… Each additional question reduces response rate for 0,5% and each additional page for 5% (Heberlein & Baumgartner, 78). If the survey is too long, the respondent loses interest. Two major surveys combined into a single survey National Survey of 2001 Feb 15;153(4):404-9. Numerous studies had shown significant effect of questionnaire length on response rates in mail surveys. Introduction. The ideal length of a satisfaction survey is 2-5 questions, governed (only) by what things are important to your customers. Your relationship with the survey respondents – Are the potential respondents customers or employees?. A survey was considered to be “started” if a user submitted at least one page of data that included 1 response to a question, hence the 100% completion rate for any survey with 1 question. If the survey is too long, the respondent loses interest. If they were to even complete the survey, there is a risk of uninterested responses which dilutes the validity of the survey responses and analysis. RESULTS: In the pilot study, response rate decreased from 60% for questionnaires 849 words in length to 16.7% for questionnaires over 1,800 words in length. Factors that can affect the response rate include: The target population – Are you are trying to obtain responses from a hard-to-reach population (e.g., females age 18 to 24 who watch a particular TV show)?. Questionnaire length and response rates: A nationwide experiment across three modes of administration •Assess the impact of questionnaire length across three modes of data collection: –Mail –Web –Phone 2 Research Objective. Survey length: The survey length has a major impact on the survey response. Am J Epidemiol . Relative importance of questionnaire length and cognitive ease on response rates and data quality for two dietary questionnaires. Survey textbooks suggest that long questionnaires should be avoided, and a careful reading of the available empirical evidence confirms the negative effects of substantial length on both response rates and the quality of those responses which are obtained. So if, for example, a survey is distributed to 1000 people and 200 of them complete it, then the survey response rate would be 20%. But if a customer thinks you are trying to excel at the things that are important to them they are more likely to want to help you. The big question is whether this is a good, poor or average survey response rate. Theoretically, it could be anywhere from 0% to 100%, although it’s almost unheard of to get a 100% response rate. 7. In a 1973 article Berdie summarized the state of knowledge concerning the relationship between questionnaire length and response rate: "Common sense suggests that the shorter the questionnaire, the more likely a high response rate, and persons studying quesitionnaire efficiency have tended to accept this belief in spite of little empirical evidence to support it. Irrelevant questions will kill your response rate. The survey response rate is the number of people in your sample who successfully completed your survey. In the main study, questionnaires of 16 different lengths (564 to 988 words) were mailed to 1,700 physicians between June 1999 and January 2000. Data is presented from a lengthy survey in Britain in 1987. Numerous studies have shown significant effects of questionnaire length on response rates in mail surveys (Bogen 1996).Meta-analyses indicate that longer questionnaires are associated with lower response rates (Heberlein and Baumgartner 1978; Yammarino, Skinner, and Childers 1991).In addition, questions near the end of long questionnaires may be processed differently …