The purpose of a survey form is to give an indication of how well your company has performed in an event. The questions posed in the forms are relevant to collect data on certain aspects held during the event. There are two ways of having a survey form. One method is the standard procedure of a hard copy form for attendees, clients and other relevant personnel to fill in by hand. Another way is to have an online form which is sent to the clients and attendees. While both methods are workable each has its own efficiency. While it may be easier to get a person to fill in a survey form on site it is generally more difficult to do so online unless there is an attraction pined to get a person to actually log in and fill out your form.
The difference between an online and a hard copy survey form
With the convenience of the internet and emails, business people feel that it is better to use these mediums to send out the forms and having them sent back electronically with all the relevant data. They sometimes fail to understand that people I general need a motivation to entice them to retrieve the form, fill it in and send it back. Another thing to consider is the systematic approach to creating the forms in the first place, if the entire template is not done correctly then the data retrieved would amount to nothing rendering it inconclusive and useless. Therefore the research of the objectives for the survey would have to be plotted out with care to derive the best results. Another criterion is the enticing carrot” that must be used to have a respondent actually retrieve and fill out with all the pertinent information.
On the other hand, a manual fill in survey form requires staffing to distribute the forms and wait for the retrieval after the respondent has filled it in. Sometimes this method is preferred over an online form as the persuasiveness of the person who hands out the form works out to be better at bringing in the responses compared to an online form. There can be an enticer given after the filling of the form to the respondent which would be even more effective at gleaning results for a higher percentage of respondents.
The contents of a customer satisfaction survey form
The following are some of the guidelines that should be included when creating an effective customer survey form for your post event evaluation. Every event management company should look into creating a form that would provide them with the relevant data for an assessment of their company’s performance after each event.
- Deciding on an objective is crucial to the foundation of the survey form. This applies to both online and manual survey forms. So plan the direction of where your company is heading from the questions you will ask in the form. An example is do you want this form to be an assessment of the company staff performance or on the effectiveness of the branding etc. You will have to consider the importance of important metrics that will be valuable in the evaluation process on whether the goal of the event has been achieved.
- Design a survey form that is appealing and professional especially for online survey forms. Online survey forms would benefit from a personalized email and good images or graphics can boost the response rate of your forms. Manual fill in forms should be short and concise, after all no respondent will want to stand or sit for half an hour just to fill in your forms. An incentive to filling in a manual form can be offered for a better response.
- Simplify certain fields in the forms. This works well with online survey forms where you may already have the contact details of your intended respondents. If you are using an event management system, you may have your contact list with which you can pre-fill the appropriate contact fields to save time for your respondents.
It is very important in event planning to have a good customer satisfaction survey form as you will be able to use the data in the forms to later formulate a better focus and direction for your organization. It is easier to manage the data you glean from the survey if you have a good event management solution at your disposal. Obtaining an event solution is also available for any companies interested to setup event Malaysia companies and can prove to be a good investment for the future of the company.
