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Event evaluation surveys are questionnaires you send to participants of your planned, live event. You would normally send them digitally. Event online survey software often contains a combination of open-ended and multiple-choice questions. Attendees, event sponsorships, volunteers, VIPs and employees are all cohorts your survey can report on.
The information you obtain from your event evaluation survey is critical for eradicating the negative and accentuating the positive at future events. However, if you're not asking your participants quality questions, you'll simply obtain poor responses; basically, garbage in, garbage out. Below are some tips for designing the most effective event survey tool you for your own event.
1. Keep it Short
Keep the questions you ask short. Participants typically don't and won't take the time to not only fill out, but actually read a long list of questions. Short surveys lead to less survey abandonment.
2. Survey your Audience During your Event
Have hostesses walk around and gather feedback from your audience during your event either with a classic paper survey or with a tablet. You can also project QR coding that links to your event evaluation surveys in event communication.
3. Find Out How You Can Improve
Ask your participants how you can improve for the following year. Provide them some open-ended questions for constructive feedback and allow them a chance to really expand on their responses, criticisms and comments.
4. Vary it Up
Vary the type of questions you ask on your event survey software to keep your survey as interesting as possible. Use multiple-choice, matrices, yes or no questions and even essay-type responses every now and then to mix it up.
5. Don't Use Leading Questions
Avoid asking leading questions. When you "color the language" of each question, you're basically influencing the answer and setting yourself up for poor and unreliable responses. An example of a leading question would be “How short do you think Alexander The Great was?”. A better way to phrase the question would be: How would you characterize Alexander The Great’s height?”.
6. Obtain an Overall Rating
Include a question on your survey that will elicit an overall rating on your event. You can receive responses to that question that will give you a simple reference to how your event is moving (decreasing or increasing in customer satisfaction and effectiveness).
7. Take Priorities into Consideration
Consider your priorities first. If your company has pressing issues that you require answers for, add those specifics on your survey rather than general-type questions. In some cases, the more pinpointed your questions, the more insight you can get into specific areas you are concerned about or want feedback on.
One more thing, while it's common practice to conduct a post-event survey, it's also valuable and worth your time to conduct surveys before and during your events to to collect important data from your participants.
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