What is survey fatigue, and how do you avoid it?

The term “survey fatigue” is rather self-explanatory, but put simply, it means “tired of answering a survey”. When respondents get survey fatigue, they are more likely to quit before answering the full survey, or they don’t answer the questions fully or correctly. As you can imagine, survey fatigue can lower the quality of the survey data.

What causes survey fatigue?

There are many things that can cause survey fatigue, but the main cause is that the survey didn’t match the respondents’ expectations. Most commonly, the respondents find that it takes longer than expected to answer the survey, or the questions are about a different topic than expected, or it requires more effort to answer than expected.

How can you see if your survey causes survey fatigue?

There isn’t one exact measurement of survey fatigue, but there are still warning signs to be aware of. The first sign is the drop-off rate. Depending on the survey tool you use, you may only collect data from completed surveys. If you can, compare the number of surveys initiated to the number of surveys completed. That will give you an approximate drop-off rate.

If you use Extellio for your surveys, we will collect all survey data even if the respondents left halfway through the survey. In that case, you can compare the number of answers between your first required question and your last required question to get an approximate drop-off rate.

For tools that collect all survey data, including drop-off, you will almost always have respondents leaving before completing the survey. The warning sign is when the drop-off rate is starting to become significant. If you have 25% or even 50% drop-off, you should review your survey as soon as possible and make changes to reduce the drop-off.

Another way of noticing survey fatigue is if the respondents give nonsensical open answers, or constantly refer back to previous questions. This too is likely to occur in most surveys, but the rate of these types of answers matters. Not answering the question fully or ignoring the question indicates that the respondents are tired or annoyed by the question. If these are common responses, and especially if you have a high drop-off rate, you should review your questions.

How can you avoid survey fatigue?

1. State the purpose clearly.
   If you want engaged respondents, you should tell them why you have this survey and how you plan to use the data. The respondents should feel that they are contributing, but also that you are taking their answers seriously.
   
   
2. Stay on topic.
   It can be easy to add every question you can think of to your survey, but that will not give you better data. You have a purpose, and that is your starting point when picking the survey question. Every question needs to contribute in some way. If it doesn’t, it should be removed.
   
   
3. Keep the survey short.
   Even if every question is on topic, you most likely do not need all of them. Some may be similar to one another, and if so, only keep one of the questions. Some questions can be rephrased or restructured to get the same information with fewer questions. The respondents are doing you a favor. Use their time wisely.
   
   
4. Limit open-ended questions.
   Although open-ended questions can give great information, they require more effort from the respondents as they need to write their answers, and they will significantly increase the time it takes to answer the survey. Therefore, you should use open-ended questions sparingly.
   
   
5. Avoid personal questions.
   Questions about age, gender, and education are often added to surveys without being needed. These types of questions can feel very personal to answer, which can make the respondents uncomfortable, and should therefore be avoided unless they are important for the analysis.