Once your event is finally over and you’ve seen all your plans in action, you may find yourself wondering whether those plans resonated with your guests. Obtaining valuable feedback after an event is important for adjusting future events to fit the needs of your audience more effectively, but the act of obtaining it can seem complicated.
Ultimately, the easiest way to do this is by sending a post-event survey link in an email. There are a range of companies that offer free or affordable survey templates that you can easily customize to collect the feedback that’s most important to you. If your audience is less likely to respond digitally, you can also send physical surveys in the mail, although your response rate will be lower than with a quick and easy online survey.
When building and deploying your survey, there are a few important factors to keep in mind to ensure you’re able to make the most of the opportunity to hear directly from your guests. First, you’ll want to send the survey soon after the event. The longer you wait, the less detailed the feedback you receive will be. Ideally, you should send a survey link within 24 hours of the event, with a window of around a week to collect as many responses as possible. If you don’t get much immediate response, don’t be afraid to send a follow up email reminding them a few days before the survey expires that you’d love to hear their feedback so you can improve future events.
When it comes to the questions on a survey, experts recommend including question types that allow you to collect both qualitative and quantitative feedback. A few sample questions:
• On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being extremely likely, how likely are you to recommend this event to a colleague?
• Which session/speaker did you find most informative?
• Are there any ways we could have made your experience more enjoyable?
• Did you attend the pre-conference breakfast?
Using varied questions like these allow you to identify similarities in how your event was perceived by guests on a specific level as well as more generally. In addition, you may be able to spot a noticeable lack of information about certain aspects of your conference. If there was a particular session that you considered extremely important, but you don’t hear any feedback on it, your guests may not have realized how important it was. This information can help you plan more effectively for you next conference or event while looking for ways to make your key points truly stand out.
Here at the Conference Center at GTCC, our experienced event planners can offer advice on how to make your event effectively impact guests. In addition, we also offer package add-ons that truly make your event stand out. From edible centerpieces to meeting rooms set with a water bottle and notebook at each seat, we’re committed to helping you find the perfect way to make your event unique and powerful. Contact us today to learn more about our all-inclusive packages or to speak with an event planner!