For researchers trying to choose the best survey reward or incentive, it’s all about appealing to the most people possible so they can maximize response rates. But the truth is that it’s impossible for any single reward to appeal to everyone.
Many researchers settle for a general interest reward, something like a digital Amazon gift card or a virtual Visa or Mastercard prepaid card. It’s a solid strategy when you must choose a single reward. A study by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington found that incentivizing survey completion with a generic gift card raised response rates by 19% over no incentive, while a gift card for a more specific retailer raised rates by only 12%.
What those results really show is that participants like having choice and flexibility with their rewards. Giving respondents an option to choose the best survey reward for them makes it more meaningful and makes them more likely to complete the survey.
Offering a choice of rewards doesn’t mean that your incentives have to be impersonal or unrelated to your client’s or company’s mission. Use a digital rewards management platform that lets you curate a selection of several gift cards. For instance, if you’re collecting data about coffee drinking habits, give options from Starbucks, Dunkin’, and Panera. For a survey about travel preferences, your incentives could be for Southwest Airlines, Delta, and Hotels.com. You could also add an option to donate the reward to a relevant charity, like the National Park Foundation, as well as a more generic alternative, like an Amazon gift card, for the less frequent travelers.
The one problem you may see is that offering a choice of incentives would seem to require a lot more administrative time and effort on your part. But there is a simpler answer, thanks to the BHN Rewards platform. Its Recipient’s Choice feature makes it easy for you to give every participant a reward they value.
Step 1: Create a curated reward selection to address multiple preferences. When setting up your campaign, simply add multiple rewards of the same value to your campaign’s gift selection.
Step 2: Once they complete the survey, respondents receive an email that indicates that they can choose their reward.
Step 3: Recipients are presented with the list of choices that you curated in the campaign, and they can select and claim the reward they want.
Global programs can present a number of additional challenges for rewards. It’s even more complicated if you don’t know where your recipients may be. But BHN Rewards’ Smart Global Choice feature streamlines international delivery by detecting the recipient’s location and automatically curating a list of reward options available in their country. It converts the reward value to the appropriate currency as well. To set up the campaign, just indicate that you have recipients in multiple countries and choose the reward amount.
It’s that simple to start giving your research participants their own personal best survey reward, no matter where in the world they live. With the ability to choose their own incentives, everyone from the fashionista to the athlete can get exactly what they want. And you get exactly what you need — more responses and better insights.
Learn more about how BHN Rewards simplifies incentives management for surveys and research, or create a free account to get started.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
