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Maximizing
Survey Response Rate
Once
you’ve gone to the considerable trouble of finding names and addresses
of former tutors, you’ll want to be sure to get the highest return rate
possible. There are a number of easy steps to help make sure that once
the survey has been received, it is returned:
- Be sure to include a self-addressed,
stamped envelope with your snail mailings. Be sure that your electronic
mail mailings include clear instructions on how to return a digital
version.
- Be sure that your cover letter gives
former tutors a reasonable deadline by which to respond. Two weeks
seems about right--long enough to respect how busy alumni are, but
soon enough so that it encourages a prompt response.
- Soon after that deadline has passed,
if you have not received a responses from all those with verified
addresses, send a follow-up of some sort to those not yet heard from.
Post cards, perhaps with a picture of your campus on them, work well.
You can perhaps print your message directly on a postcard. If not,
you can print out your message in a small font and then photocopy
onto postcards
Dear ,
I
hope you got a copy of the survey I sent out a few weeks ago as part
of the Peer Tutor Alumni Research Project. I’m looking forward to hearing
from you. If you didn’t receive the survey or if you have any questions,
please contact me at
- Give it another week or ten days. If
you still haven’t heard, phone the tutor. Most likely you will need
to leave a message, but sometimes you actually reach former tutors.
They will be delighted to hear from you. Tell them that you really
want to hear about their experience in regards to peer tutoring.
- We’d urge you to keep extending the
deadline and periodically reminding people. People have a tendency
to think that if they missed the deadline, their response will no
longer be valuable (or that they’re off the hook!)
Now
you’ve probably done about all you can. Based on our experience to date,
you can expect something in the vicinity of 70-90 percent return rate!
Be sure to send participating tutors a thank you note and/or a copy
of your analysis of the data, a copy of the report you prepared for
your chair, dean or director based on the survey, a copy of the paper
on peer tutor alumni that you give at regional or national conferences,
any publications that have resulted, etc. Tutors will appreciate your
taking them and their experience seriously, and you will be building
a formidable constituency of former tutor alumni from your writing center.
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