Audience research is a significant element in communication. Promoters want feedback on their products, services, issues, or candidates, radio and television broadcasters want feedback for programming decisions, and newspapers want to hear reader comments on stories.
Public opinion determines success in a democracy so all entities need to know what their audiences opinions are in order to successfully move forward and prosper. In Mass Communications, we are acutely aware of how important it is for us to be willing survey participants. Perhaps the general population doesn't realize how important it is, but Mass Comm majors certainly understand the power of public opinion.
Audience surveying is now going online, of course, as is most communication. Regardless of whether the channel is an interpersonal moment with a clipboard at the mall, a print mail survey to your home, a telephone survey, or an email survey, a key question is what motivates you to respond?
Some options might be, how involved you are with what content the survey is covering, or current opinions you might have about the content you're being questioned about. Or it could be that you got caught at just the right time and felt like doing the survey.
But another option is some kind of actual INCENTIVE such as a free gift, or a coupon, or a percentage off, or any other kind of incentive.
What motivates you?
Do you think getting an incentive from a surveyor changes your opinion on the survey questions?
Do you think that getting something free might change one's opinion from negative to positive?
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24 comments:
Most definitely! As any Macroeconomics book will tell you, "Humans respond to incentives." Over the last couple of years it is not enough just to ask to do a survey and not give anything in return, we are a society of wants. In the same notion I do not believe that a free gift, or coupon would alter the results of the survey. I know that I would not alter my opinion for a ten percent off coupon, but I would take the coupon just the same.
With any surveying there are citizens who will do any survey because they are the type of person who voice their opinion and/or care about the subject matter at hand. As mass communication major and minors we need to be able to “test the waters” when surveying and try to find an area that will produce results but not be bias or skew the information towards one side and don’t realistically represent the area.
I think giving gifts as a reward for filling a survey out is fine but it can modify the results of the survey. There is no clear cut answer if yes gifts are bad or no they are good and get people to participate.
Brad Irving
i think that people that do surveying do it because they care about what the survey is talking about and a lot of people dont do them because they are not getting anything back in return for doing it. in this world today a lot of people feel that if they do something they should get something for it, but what happen to doing stuff, because you just want to help. people just need to start helping and stop expecting something all the time, even though it would be nice.
Are people motivated by incentives? Of course they are. There are exceptions depending on the incentive. For instance, I recently visited an automotive dealer to look and not buy. The car salesman was friendly and informative and gave me a card. It is a very nice card with a picture and catchy colors, but it is different from most cards in one way. On the back of the there is a large “$100” and instructions to give the card to someone as a referral and the salesman will give you $100 if they buy a car from him. $100 is quite the incentive. Another popular incentive is a discount on your next purchase within so many days. Let’s say you just bought everything necessary to change your oil when you get an offer for 10% off if you fill out a survey. If you only buy oil two or three times a year and you only have thirty or ninety days to use the discount then it probably isn’t very appealing. Conclusion: Incentives are only as effective as they are pertinent to the customer.
For me, there are two reasons to fill out a survey. Either I have time or the incentive attached will be useful. Surveys are quite entertaining as far as I’m concerned, mostly because they ask really in depth questions and partly because they ask some questions that hadn’t crossed my mind.
Is it possible for an incentive to change a person’s view about a particular business or service? Sure it is. I think most survey incentives are small enough that there is only motivation to take the survey, not pander to the company. Huge incentives like 50% off or $100 off, or just $100, might skew a couple people’s views. Maybe an incentive will raise a “4” to a “5” or a “moderately disagree” to a “neutral”, but all in all I think incentives are the best way to get survey participation.
Personally, the largest success story for surveys is the Internet. People can sit in their underwear, which they may have bought from the same store, and send their opinions and observations to companies around the world. Filling out surveys on the Internet makes people feel safe and maybe even a little disconnected from their feedback.
Why should i take time out of my day to fill out a survey thats only going to help an organization be more successful or profitable with the use of my valuable feedback.Incentives are a great way of getting people to take surveys.I do believe that poeple should get paid for their feedback specially if its helping an organization. Do i think peoples answers to questions change with the offering of incentives? absolutely not, most people have the decency to fill a survey out honestly, but the incentive will drive more results to what you are trying to accomplish.
Brad L
Unfortunatly, now a day in order to get people to do a lot of things is by saying that they get something out of it. What happened to the times where you just did something because you actually cared and it didn't matter if you got something out of it?
Regardless, when it comes to getting the publics opinion positive incentives are not a bad idea, if its done tastefully, because sometimes that incentive can be that extra get this done type of motivation. Even though for some they might say that the company is bribing us to take this survey to make them look good, or they are bribing us because they are a poor quality company and they are desperate.
Personally, if I want to take the survey I will regardless if there is an incentive or not. Even if there was an incentive I know that they wouldn't be able to change my opinion on what I say in the survey, especially if it's not nice comments.
Sarah Duncan
A lot of things can motivate a person to respond to a survey. Take our online course evaluations for example. A person that had a negative experience with a professor or class is more likely to evaluate the class so they can provide negative feedback. A person that had an ok experience might feel no need to evaluate. Some teachers that give incentives, such as extra credit, for doing the class evaluation would definitely motivate students to do so.
Obviously, getting something for free motivates people to respond. People today never want to do anything for free. Some kind of reward is expected by most people. This may create some bias in a person's responses though. People being surveyed may be inclined to provide positive answers, but many others may not. That all just depends on the person, but I think incentives are definitely a great motivator for people.
Devin Alfonso
In todays high paced society i believe that we are too rushed to even care what an incentive for a survey will/should be. However, when we do see an icon to win a free ipod or video game console we feel a natural impulse. When the survey is taken we are unaware of risk that may be involved in taking it or charges that will find there way on to our credit cards. many people still continue to go through with online surveys even though they must go through the task of clicking on products thay would be intrested in. personally i have done this myself and find it to be a waste of time. These surveys want all kinds of info from you before you take the survey. They want to know your adress and a number to reach you by so they can send yo u your incentive. A couple of weeks later after a survey is completed for a product or service, you get a letter or a phone call saying you owe someone some money. This leaves you scratching your head. Yes impulse led you to take the survey, however, once taken many people stream through along without carefully reading the small print. We click away because we are one step closer to that prize. Call me old fashion but i think we should go back to paper and pencil surveys or even ones sent in the mail. Some media revolutions that have upgraded the survey are not all there cracked up to be. At what cost will it take for people to realized that most surveys are a sales pitch for some other good or service. In the end it is a you scratch my back i'll scatch yours....These companies, however want you to keep scratching theirs, long after an incentive is given.
- Zach Tryon
Any way you look at it, something free is something free and if it is free people will respond. As to whether an incentive would change a negative response of any survey topic to a positive response is to be debated. In many cases it depends on the person and their personal experience with the survey topic, however they may be inclined to view both sides.
If a person has a negative feeling about the survey topic, an incentive could cause that person see some good in the survey topic.
Still, incentives motivate the general population to engage activities such as surveys, often times they will feel that they are not wasting their time if they receive an immediate reward.
~Niki Sosa: MCCNM 101 Ebersole Tues-Thurs. 9:30am
I agree that the general population severely underestimates the value of surveys. For myself personally, I definitely underestimate them. Incentives don’t affect whether or not I want to participate in a survey what motivates me is if I have personal interest in the topic of the survey. Incentive doesn’t work because if I don’t feel its worth my time to complete the survey a free coupon won’t change my mind. I do think though that in many cases receiving something free would motivate participants more in a survey because in completing a survey I think they doubt if its worth their time or not so they feel like getting something free is their reward for taking time out of their life to fill out the survey.
Surveys are given so that the business, company or whoever can get a feel of what peoples dislikes are and what there likes are. the ones who choose to give feed within the surveys like taking surveys or they think that the ones giving it should know how well there product is doing and if they enjoyed it or not. I take surveys and i personally donut mind because everyone is going to have there own opinion on things. we took a few surveys regarding different types of things in the class and that help the teacher know how many like or dislike what. I actually think it was beneficial because you got to see what others liked.
_j.payne
I find it hard to believe that people are motivated by so easily by incentives. Especially in regards to the internet surveying. There always seems to be some catch. You might have to give out personal information that could be passed to a third party or you might have to sign up for some service that you have no need for. Its never as easy as it sounds. On top of that these free gifts are never any good. They may be a poorly made item with a company logo stamped all over it, or some sort of a discount they hardly makes a difference. For me, I rather just have a company or serve that i use ask for a little feed back that will help improve their experience I use. In some ways, its make them seem like they have respect for me, and are not just trying to get "results" by trying to push some incentive my way.
Niccollo Lopez
It is funny. I was in American Eagle the other day and they had surveyors in the store and they were like do you want $5 to do a survey. Being the kind person I am I found it hard to turn them away. Little did I know that $5 took about 20 mins. It was not worth it and got old quickly after a while. The face to face contact is kind of hard to turn down, not going to lie.
By: Mario Balinton
I was taught a long time ago that nothing is truly free. So Getting a "free" gift for taking a survey would not change my mid about surveys. Things like percentages off or coupons seem more genuine and would attract me more to participate in a survey. But with the incentives people may not be sincere or truthful in their responses and the survey would be worthless.
The bottom line is that if the survey or questionnaire is something that is relevant to me and is something that interests me I will gladly participate. I feel that surveyors need to carefully choose who they should target and find out the relativity for those that participate in the surveys and rely less on giving incentives
-Mario Balinton
I definitly think that incentives will make more people respond to a survey. Most everyone does something because they know there is a reward at the end. Why do we work? becauase we get a paycheck at the end of the week, or whenever. And I don't think an incentive changes most opinions. I wouldn't change my survey answers, but I would definitly be more willing to partake in the survey if there was an incentive.
I believe that people are motivated by free samples, or extra credit in classes. I personally do surveys (most of the time) when i am bored or if there is something in it for me. Society wants people to respond to their advertisments so they can change them or make them better, however due to the fact our society is lazy and selfish we all want a reward of some kind for sharing our information. I am not saying everyone is like this but people do want something for their time. On the other side of the argument people do surveys sometimes because they truly care how the outcome is.
Julie Melton
It's 1:05 in the morning and I cannot sleep! I figured I would log on to the ol' blog and see what's new.
I respond because I am strange and have this attraction to surveys and polls. I also want to go into market research, so I think my opinion will be biased.
But in the past, I normally answered them because I enjoyed the fact that someone out there actually gave a darn about what I did, used, bought, etc. I think that I, like most Gen Y'ers out there, like to be needed and have the attention on them for bit, even if it's just through a survey.
As of right now, I am signed up with about 5 survey websites that send me surveys on a weekly basis. All of them promise an incentive, such as free swag after a certain number of surveys answered or and entry into a sweepstakes. I do wonder, however, if all of these incentives cause more harm than good.
One of the most important threats to a survey can be the promise of an incentive. For someone taking the survey, just the thought of receiving their prize makes them use perfunctory answers, causing the survey to be useless. It's a catch-22, though! How else can you attract people to take an interest in your survey without promising something for their time? It's a tricky situation. Until we can add time to our lives, I'm afraid that market researchers will have to take the risk of using an incentive.
I believe that people who fill out surveys are either interested in the outcome such as voting for the president on a larger scale or something as small as which type of people like swiss cheese as compared to cheddar on a hamburger in a restaurant. In my particular case I only take surveys when I'm caught in the right mood AND the surveys are interesting to me. I have a very busy schedule and I often don't have time to stop otherwise.
David Laird, MCCNM 101 9:30
Everything is online these days, from paying bills to playing on line games. Surveys are also on line. Some retail store, when they want you do fill out a survey. They sometimes give you a discount at the store so you can fill out that survey and give your option. when people do not fill out surveys they are probably to busy to fill it out or they just do not want to fill it and and he/she says its boring to fill one out.
Nate Lawrence
Im all for companies surveying to make their products and services better for us, the consumer. However, they can take it too far sometimes. Like when telemarketers call you at dinner time or if they come door to door to find out our opinions. If they can stick to the internet or maybe even a survey through the mail, then it would be just fine.
i do belevie that when you recive something you are more willing to complete the servay. i know that if i were asked to do a servay i would not complete it unless i was to recieve a prize for my time. its not that it takes alot of time but i would rather be doing something else. now when something is given out you probly wont get the truth though because the person will be more inclined to throw down what pleases the srevayor.
When a company offers incentives for feedback it is a great way to show that they really want your business. The fact that they will discount there services or even give them away is very admirable. Any company willing to buy my loyalty is fine with me.
Kelly Hughes
MCCNM 101
An incentive offered in exchange for completing a survey would definitely affect my responses. I would be more willing to give more positive answers to any questions because I am satisfied that the incentive is offered. On the other hand, if no reward is offered, I would not be inclined to take a survey, and if I did, I may be in a bad mood, rushed, annoyed or just feel negative toward the whole situation. It is a hard line for surveyors, but they must continue to obtain information to attempt to improve or even maintain success.
Yes, I think survey giver with an incentive for the person taking the survey is bound to receive better responses than one with nothing to give. People will automatically like the person to an extent and it'll reflect in their answers and definitely sway them in a positive direction.
Raziel Scher MCCNM 101 11:00
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