Surveys are powerful tools for enhancing your church’s effectiveness. However, surveys are useful only if 1) you have results, and 2) you have responses. Here’s how to get both. We’ll start off with discussing survey results…
To look at your survey results, first log in to Constant Contact. If you’ve already sent out a survey, you will be able to select the survey from the “My Surveys & Polls” section. Clicking on the survey takes you to the next screen where you can analyze survey results.
You can select from the four options underneath the survey title: Survey Details, Overall Results, Individual Results, and Invitation Results. The Overall Results tab may be your most important tool. This will show you the exact number of responses to certain questions.
Here are some features that you may find useful as you use surveys and track results:
- Find out which surveys have had the most responses in order to determine what type of questions to use next time.
- Find out who is and who is not responding to the survey.
- Get immediate survey results as they happen.
- Study the survey results using detail views and graphics of the responses.
- Export survey results in .csv format to save, analyze, and track over time.
- View subsets of survey responses using the survey filter option, giving you greater insight into results.
So, what’s the best way to get survey responses? The first way is to put your survey into an easy-to-respond format. Constant Contact does the work for you. Here are some tips that you can employ in your surveys to enhance the number of responses that you’ll get from your surveys.
- Provide a brief introduction to the survey. Constant Contact gives you the option of including an introduction note for each survey. This is a great way to briefly explain the purpose of the survey, approximately how long it will take and a kind word of thanks for filling it out.
- Be personal. The church is not the Internal Revenue Service, so it’s not necessary to use stiff language, business terms, or formal verbiage. Be familiar, kind, and fun.
- Tell them “thanks.” At the conclusion of the survey, you can add a brief thank you note for their response. In addition, you may want to tell them how the survey may benefit them in the future.
- Make sure the survey questions are easy to understand and easy to respond to. As we discussed in the post yesterday, asking for large amounts of text or lengthy responses will be a sure discouragement.
- Include a deadline. Sometimes people respond better if they know that there is a deadline. Obviously, you don’t have to call it a “deadline,” but state, “the survey will be closed on…” This will encourage more responses.
The more you use surveys, the better you’ll become at it. The best way to learn is to get started. Why don’t you give it a try? If you haven’t done it yet, go ahead and sign up for Constant Contact and take advantage of two months of free service.