Congratulations! The event you just planned for your favorite client went without a hitch, and you are about to take a well-deserved break from the craziness that is the organization of an event.
However, before you forget the details about that event or get immersed in the next one, there is one crucial thing that you should do. I am talking about conducting a post-event survey, of course.
The importance of a post-event survey
In life in general, one of the best things to help you progress and learn is getting feedback on how you did on a specific subject.
Feedback is sometimes not very enjoyable, it can be tough to hear negative things about your work, but it is of utmost importance to be able to reflect on a situation and make the appropriate changes if necessary.
Because, how much do you know about how your carefully planned event went from the attendees’ point of view?
Did the efforts you put into planning and organizing that event meet the actual expectations of your attendees?
As the organizer, you think you have a pretty good idea of what went well and where there might have been a few hiccups.
However, how did it go from the perspective of the people you organized it for?
They might have noticed things you didn’t. They might have liked parts that you thought were just average. Also, they might have disliked some things that you thought were going to be a show-stopper.
Because let’s face it, people are all different, and they see the world through their own prism. Your perception of the event you just organized is very likely to be quite different from the opinion of the people you aimed it at.
So… How do you make sure you can reconcile these two visions? Well, I am assuming you don’t have a crystal ball. Therefore, the best way to know how people feel is still to ask them questions!
Don’t forget the ultimate goal of a post-event survey. It is to figure out what worked, what didn’t and why.
Main types of questions for your post-event survey
There are three main questions’ types for your survey: open-ended, rating (also called Likert scale), multiple-choice questions.
- Open-ended questions: they don’t provide any guidance, just a blank space for attendees to reflect on their feelings about the event in general or specific parts of it. Try not to put too many open-ended questions in your survey, as they take longer to answer and can dissuade the person to finish your survey. Also, these questions are more challenging to analyze than the other two types, but they can provide valuable qualitative feedback.
- Rating questions: for these questions, you provide a scale to help guide the attendee’s answer. They typically show a range from strongly dislike to strongly like/ poor to excellent/strongly disagree to strongly agree.
- Multiple-choice and Choose-all-that-apply questions: with this type of questions, the attendee can select one or several answers from a list. For some of these questions, you can add an open-ended follow-up (for example, if you answered no, why not?).
Don’t forget to keep your survey short and sweet. People’s attention span is notoriously low nowadays. As a general rule, your post-event survey should not include more than 15 questions. A study by Survey Monkey shows that respondent rates drop for every question you add:
Also, you want to ask for feedback shortly after the event, so that attendees have their experience fresh in mind.
Now, there is an almost unlimited scope of questions you can ask, but these 10 are the ones that you should always include. Additional questions will vary depending on the type of event you want feedback on.
How satisfied were you with the event in general?
This question lends itself pretty well to a scale type, ranging from “Not satisfied at all” to “Very satisfied”.
It is the first question most people expect to see in a survey. It allows you to get a feeling on how your event performed overall.
How satisfied were you with the following aspects in particular?
Once you have asked about the general feeling on your event, you can dig into specifics for the date, speakers, location vendors, catering, etc.
What you include depends on the type of event you want feedback on.
The easiest way to present this is with a matrix. That way, people can rate different aspects of the same event, using one scale. One benefit of using a matrix is that you will get feedback on many points but, to the person answering the survey, it looks like one question.
What did you like the most?
This is an open-ended type of question.
It is the best way to know what part of your event worked the best, and should always be included (if possible) in future events.
What did you like the least?
This is an open-ended question, allowing your audience to give you constructive feedback.
You want to know what didn’t work at all so that you don’t do it for future events.
How organized was the event?
For this question, you can use a scale from “Not organized at all” to “Extremely organized”.
It is essential to know if the event seemed well organized, from the attendees’ point of view. If they tell you that it looked messy, well you know that you have much work to do for your next event.
Was it the first time you attended one of our events?
Use a multiple choice for this question (Yes/No/Not sure).
This question is interesting because it lets you know if people like to come back to the events you organize.
How likely are you to attend again in the future?
Again an interval scale is the best way to go for this question, ranging from “Not likely at all” to “Very likely”.
This is an excellent way to measure the potential loyalty of your attendees. Did you wow them enough that they will want to attend your future events? It also helps you identify potential repeat attendees.
Remember, it is way easier to convince former participants to attend another one of your events than it is to convince someone new.
Would you recommend this event to a coworker, a friend?
This question requires a straightforward Yes/No answer.
However, if the person answers No, you might want to provide some space for an explanation.
People endorse things only if they like them and if they feel they can be helpful/enjoyable to other people. Similarly, people are more likely to buy a product/service (in this case attend your event) that a friend shared with them.
How would you rate the communication for this event?
It is essential to assess how communication worked for your event. If your communication was poor before the event, it is likely that the event didn’t attract as many people as it could have.
Similarly, if your communication during the event was poor, it is less likely that people will come back.
Do you have any other suggestion to help us improve future events?
Because you have to keep your survey short or people won’t fill it in, it is a good idea to finish with this kind of open-ended question, where people can provide more positive or negative feedback on your event.
Conclusion
Collecting feedback should be a required phase of your event planning. It ensures you get the information you need to create improvement strategies for your future events.
Without feedback, you are left in the dark as to the real impact of the events you take so much time planning and bringing to life.
Post-event surveys are one of the best tools at your disposal to gather that feedback, so don’t overlook them!