An event does not simply end when the doors close and the participants go home. After the event, the analysis and maintenance of the relationship with your participants is fundamental, especially for the success of future editions.
Participants are the best source of the measure of success for your event and there are many benefits to collecting their feedback.
Find out why it is important to get their feedback and how to do it.
Summary
- Why seek feedback from participants?
- When to use which type of questionnaire?
- How to prepare for collecting public feedback?
- Setting up the feedback form
1. Why seek feedback from participants?
At the end of your event you may think you can measure its success on the basis of your own experience. This initial analysis is important, but is also incomplete.
Ticket sales, attendance, participation in the various activities, absence or increase in incidents, consumption of food and drink… All this data is fundamental and you must analyse it. But don’t underestimate one of the keys to the success of your event: the public’s experience.
Beyond measuring the success of your event, collecting feedback from participants has very valuable benefits:
- You show them that their opinion is valuable to you. Giving your audience a voice strengthens the relationship with your event and builds loyalty.
- Participants highlight specific areas for improvement that you may not have identified. Their views may show you that things you thought were important but are not so much, and that things you thought were less important are highly valued. Implement these suggestions in future editions and you will not only improve your event, but also the relationship with the participants, who will feel heard.
- You collect additional data that will help you segment and better understand your audience.
- Well collected and managed feedback can generate content to share on social networks. It is always best if the audience is the one to tell you how much they like your event and why. This will help you to attract new participants.
2. When to use which type of questionnaire?
To collect feedback, you need a strategy: not all types of survey are the same or serve the same purpose.
Surveys about your event can take place during or after the event. The choice of timing will influence the type of feedback to be collected.
Feedback surveys conducted during the event should be very short to avoid interrupting the participant’s experience – although, when used well, they can be another element of the experience. They are useful for quickly and quantitatively measuring a specific aspect of the event, such as the presentations or even the attention paid to the audience at a particular time. For this purpose, surveys that are rating-based or that require no more than one click are very useful. You need a fairly large number of participants to respond in order to draw conclusions.
When you want to collect feedback on the event in general and gather more detailed comments from participants, it is advisable to conduct the survey after the event. However, do not give your participants too much time otherwise they will forget the experience!
These surveys can be longer, with open questions and comments. They take more time so participation rate is often lower but each answer has great value.
To encourage participation in surveys, you can reward respondents with discounts, gifts, or enter them into a raffle with good prizes. Ask yourself what would personally motivate you to respond to such a survey?
3. How to prepare for collecting public feedback?
The collection of public opinions must be planned. To do so consider the following points:
a) Collecting data
The best way to collect data and to be able to process it efficiently is in digital format. With most post-event surveys you will need to have the attendees’ email addresses in order to send them the link to the survey.
If you have developed a good information form for your event registration process, you already have valuable data. If your ticketing or registration system is also connected to your CRM and access control system then you will be able to collect and use data on attendance, number of tickets purchased for this event or previous editions…
b) Finding a survey solution
Surveys to gather feedback from participants can take various forms, with responses being public or private, in the shape of a form or a note. Find the solution that best meets your needs and allows you to process the data appropriately.
Usually you will provide a link to receive feedback. With an e-mailing tool, you can manage the sending of surveys to all participants quickly and easily. It is good practice to send a thank-you email in which you also include the link to the satisfaction survey.
c) Setting goals beforehand
As Seneca said: “If a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is favourable”.
Goals, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) all guide your actions in a meaningful way and show whether you have achieved them or not. If you know exactly what you are asking for feedback on and what is most important to you, it will be much easier to design a good survey and collect quality feedback. Whether the feedback is good or bad, the important thing is that it is useful to you.
d) Segment participants
Create different surveys for different audience segments.
For example, if you have just changed your food and beverage supplier. You can :
- Ask first-time attendees if they liked the food
- Ask returning attendees if they preferred the food at this event to the last.
The more detailed the data you collect, the more accurate your future campaigns will be.
4. Setting up the feedback form
When designing the feedback questionnaire, remember these points:
- Make it clear and simple to complete the survey.
- Keep the survey as short as possible to achieve your objectives.
- Keep the questions as concise and clear as possible.
- Avoid non-essential questions.
- Alternate between closed and open questions.
- Ask questions about things you can do something about.
Now you have the keys to gathering feedback from your event participants – don’t forget to thank them for their cooperation and, above all, make good use of this valuable feedback!
Are you organising an event ? Discover how Weezevent can make your life easier with its connected systems of online ticketing, access control, emailing, CRM and cashless payment. Don’t hesitate to contact our counsellors to discuss your needs.
