What is a survey response rate?
A survey response rate is the share of people who answered out of everyone who received the survey, written as a percentage. If 960 customers get your email survey and 288 answer, the response rate is 30%.
Response rate in one number
Response rate measures how many of the people you asked actually answered. Divide the number of answers by the number of people who received the survey, and multiply by 100. For an email survey, received means delivered; for a survey on a website, it means the visitors who saw it.
The rate matters because the people who answer may differ from the ones who don't. A high rate makes it more likely that the answers reflect the whole group. A low rate isn't a problem by itself, but it calls for a look at who stayed silent: if only your happiest or angriest customers answer, the results lean their way.
Response rate is about reaching people and getting an answer at all. Its close relative, completion rate, is about what happens after someone starts: how much of the survey they finish.
- Measures
- How many of the people asked gave an answer
- Calculated as
- Answers ÷ people who received the survey × 100
- Written as
- A percentage, such as 30%
- Depends on
- Channel, timing, length and how relevant the survey feels
- Not the same as
- Completion rate
How to calculate response rate
Count the answers, divide by the number of people who received the survey, and multiply by 100. Use the number who actually received it: for email, leave out the addresses that bounced, since those people never saw the question.
Decide once what counts as an answer, such as a submitted survey, and keep the rule the same, so rates from different months compare fairly.
Response rate = answers ÷ people who received the survey × 100
For email, received means delivered. For a popup on a website, it means the visitors who saw the survey.
A response rate example
Say you send an email survey to 1,000 customers. 40 addresses bounce, so 960 emails are delivered, and 288 customers answer.
288 of 960 is a 30% response rate. Dividing by the 1,000 emails you sent would give 28.8% and make the survey look slightly worse than it was.
- Emails sent
- 1,000
- Bounced
- 40
- Delivered
- 960
- Answered
- 288
- Response rate
- 288 ÷ 960 = 30%
What is a good response rate?
There is no single good number. Rates vary a great deal with the channel, the audience, how well people know you and how long the survey is, so a figure from another company says little about yours.
Compare your own surveys over time and with each other, and watch the number of answers behind the rate. A rate that drops after you add questions or change the timing tells you more than any outside figure.
How to improve your survey response rate
Most gains come from asking the right people at the right moment, with a survey short enough to finish in a minute or two.
- Ask right after the experience, while it is still fresh
- Keep the survey short, and say how long it takes
- Put the first question in the email or on the page, so one tap starts it
- Make sure it works well on a phone
- Send from a name people know, with a subject that says what you want
- Ask the same people less often, so they don't tire of your surveys
Response rate vs completion rate
The two rates are often confused. Response rate counts who answered out of everyone asked, and completion rate looks only at the people who started and asks how much they finished.
| Response rate | Completion rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Out of | Everyone who received the survey | People who started it |
| Counts | Who answered at all | How much they finished |
| A low rate means | People aren't starting | People stop partway |
| Fix with | Timing, channel and invitation | Length, wording and logic |
Response rate in Usertick
Every email send in Usertick has its own page with the recipients, delivered, failed, skipped and answered counts, and the response rate as answered divided by delivered. A log shows each recipient's state, such as bounced or skipped, so you can see where an audience fell short.
In the email, customers can answer the first question in the message itself when it is NPS, Stars, CES, Emoji, Yes / No, Multiple choice or Dropdown, and the survey opens with that answer filled in. Usertick doesn't send automatic reminders to people who haven't answered.
Website surveys have no response rate in Usertick, because the widget doesn't report when a survey is shown. For them, Results shows how many answers each survey has, its completion rate and its median completion time, and the Audience tab shows where the answers come from by country, device, language and page.
Mistakes to avoid with response rate
Small choices that keep the results useful.
- 01
Dividing by emails sent
Bounced emails never reached anyone. Divide by delivered emails, or the rate looks lower than it is.
- 02
Comparing rates across channels
An email and a popup on a busy page reach people at very different moments. Compare each channel with itself over time.
- 03
Asking the same people too often
Customers who get a survey every week stop opening them. Space your surveys out and leave out people who answered recently.
- 04
Ignoring who didn't answer
A 20% rate is fine when the 20% look like everyone else. Check whether the answers lean toward one group, such as your most active customers.
Frequently asked questions
No. Response rate is the answers out of everyone asked. Completion rate is about how much of the survey the people who started went on to finish.
The widget sends nothing to Usertick when a survey shows, and it keeps the showing history in the visitor's browser. Without a count of showings there is nothing to divide by, so Results reports the number of answers and the completion rate instead.
A reminder can bring in people who meant to answer and forgot, while several reminders tend to annoy. Usertick doesn't send reminders automatically.
That depends on how precise the result must be, more than on the rate itself. Work out the sample size you need first, then send to enough people to reach it at your usual response rate.
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