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, survey results can 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. 

• Do the work yourself. 

Ask your guests for their feedback during independent or structured free time. Get a feel for how much they enjoyed the event or if they have any suggestions for the next one. These one-on-one casual conversations lack the anonymity that encourages respondents to be truthful, but it can help you scope out your guests’ experiences. 

• Have the survey ready to go before the event even begins. 

You will be glad you don’t have something else on your plate after the hard work of pulling off an incredible event is finished. In addition, the sooner you can get the survey to your audience, the better. 

• Let guests 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 up front

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. 

• Keep it 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. 

• Let them save their progress 

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. 

• Ask a varied audience

Your event attendees are not the only important voice in the feedback of your event. Make sure to ask your staff what worked well and what could have gone better for next time. Likewise, your 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. 

• Celebrate your successes

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! 

• Don’t take negativity personally

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. 

• Act on it

Finally, don’t just let this feedback sit in an excel document. This is the most valuable information you have in the process of planning your next event. For the things that worked -- whether that be catering, decor, venue, speaker, 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 event, or considering the best way to implement the feedback you just received, Wizard Studios has the knowledge and industry expertise you need! Contact us today to get started.