Right after your event ends is the perfect opportunity to collect valuable insight from those most engaged with it: your attendees! A post-event survey is a great tool in gaining meaningful feedback about your event, and subsequently putting that feedback to work by improving scheduling, content, and more for future events. That being said, you’ll need to ask the right questions to gain these actionable insights. Read on for our breakdown of the types of questions you should include in your post-event surveys!
What did you love most? What did you love the least?
Discover which performances, panels, presentations, and food options your attendees enjoyed most, as well as which may have missed the mark. To make analysis of your feedback easier (and to reduce the time it takes to complete your survey), consider offering a multiple choice response to these questions with your most prominent event aspects listed as choices. This question type can include anything from specific event info, to the date, venue, and even the ticket sales process for the event. If you do choose the multiple choice route, you should also include an “other” option to allow write-in answers for event features not already listed.
On a scale of 1 to 10…
Include a series of questions (no more than five) eliciting responses on a scale of 1-10, regarding whether various aspects of your event exceeded expectations, met expectations, or fell short. Ask questions ranging from, “how satisfied were you with our guest speaker lineup?” to “how efficient was this year’s event admission process?” Receiving a general consensus indicating that a specific aspect did not live up to expectations, or that attendees were overwhelmingly impressed with something, can prove absolutely invaluable in planning next year’s content and marketing strategy.
How likely are you to recommend this event to a friend?
It’s a simple question with a massively important sentiment. Word of mouth recommendations can be an asset or major detriment to the continued growth and success of your event. Asking your attendees to answer this simple question on a scale of 1-10 will help you determine their overall satisfaction rate. It’s also a great idea to use this question’s responses as a benchmark each year to see how you are improving.
Open-ended
End your post-event survey with an optional, open-ended question that asks your attendees to provide any additional comments they may have. In some cases, this question will simply remain unanswered, but those who take the time to reply often provide thoughtful suggestions of things that may need improved upon, or they may leave praise of the parts of the event they loved. Look for trends in those answers and put that analysis to work.