will heavily influence open rates and participation.

5. Improve results with operational data

Operational data allows a company to evaluate the impact of their experience research. Once responses begin coming in, operational data becomes vital in testing for bias. By comparing behavioral information from both respondents and non-respondents, companies can determine whether the study results came only from happy, satisfied customers or negative, unsatisfied customers. They can then weed out biased information and increase the quality of their insights.

Response rate are key to competitive success

Staying ahead of your market requires gaining valuable insights into a customer's experience with your brand, product, or company. Increasing feedback and response rates will arm your company with the information needed to turn insights into your next competitive advantage.