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Glossary

What is a survey response rate?

Response rate is the share of the people you asked who answered the survey, shown as a percentage.

Response rate is the share of the people you asked who answered. If you send a survey to 400 people and 100 answer, your response rate is 25 percent.

How to work it out

Divide the number of answers by the number of people who received the survey, then multiply by 100. Count only surveys that were delivered. A bounced email reached no one.

Why it matters

With few answers, one person can move the score a lot. If only the happiest or angriest people reply, the score misses everyone else. Read the response rate next to the score.

What helps people answer

  • Keep the survey short: one rating and one open question.
  • Ask close to the thing you ask about.
  • Make it easy: answer inside your app or with one click from an email.
  • Do not ask too often. See survey fatigue.

Compare with yourself

Rates differ a lot between email and in-app surveys, and between customers and employees. Compare with your own earlier surveys of the same kind.

Keep reading

All glossary terms

  • Survey fatigue

    When people stop answering because they are asked too often.

  • Event survey

    A survey sent when something happens, such as a closed ticket.

  • NPS

    How likely customers are to recommend you, from -100 to 100.

Ask these questions at the right moment

Pulseri sends NPS, CSAT and CES surveys to customers and eNPS and ESAT surveys to your team, and alerts you when a score is low.

Free for 14 days. Cancel any time before it ends.