How to Begin and End a Survey on High?

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:

• Understand why it is important to begin & end surveys rightly.
• Identify strategies for engaging survey openings.
• Identify strategies for genuine survey endings.
• Use BlockSurvey’s Welcome & Thank You screen.

1. Why is Rightly Beginning and Ending Surveys important

Beginning and ending surveys appropriately is essential because it sets the tone for the respondent's experience and leaves a lasting impression. Starting with a clear introduction can grab the respondent's attention and make them more engaged and motivated to continue with the survey.

Similarly, ending with a positive note, such as a thank you message or a summary of the survey's purpose, can leave a positive impression and make the respondent feel valued and appreciated. This can lead to higher response rates, increased satisfaction, and more accurate and reliable data.

In this lesson, you will embark on a journey to help you design engaging openings and genuine endings for your surveys. It will help you equip you to turn surveys into powerful instruments of discovery and innovation.

1. Have an Engaging Opening

An engaging opening is a golden key to unlock reader’s attention

First Impression is the best impression. An engaging opening incites the respondent's interest in the survey. It instills a sense of belonging in the respondent. It helps you improve survey completion rates and set clear expectations.

Here are a few ways of making the start of your survey more engaging.

1.1. Use Hook

A good hook is when you start your survey with an engaging question or statement.

The hook can be a question centered around a scenario that is relatable to the respondent. It can be a thought-provoking question on statistics. It can also simply be a question about the respondent’s feelings.

1.2. Convey Purpose

The other most used engaging technique is conveying the purpose behind the survey.

This answers the question, “Why should respondents take the survey?”. Getting clarity in purpose makes respondent voice their opinion with more confidence and trust.

1.3. Use Progress Indicator

The respondent gets a bigger picture when you show a progress Indicator at the start of the survey.

The progress Indicator indicates how much of the survey remains to be completed. When you show progress, it reduces the uncertainty and frustration that leads to survey drop-off.

It shows the time and effort required to complete a survey and leads to more thoughtful responses.

1.4. Mention Incentives

The welcome screen is a great place to mention incentives.

Mentioning incentives at the start of the survey significantly creates immediate interest.

Early disclosure of survey incentives keeps respondents informed. This leads to higher engagement and completion rates. It improves trust and appreciation, extracting more honest responses.

Now that you've explored an engaging opening, you might wonder, what about the survey ending?

Find the nuances of correctly ending surveys in the next section.

2. Have a Genuine Ending

A genuine ending is like a beautifully played final chord in a symphony

There are certain ways to say goodbye in a survey. A genuine ending instills a sense of trust and increases the respondent's sense of belonging in the survey.

It can be expressing gratitude, sharing the next steps, receiving feedback, or reaffirming anonymity. Read on to learn more about each of these ways in detail.

2.1. Express Gratitude

Acknowledging your respondents’ critical contribution to the survey is essential.

One way of acknowledging contribution is through a genuine thank you. Genuinely expressing gratitude improves trust and confidence.

BlockSurvey has the option to set and customize the thank you screen.

2.2. Share Next Steps

Once respondents have completed the survey, they may wonder what to do next.

Addressing the questions below can provide better closure and ensure participants are informed about the next steps.

• Will there be follow-ups?
• When and how will results be shared?

2.3. Receive Feedback

A simple open-ended question like ‘Do you have any feedback on the survey?’ is sufficient to get humane feedback in the respondents’ own words.

It signals that you are genuinely interested in getting the participant's feedback on the survey.

This feedback will help to improve the quality of future surveys. It can also provide insights into the nuances of your survey.

2.4. Reiterate Anonymity

If your survey collects sensitive or personal information, the final screen (also in the welcome screen ) can serve as a reminder to say that responses are anonymous or confidential. This reiteration can build trust and reassure respondents.

BlockSurvey is a secure, privacy-focused, end-to-end encrypted survey platform that takes privacy & anonymity very seriously.

You have learned how to start and end on a high note. But the start and end are only part of the story.

Up next, you'll find how to keep momentum during the survey.

3. Keep the Momentum in the middle of Survey

Below are a few points that discuss how to keep the momentum in the middle of the survey.

• Present more straightforward questions first and the tougher questions later.
• Don’t overburden a respondent by asking complex questions one after the other.
• Use logic to skip irrelevant questions for a respondent, to avoid fatigue.
• Avoid technical jargon, and practice using simple language in surveys.
• Order all your survey questions from start to end in a logical sequence.
• Use images and pictures to improve the visual appeal of your survey.

In the next sections, you'll learn about BlockSurvey’s "Welcome" and "Thank You" screens.

4. How to use BlockSurvey Welcome Screen?

BlockSurvey "Welcome" Screen settings provide you with the option for customization. It helps you to start your survey on a high note.

Below is the screenshot of BlockSurvey’s Welcome Screen settings.

BlockSurvey provides below options to customize your welcome screen.

Heading: You have an input field to enter the heading for your survey. ‘BlockSurvey Academy’ is the heading in the screenshot.

Description: You can write your description below the heading. The description is displayed in a smaller font size below the heading.

Button: The text written on the button can be customized.

Screen layout: The screen layout has 3 options (Left, Center, Right). This helps align the screen's content to the left, center, or right.

Timer: The timer option lets you set a pre-determined time for the completion of the survey. When the timer runs out, the survey is auto-submitted.

Time to complete: The Timer option helps you display the approximate time required to complete the survey. The Timer label is customizable.

5. How to use BlockSurvey Thank You Screen?

BlockSurvey provides exhaustive features to customize your thank you Screen, genuinely leaving you to end with purpose & style.

Below is the screenshot of the Thank you screen.

You have the option to customize the heading and description in the thank you screen.

There is an option to provide a call to action with a hyperlink.

Like the welcome screen, there is an option here for text alignment.

You can include social sharing icons and social follow icons.

You can turn on the retake option so that respondents can retake surveys.

You can upload your logo. It also provides the option to remove the powered by BlockSurvey logo.

Customized messages based on the survey outcome can be displayed on the thank you screen.

Test Your Knowledge

Key Takeaways

• Starting and ending surveys correctly leaves a positive impression.
• Mention the Incentive at the start of the survey to create interest.
• Share next steps while ending the survey.
• Avoid overburdening respondents with complex questions.

Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.