A post-event survey is your chance to gather valuable feedback from guests so you can improve your offering in future. While that sounds simple, poorly designed or generic surveys usually fail to get enough helpful feedback from respondents. The aim is to create an event-specific survey to obtain actionable data to use when planning your next function.
By speaking directly to your audience, choosing the right questions, and keeping things short and to the point, you’ll discover a reliable formula to create an insightful post-event survey. And using Eventbrite’s integration with SurveyMonkey, you’ll be able to send it quickly and easily to all your attendees.
We’ve researched seven best-practice approaches to help get you started on your post-event survey.
What is a post-event survey?
A post-event survey is a questionnaire that lets you gather information from attendees after an event, collecting valuable data that you can use to assess how successful it was. Letting attendees have their say on whether or not the occasion met their expectations allows organisers to take these learnings and employ them in future event planning.
A well-designed survey should also help organisers understand how they compare to their competition and how likely it is that guests would recommend their events to others.
How to create a post-event survey
Eventbrite’s integration with SurveyMonkey makes it easy to create a survey to send directly to everyone who attended your event. Attendees will automatically be added as a group to your contacts list. From there, you can create a tailored survey that asks specific questions about your event. For starters, you might ask guests how easy it was to get a ticket, if the location was easy to find, or if the agenda on the day matched their expectations when they first decided to attend.
If you’re new to writing post-event surveys, or if you could use some tips on improving any you’ve sent in the past, our seven-step guide is a good place to start.
Step 1. Keep it short and straightforward
Figure out the feedback that will be most valuable and keep questions to an absolute minimum. A maximum of 10 questions will ensure the highest completion rates.
Assume that your recipient is as busy as you are. Because their time is precious, be upfront about how many questions are in the survey and how long it will take. They are much more likely to complete a survey that takes two minutes than one that takes 10 minutes – no matter how engaged they are.
How long should a post-event survey be?
SurveyMonkey’s research shows that completion rates for surveys that take more than seven or eight minutes to complete dropped by between 5% and 20%.
Their data also suggests that, on average, a 20-question survey takes around eight minutes to complete. So keep your post-event survey to 20 questions or fewer to avoid a sharp decrease in the completion rate.
Step 2. Use multiple-choice answers
Make your post-event survey questions as quick and easy as possible for people to answer by using multiple-choice answers.
Recipients are much more likely to select an option from a dropdown, click a radio button, or tick a score box than write out free-form text – especially if they’re filling out your survey questions on a mobile.
Plus, form fields that provide definitive data points – such as checkboxes, lists, number fields and rating scales – are much easier to analyse than extensive written feedback. Turn them into charts or graphs for better overall visibility of your event’s performance.
Step 3. Know your audience
When creating your post-event survey, ensure at least one question clarifies what “type” of attendee is replying to your form.
While individual anonymity might be important to your respondents, you’ll still want to ask for certain details to give you a clearer picture of how your feedback varies across different segments of your audience. Some typical demographic data points to capture in events surveys include:
- Age range
- Gender identification
- Job seniority
Requesting key demographic data from your recipients will let you drill down into the data to see which aspects of your event work for which type of guest. Once you have that information, you’ll be well-placed to review some key metrics to measure your event’s success.
Step 4. Choose the right survey questions
Finding the right survey questions for an event starts with keeping your main goals in mind. You’re aiming to discover whether the event achieved its stated goal, whether that’s providing value to partygoers or conference guests. That will help you assess whether or not you’ve met your original objectives and let you plan more effectively for events in future.
Some questions are more helpful than others when it comes to measuring outcomes. Try the following recommendations to help you get the right questions for your post-event survey:
- Start at the beginning. Ask relevant pre-event questions such as “How informative were pre-event communications?”
- Don’t forget the end. Guests’ impressions on leaving are just as important – if not more so – than on arrival. Try asking “What was your biggest takeaway from the event?”
- Remember your goals. Ask relevant questions to discover whether your event succeeded in its stated aims. A good starting point for questions like this is, “On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied were you with the event?”
- Get specific. Beyond customer satisfaction, try to find out which aspect of the event helped to achieve its goals in the eyes of your attendees. Start by asking, “Which part of the event did you find most useful?”
- Encourage deep, detailed replies. You can cover many aspects of your event through multiple questions, but don’t forget the details. If a specific aspect was particularly successful, you’ll want to know to what extent. Try asking, “On a scale of 1-10, how helpful was this part of the event to you?”
Step 5. Compare against your competitors
Looking at industry averages lets you compare how you’re doing against your competitors. For example, if your event scored 70% for organisation, how would you know if that was good or bad? Benchmarking your performance against data obtained from similar event surveys can provide valuable insight into how your event stacks up against similar events in the industry.
You’ll be able to identify areas where your event excels and falls short versus your competitors, helping you make data-driven decisions to improve future events. Plus, it can help you stay up to date with industry best practices so your events become known as market leaders in future.
Step 6. Calculate your Event Net Promoter Score
Want to know how likely your attendees would be to recommend your event? Include the following question to calculate your event’s Net Promoter Score (NPS):
“Between 0 and 10, how likely are you to recommend this event to someone else?”
- Those who respond with 9 or 10 are your “promoters” – those most likely to tell others to come to your next event.
- Attendees who give you a 7 or an 8 are your passive respondents – they are fairly indifferent about your event.
- People who give you a 6 or below are considered your “detractors” – this group are the least likely to tell others to come to your next event.
To calculate your Event NPS, take the percentage of promoters and then subtract the percentage of detractors. This gives you a clear numerical value, which you can aim to improve next time.
Calculating your NPS shows how likely participants are to recommend the event to others. It’s a simple but powerful metric, used to measure overall satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.
Additionally, tracking NPS over time and including this example as one of your event survey questions will let you evaluate both the event’s effectiveness and customer loyalty.
Step 7. Send it quickly
To get the best possible response rate, you need to act fast. Send your main event survey within 24 hours of its finish to capture attendees while they’re still engaged and everything is fresh in their minds.
Create your questionnaire well in advance to ensure you’re asking the right event survey questions. Post-event surveys provide valuable data that you can use to justify future investment.
How to ask someone to take a post-event survey
Here are some expert tips to help persuade attendees to answer your post-event survey questions:
- Show you value their opinion. Tell them how important their feedback is to you.
- Offer a discount or free gift in exchange
- Enter survey recipients into a giveaway competition
- Ask between 9 and 10am or 2 and 3pm on a workday, when SurveyMonkey data suggests they are more likely to respond
- Respect their time by keeping questions short
Start your post-event survey
Specific and relevant feedback about your event from attendees is the best insight you can get when assessing your successes and areas for improvement. Remember your survey questions need to have enough breadth and depth to keep your audience engaged with the process and give you the most valuable data about your event. Just remember to show your audience how much you value their responses – and keep the questions short.
Once you’ve crafted the perfect post-event survey, try Eventbrite Boost to explore other ways to level up your event marketing strategy.
