The science of survey timing: When to send surveys to maximize response rates

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Surveys are one of the most effective ways to get valuable feedback from your target audience. Whether you’re surveying your customers, employees, or performing market research, surveys enable you to easily gather quantitative and qualitative feedback at scale. 

Of course, to provide value to your business, surveys need to be completed. Obvious yet true: if people don’t respond to your surveys, they’re not doing you much good. That’s why it’s essential to optimize your surveys by focusing on design, formatting, testing, user experience, and today’s topic: timing. 

Optimize survey sends based on your target audience 

Ask five different customer experience (CX) professionals (or survey software vendors) about the best day and time to send a survey and you’ll likely receive five different answers. Different studies and data analysis have come to a variety of conclusions.  

One reason: survey response patterns vary by audience. B2C vs. B2B, customers vs. employees, disparate industries, you name it – when and how people respond to a survey very much depends on who they are and the context in which they’re receiving it.  

Therefore, the first rule of survey timing is to know your audience. B2C surveys, for instance, perform better on weekends than B2B surveys (but only when optimized for mobile and generally still not as well as on weekdays.) Think about the rhythms of your audience’s days, weeks, and months.  

If you’re surveying college students, avoid the weeks around finals and target winter and summer breaks. If you’re going after sales professionals, don’t send surveys at the end of the financial quarter.  

Use common sense, based on knowledge of your personas, to determine when your audience will be less busy and stressed and more open and available to share their opinions.  

It’s important to experiment, too. Split your sample and try different days and times to see how it impacts survey response rates. The more data you have, the more you can fine-tune the most responsive time for your particular audience. 

Three rules to increase survey response rates  

That being said, there is some general consensus on the best days and times to send surveys. 

  1. Weekdays perform better than weekends. Many studies show Monday as the best day for eliciting responses; others highlight Tuesday and Thursday. Universally, however, open rates, click-through rates, and response rates go down dramatically on Friday and over the weekend. It’s important to consider the timing of reminders as well (more on those below). We like sending surveys on a Monday because the 48- and 72-hour follow-ups fall on weekdays within the same work week.  
     
  1. Aim for mornings and late afternoons. Early mornings often work particularly well for sending surveys. An early morning send, say before 10am, lets you get ahead of the inbox barrage, so the survey doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. A survey can be a nice way for recipients to warm up for the day. Similarly, we’ve found that late afternoon sends perform well because people may be tired and ready to be done with their “real” work. A survey is an easy way to be productive when you’re feeling anything but. 
     
  1. Avoid holidays. When it comes to survey timing, steer clear of major holidays. No one wants to fill out a survey when they’re busy shopping for presents, organizing costumes, or planning their summer BBQ. The best times to send surveys are the most boring weeks of the year. 

Prevent survey fatigue with strategic design and minimal follow-ups 

When it comes to surveys, “how many” is almost as important as “when.” We recommend sending no more than four total emails: the initial invitation, a 48-hour follow-up, a 72-hour follow-up, and maybe a week-later follow-up.  

Research has shown that the vast majority of respondents will reply to the first email and that there are significantly diminishing returns after the third. It’s a fine balance between keeping people engaged but not annoying them. 

It’s also critical not to over-survey your target audience. Survey fatigue is very real and can negatively impact your data collection efforts. Design surveys concisely and strategically to prevent survey fatigue within individual surveys and send out surveys no more than every three months (max!).  

Don’t forget to coordinate with other teams, too. Stay aware of any other sends, like marketing or product updates, so recipients don’t get slammed with emails and your survey doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. 

Alchemer is Here to Help 

Alchemer help you optimize survey timing and targeting for higher response rates. Our platform offers advanced targeting features that enable you to send surveys at the optimal moments for your specific audience, helping you gather valuable insights quickly. 

Ready to see how Alchemer can transform your feedback strategy? Request a demo today

Not quite ready for a demo? No problem! Explore these additional resources: 

  • Customer Stories – Discover how our customers have leveraged Alchemer to enhance their feedback programs. 
  • Integrations – Browse our extensive list of prebuilt integrations. If you don’t see what you need, our low-code design lets you connect Alchemer to nearly any platform via our API. 
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