I was recently asked to incorporate a survey into the strategy I was proposing for an industry blog. I’ve been asked to include a survey on many projects and I’ve never really thought much of it. To be honest I’m a User Experience Strategy guy, and from a strategy standpoint a survey is considered a great method for user engagement. The survey allows the user to interact with the site and creates an opportunity for instantaneous fulfillment for the user in the form of results.
Right about now would normally be the end of the article. However during the review process I was asked to move the survey to a higher position in the hierarchy and I felt an instant cringe. Hit me right in the spine as I thought about the idea of subjecting users to survey before they were convinced the site was indeed an expert resource for industry knowledge. As I began to form my response I started to consider the relationship between business objectives and users.
A website is social contract between the users and the business. The users have what the business needs and vice versa, but neither is necessarily willing to give the other what they want without an agreement. You may think that this may not always be true, but I assure you it is. Your first instinct may be to point out the thousands of sites that give away articles and information everyday. But is it really free? I think not.
On these sites we exchange for clicks for entertainment, whether that be in the form of news, gossip or kitten pictures. Those clicks are then exchanged for ad revenue, which is then reinvested into providing more content which is then returned to the users, and on and on it goes. The contract is complete and as long as the site continues to provide the entertainment value the users will return.
Now we return to our industry specific site. Our audience is greatly reduced. Our chances for user engagement our also reduced. Our entertainment value is virtually nil, although I’d be curious to see the results from a daily kitten pic. This site it’s going to be down to brass tacks and a high quality of content. This site has that and some to spare, so where does this cringe come from?
In this scenario we have only two parties. The user who is seeking industry specific information and the business who is providing the information. The contract here requires only that the business provides the information and the user will read it. Now the site is asking the user for something in addition to reading the material, the site is asking the user to participate in the form of a survey. The survey requires the user to re-evaluate the relationship they have with the site.
The business has made two assumptions. Since the business has given away the information and the user has been reading it, they assume the opposite is long overdue. However the business has overlooked what they user has already given them, in the form of engagement, analytics and search engine weight. They also assume since surveys are a great form of user engagement the user will comply.
Now I’m starting to see where the cringe comes from. We’ve jumped the gun. We’ve asked the user to volunteer information for a survey without first getting their consent. It may seem strange, but equal exchange is a principal that exists within the business community, especially with information.
Early in my career, I had the privilege of sitting in on a meet and greet with two VPs from separate companies considering a partnership. It started out with each VP only saying a sentence maybe two and patiently waiting for the other to respond. At the time, the pauses were excruciating to me, I didn’t understand why they weren’t talking more, why there wasn’t a more open exchange of ideas since they shared a common goal.
It wasn’t until later in my career that I realized I had watched the equivalent a boxing match between two heavyweights. The early rounds were just the occasional jabs to feel each other out. Neither one willing to exchange more information than necessary. However since neither was willing to commit for fear of leaving himself exposed, the match ended in a draw.
All in all a pretty boring match, which brings me back to our survey. If neither of these two VPs were willing to give away information to work towards a common goal, how can we convince either of them to take a survey? The answer is simple, we have to give them something in exchange. They won’t take the survey in exchange for information the business has already given them. They may do it out of the kindness of their hearts, but it’s doubtful. That isn’t to say they don’t have hearts, it’s to say they have been trained to never give away information.
So now that we have thought through our scenario it’s time to make an addendum to our contract. First we have to figure out how much is the information worth. Is this critical to our success, if so, we’ll need to up our game. So for this scenario, let’s say it is. The data from this survey is going to determine how we target our marketing efforts. Most would agree this is valuable information. So in exchange we should give something of like value.
A gift card comes to mind or better yet, a raffle. 1 in 1000 wins a $10 gift card for a particular coffee empire. If you argue that is not enough incentive, then you’ll have to up the ante. How about 1 in 100 win a gift card? If you were against the 1 in 1000 you’re already starting to see the value of this debate. Randomly asking people to take a survey is usually met with indifference, however asking them to take a survey in exchange for $10 is more likely scenario.
This is only one example of the social contracts we bring when we request information on the internet. This same debate can be in regards to forms, newsletter sign-up, or like us Facebook. You should always ask yourself first, “well, what would I expect in exchange?”