Once your event is over, it’s time to start thinking about the post-event surveys. These surveys are essential when looking back and evaluating your event, to collect feedback from your attendees and see what areas you can improve on for future events.

However, creating an engaging and informative survey can be daunting. There are a lot of elements to consider, such as the format, length, and questions.

In this article, we will go over some best practices on how to create the most engaging questions. By following these tips, you can be sure that your surveys will be a success and provide valuable insights for future events.

 

Why are post-event surveys important?

Post-event surveys  give organisers valuable insights into how the event was received by the attendees, what areas can be improved on for future events, and how the event can transition into being even more successful. They also help to prove ROI.

Surveys can provide a structured way to measure the effectiveness of the event in terms of objectives, such as ticket sales or donation goals. By collecting post-event survey data, organisers can identify which strategies were successful and which ones need to be improved.

Post-event surveys are often the last “touchpoint” that you will have with attendees, so you should ensure the feedback form is engaging.

 

Best practices for creating post-event surveys

 

Highlight feedback goals

Think about what aspects are important for you to get feedback from. Is it to improve future events? Testing to see if new event schedule worked? Reduce budget? Give yourself feedback goals, what you want to ask visitors and what you want to achieve moving forward with your event.

Also consider who the feedback will be aimed at and if you will need different feedback forms for your different visitor types such as attendees, exhibitors, speakers and event staff.

 

Give an incentive

Visitors are more likely to be forthcoming with their feedback on your event if there is an incentive behind it. Give them reasons to supply you with information with incentives such as discounts for future event tickets. You could also have them entered into a prize draw for a high price item or collect free giveaway items with your event branding. Whatever incentive you choose, it is wise to invest in it so that it helps encourage customers to take the time to give feedback and provide you with valuable insights that will help you make better decisions for your business.

 

Keep it short

The more questions you add to your form, the more chance there is people will not fill it out. The survey should also be short and to the point. Although you want to get a lot of information, you don’t want to be too overbearing. The ideal post-event survey should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete and having around 10 questions.

 

Think about your questions

Take time to consider what questions you ask attendees and what order they are in. Ask your most important question first, as this is less likely to be skipped.

Try to limit the amount of questions that are open ended and require a text box for feedback answers. You want to simplify the survey as much as possible, providing exact multiple-choice questions which you can easily turn into reports and check the metrics of. Give a range of answers such as exceptional, great, good, poor, as well as scoring between 1-5.

Some great questions to include are:

  • How satisfied were you with the event?
  • How likely are you to attend one of our events in the future?
  • How likely are you to recommend our event to a friend or colleague?
  • Did you think the sessions were too long, too short, or just right?
  • Rate the location on a scale of 1-5.
  • Which speaker or session was the most valuable to you?
  • What would you change to make this event even better next year?

 

Consider distribution

It is of course important to create a post-event survey, but also important to consider how and when you will distribute this to attendees.

You could attach your survey within your post-event email, thanking attendees for coming and also collecting their feedback. Alternatively, you could have QR codes around your event to scan and take the attendee to an online form, this may engage attendees while at the event.

If you have an event app this is also a great way to collect feedback as attendees will already have the feedback form on their device. You can encourage attendees to give event feedback by sending an in app notification.

For the highest chance of completion rate, your survey should be sent one day after event, while the experience is still fresh in their minds.  

 

Be patient

Attendees and other visitors may not answer your survey straight away, this should be expected. Be patient when awaiting feedback. If you do not receive as many survey responses as expected or as needed to look at your post-event metrics, you can send follow-up and reminder emails. Don’t bombard attendees with lots of reminder emails to fill out your survey as this may leave a bad impression on your event on them, send one reminder one to two weeks after your event.

 

Final Thoughts

Creating post-event surveys can be a daunting task, but if you follow the tips outlined in this article, you can create an engaging post-event survey that will provide valuable insights into your event’s success.

Keep things short and to the point, use incentives to draw attention, and offer multiple choice questions for higher completion rates. By following these tips, you can be sure that your post-event surveys will be a success.

For more helpful tips for event planning and event software, visit ExpoBeacon Insights and news.