The only way your event can grow and adapt is by understanding from attendees what they liked, and what they didn’t. The best way to gather this information is via a post event survey.
I’ll go ahead and assume that you are already sending out a survey soon after your event is over. Wait too long and your response rate will go way down. You want to capture the feelings and responses as soon after the event as possible to get the highest response rate and most helpful answers.
This post will look at the best post event survey questions you should be asking in your post event survey, the best and more efficient way to collect answers, and how you can use your registration software to achieve the task!
Post Event Survey Questions to Ask
Before you begin creating your post event survey, you need to think about what information you want to know from attendees. This will help shape the questions you ask and how you ask them. Generally you want to know why they decided to attend the event, what sessions or part of the event did they enjoy most, and what problems or bad experiences did they have.
Below are some questions to get you started.
- Did we meet your expectations?
- What did you enjoy most about the event?
- Which sessions did you enjoy the most?
- Which sessions did you enjoy the least?
- On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the organization of the event?
- On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied were you after the event?
- Would you recommend this event to friends or colleagues?
- Do you plan on attending future events with us?
- Were you satisfied with the catering at the event?
- Did you like the location of the event?
- Were you satisfied with the timing of the event?
- Did you enjoy the speakers/presenters?
- What can we do to improve the event for next time?
- Was this the first time you’ve attended one of our events?
Want to see what this looks like using Regpack’s system? Take a look!
Keep in mind that you can get as specific as you’d like with these questions, and usually that’s best. If there were several meals throughout your event, instead of just asking about the catering, ask about each meal separately so you can see if one meal was more successful than others.
In the next section, we’ll look at how you can use your registration software to create and send out your post event survey. Additionally, how can you set up these questions in your software that will make viewing and working with your data easy!
How to Use Your Registration Software for Post Event Surveys
Instead of using another survey tool in addition to your registration software, or worse, sending out a paper form to attendees, try the event software you are already using! Most likely, just as you create registration forms, you can create a post event survey as well.
The benefit to keeping all of your forms together is all of your data remains in the same place. So if you want to see the results and run reports, but want to add in data points from the registration process, you can! It also makes sending out the survey, including a follow up thank you, super simple using the email tools your event software has, and that you are already familiar with.
The biggest tip to creating a great post event survey is asking the questions with the right question type. What I mean is, don’t ask all the questions with a text box as the answer field. Switch up the question types – yes/no, 1-10 scale, etc so you can use the data better and run statistics. Text boxes should generally be saved for follow up questions, like if an attendee says they disliked the catering, you can follow up. But the initial question should be yes or no, or a number scale, so you can easily run some statistics on the general response to the catering. Make sense?
A variety of question types mean you can use your data and visualize it well. It also helps get the most information out of your attendees who are completely the form.
Conclusion: What comes after sending out your post event survey?
Once you’ve sent your survey out, make sure to thank everyone! This is easy to trigger with your event software. Make sure you also go through the results and respond to anything that stands out. This will normally be any negative feedback. Try and smooth over any issues, as this goes a long way for customer service and attendee retention. Depending on your response rate, feel free to send over a personalized thanks to everyone!
Next, you want to actually use your data to make changes to your event. Consider updating your marketing plans as your next event approaches. The best way to keep in tune with your attendees and ensure you are marketing effectively to them, is to understand them! Asking the right questions and gathering the data at the optimal time, will help you do this!
