Online Surveys

Here’s what Chrisman recommends to businesses intent on conducting surveys:

• Don't put a survey on your homepage. Move it inside your website. Don't spring pop-ups on unsuspecting site visitors. Instead, introduce them in a promo that explains what they're about.
• Offer an incentive. Offer a reward for taking a survey, something people actually want. Suggestions include drawings for iPods and $100 Visa gift cards. Don't offer things that cheapen the effort, like a free subscription to your site or $5 off a purchase of $500 or more.
• Be selective with your “friends.” You’ll get better responses from motivated and interested customers, people who have demonstrated interest in your brand by opting in to receive your enewsletter or who have "liked" you or followed you on social utilities like Facebook or Twitter. Asking those people for feedback, instead of random strangers who visit your site once, is bound to produce more useful results.
• Keep it social: They don’t call it survey fatigue for nothing, so if you insist on having a pop-up survey, tell your customers how it will help them, not just you. Consider making it humorous. And keep it short with three to five questions so visitors can get back to why they came to your website in the first place.