If you are in the B2B events industry, you know the importance of feedback. The way event professionals talk about feedback, an average person might mistake it for a hidden treasure chest, a priceless jewel, or the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. This scarce, elusive, and prized resource is far and away the most concrete measure of an event’s success. While abstract concepts like attendee satisfaction can be nearly impossible to quantify (especially in 2020), survey results are an effortless, digital way to help you act on your event’s greatest successes and most significant areas for improvement. We’re sharing our industry secrets for how to elicit feedback in a way that encourages guests to respond, for virtual events and beyond.

Do The Work Yourself

 During your virtual event, ask your guests for their feedback during independent or structured free time in a breakout room or through a chat box. Get a feel for how much they’re enjoying or recently enjoyed the event, and if they have any suggestions for the next one. These smaller, more intimate casual conversations lack the anonymity that encourages respondents to be truthful, but it can help you scope out your guests’ experiences. 

Additionally, be sure to have your survey ready by the beginning of the event. Balancing live-streams with real-time editing and stage managing will take up enough time during the event, so you’ll be glad you don’t have something else on your plate. In addition, the sooner you can get the survey to your audience, the better. 

On top of this, allow your virtual event attendees to complete the survey while they’re still at the event. You’ll get much more participation if you carve out time for survey completion before the event officially wraps up. 

Be Transparent and Keep Things Simple

Tell your guests how many questions they’ll answer in your survey and how long it will take them. If you can assure potential respondents that a survey will take less than 5 minutes, you are likely to see an increase in participation.  

To further increase participation, keep things short and sweet. Don’t ask for a lot of information. 10 questions is the maximum number of responses that will still be effective in eliciting information. For every additional question on your survey, you lose respondents. Therefore, make sure each question has significant value that outweighs the number of respondents you will lose. 

A hidden tip: let attendees save their progress on their survey. A respondent’s free time may come incrementally. Without the option of saving responses for later, you run the risk of never seeing many incomplete surveys. On that same note, do not include mandatory questions. A partially-completed survey is more valuable than a survey that has not been submitted at all. 

Elicit Feedback from Your Own Team as Well

 Your event attendees are not the only important voice in the feedback of your event. Make sure to ask your staff and team members what worked well and what could have gone better for next time. Likewise, your virtual event sponsors have a significant stake in the success of your event. Make sure you receive their feedback, and try to implement any suggestions they offer before you collaborate with them again. 

Reflect on the Results

If you’ve pulled off an amazing virtual event, take a moment to celebrate your company’s success! Give your team and yourself credit for the things that went well and the positive feedback you received. It can be hard to receive suggestions or criticism, but make sure you take the time to celebrate a job well done! 

But keep in mind that, even if you feel like every aspect of your event went off without a hitch, feedback tends to be more negative than the actual impressions of your event. This is because customers who have a bad experience are two to three times more likely to answer a survey or leave feedback than customers that had an excellent experience. As difficult as it might be to read less-than-stellar words about an event you worked so hard to create, this is part of the value of feedback. Rather than taking the constructive criticism personally, acknowledge it for the value that it will bring to your future events. 

Finally, don’t just let this feedback sit in some excel document as it collects metaphorical dust in your drive. Feedback information is the most valuable information you have in the process of planning your next event. For the things that worked -- whether that be the online platform, the pre-recorded content, breakout room activities, featured speakers, etc. -- don’t wait to re-book those successful components right away for your next event. If you have an element that received a consistently lower rating, you know where to put your efforts for your next event. 

Whether you’re strategizing the feedback process of an upcoming virtual or hybrid event, or considering the best way to implement the feedback you just received, Wizard Studios has the knowledge and industry expertise you need. If you’re ready to bring your online event to the next level, contact Wizard Studios today!