What we were really after was the identification of pain points – where their typical experience with a B2B survey caus them to wince (figuratively or perhaps literally), complain, even consider or actually drop out of a survey.
We ask for their de-motivators, distractions, dissatisfaction and even disgust. While we were careful not to bias the results negatively with how we ask, we explor the entire process of taking a B2B survey from the invitation to the wrap-up and incentives provid.
What did we learn from our exploration
Much that we expect but with several distinct surprises. I’ve been involv in online surveys since that methodology emerg as the prominant data collection approach in the late 1990s, increasingly supplanting telephone interviews.
I found several topics we ask of our respondents where their clear answers weren’t intuitive for me. And I was chagrin if not embarrass that I as a long-time researcher didn’t know better what my survey-takers want!
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Let’s dig into the results, which are a summary of what was present at the Quirk’s Dallas conference in February 2024. While the survey provid a volume of data, we’ll highlight the more notable themes for each of our major areas of inquiry.
What are the top motivators for you to take a B2B survey
Making my opinion known/heard was the top result. This was particularly strong for smaller companies and lower-level employees.
A close second place was compensation – a direct incentive paid in cash or a cash equivalent such as a gift card or code.
The tech crowd was particularly motivat by exposure to new ideas and gaining information helpful to my role, but other groups in general weren’t very interest. I thought this might be stronger across the board.
The losers for motivation generally were non-cash incentives and competitive info to help my company.
What pain points have you had in business surveys
The big answer here was screening and qualifying questions. This was a surprise to me for how strongly all our respondents felt the screening experiences they had were too long, too general or not relevant enough and just plain miss the mark. Comments such as ask me what I know and what my responsibilities are and stop relying on my title were typical.
The time ne for screening and qualifying was a huge point. Respondents felt very strongly that screeners ne to get to the point quicker, asking more direct questions and fewer of them.
This pain point was three times more important than anything else – certainly an aspect of B2B survey-taking that merits scrutiny and more attention by sponsors of such surveys.
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A pain point was confusing or bad survey design. When talking to clients about data quality, this issue comes up often – what we ask and how we ask our respondents as researchers nes review and evolution.
I won’t get on my soapbox about training in survey design but this was a consistent deal-breaker. I can tell when the questions are written by someone.
Who doesn’t know my industry sums up the sentiment behind this dissatisfaction .It was a significant cause for those who said they yati – um novo algoritmo de classificação do yandex would drop out of a survey that show naivete about the topic under discussion. Top execs and tech audiences were particularly sensitive to this.
Interestingly to me, survey invitations didn’t come through as a pain point – 85% of our sample basically said no problems here. I had hypothesiz that how an invitation was word, how it portray a survey opportunity to a potential respondent would be more of an issue, but evidently not, at least in our sample.
What kind of questions during a survey bother you
I was expecting open-ends, hate those and we did get that sentiment. Aren’t open-end questions universally dislik? How many is too many is up for debate still but one we have in mind for future investigation.
Disliking open-ends wasn’t nearly as strong as the outright hatr of big grids, with forc responses – this jump into first place among our sample, with comments such as Why ask for so much detail? and Why can’t you narrow down a long list to what’s relevant to me, then ask all your questions? I’m rethinking how I present grids for my clients, bas on the strength of what I heard here.
Another of the most objectionable question types was what I call work PII – asking for personally identifiable information about the specific job and company of the respondent. Often enough in B2B surveys .
I see questions asking for the respondent’s work e-mail address or LinkIn profile, or their company name and/or specific location. This is a deal-breaker for the respondents we ask, especially middle managers at larger companies.
They felt if they provid such information
Their responses wouldn’t be anonymiz and likely would be us for purposes other than research. Comments like Why would a survey ne to know my LinkIn? and No way will I tell who my employer is by name. Then my comments could be trac back to me easily exemplify the tone express.
I can understand questions such as these being ask for validation of respondents, especially for more specific B2B audiences. But respondents felt very strongly that any questions neing to establish their qualification for a survey should sault data be upfront and bas on their knowlge and experience, not their personal and company identification. Why care about who I work for? Shouldn’t surveys be asking if I sit in the right chair and make decisions they want to ask about? sums it up.
I was interest to find out what information
our respondents felt they could share, that they consider non-confidential. These includ customer makeup, such as the amounts that are wholesale vs. retail, or domestic vs.
international. They also indicat a willingness to share purchase stage for types of products and general budget – they didn’t object to being ask where in a consideration-to-purchase sales cycle they were for, say, HR management software, and what they were budgeting for that purchase overall.
How long is too long for a business survey
The age-old question of length-of-interview, right? As a researcher I rarely push back too hard on clients who tell me they have a 20- or 25-minute B2B survey. But I’ve never had guidance for what happens at those survey lengths to say anything concrete and advise differently.
