If you accepted every survey request that popped up, and answered every question asked to the best of your ability, you’d barely have any time left over for yourself. After all, the benefits for you are usually extremely limited. There’s this prevailing idea that your concerns or opinions might not actually be considered, and you’ll never get that time back.
The web is littered with requests for survey participants these days. So, it’s only natural for you to skip over most of them, even if the survey is about a product or service you use all the time. But what’s in it for you? Is your time and effort worth that free Visa gift card you’ll receive after filling out surveys on well-liked platforms? Spoiler alert: yes.
It’s easy to guess why brands and businesses want your opinions on their products, so let’s talk about why your time is valuable enough that brands should be paying for it. Plus, explore the value of survey answers for brands, and the hidden power of incentivized requests for participation.
Why you deserve some kind of compensation for your participation
For the business asking the questions, the amount of answers they can get and the quality of those answers can make or break their future strategies and ultimately, their success. Honest answers give them insights into how happy customers are, how well their awareness campaigns are doing, and where they should be improving their service. Rushed answers can waste their time and potentially even cause them to invest in changes nobody actually wants. But if they don’t ask these questions, chances are they’ll be outshined by their competitors sooner rather than later.
If it’s not clear already, this means that the quality of your survey answers, and your participation in general, is valuable. The information you give up significantly helps companies of all kinds develop products that will sell well, be liked by all, and potentially go on to improve that company’s global standings.
What’s in it for you?
It’s no secret that businesses are benefiting because surveys help them understand their audience better. But beyond getting a gift card, entry into a draw or some other incentive, why should you bother? The answer to this depends on what you care about. If saving the sea turtles by encouraging companies to switch to reusable or recyclable cups is on your agenda, you should be taking part.
Even if your motivations are more focused on simply saving a few pennies every time you buy a coffee or pair of socks, your voice in a survey is worth giving, for a small price. Here’s some things to think about:
- More voices are more incentives for brands to change: It’s normal to think your opinion, by itself, won’t be enough to change anything. But if enough people come together to suggest a company develops a rewards program or donates to charity, that power is amplified. You could actually see real changes take place based on your singular opinion.
- Surveys can give you glimpses into a company’s thought-process: The questions brands ask for in surveys aren’t there by accident. If you think critically about why a brand is asking you whether or not you liked their limited edition hazelnut coffee cream, you might be one of the first to know it’ll be coming back in the future.
Think carefully about where you’re taking surveys offering incentives
Maybe, and no judgment here, you’re only choosing to spend your time taking market research surveys for the prize at the end. This is perfectly acceptable. Living the kind of life you want isn’t cheap, and that Visa gift card could go towards something that will greatly improve your day-to-day routines. If this is the case, it’s important for you to be thinking about where you’re taking these surveys, especially when you’re giving up personal details.
In the past, some sites offering gift card incentives for survey answers have later been found out to be scams. To protect yourself, and your precious time, do these things:
- Stick to survey platforms that can prove they’re reputable.
- Decide beforehand if the time commitment is worth the rewards.
- Experiment and explore your options by reading online reviews.
The connection between incentives and motivation
This might be obvious for some, but many might not realize that the incentives connected to surveys aren’t just small bribes to get you to cough up your opinions and time. Right now customer surveys have an average response rate of only around 33%. So yes, the people behind the surveys know that more people are likely to involve themselves if there’s a tangible reason to do so at the end. But there’s actually more to it than that:
- You’re more likely to answer honestly when your work is being rewarded at the end. Higher-quality answers are naturally better for brands to work with.
- How motivated you are to fill out the survey matters more than you realize. If you know your time is being paid for, you’re less likely to skim through the survey and answer without thought or care.
- You end up respecting and trusting brands that value your time enough to provide incentives for participation. This is a big deal for brands as they obviously want you to think of them fondly.
Incentives are important, but so is honest feedback
No matter why you’ve decided you want to take a survey, it’s really important to answer as honestly and thoroughly as you can. When you answer in this way, the company that set up the survey can actually change for the better, and improve themselves for everyone and not just you. It’s a win-win kind of situation when there are incentives involved, but only if you hold up your end of the bargain and give your answers a good amount of thought and care.
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