Data Driven: Best Practices and Questions to Capture Virtual Event Feedback

Why Virtual Event Feedback Matters

Getting feedback from virtual events is key to understanding what participants thought and felt. As we move to virtual events, getting feedback becomes even more important to ensure the event is successful and to make informed decisions for future events. Participant feedback gives you valuable insights to improve the overall experience and fix any issues that arose.

Feedback from virtual events tells you what worked and what didn’t. That’s important to refine your strategy and improve future events. By knowing what participants need and want, you can create more engaging and better virtual experiences.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Data-driven decision making is using feedback and other data to guide your decisions. It means decisions are based on what participants actually experienced not assumptions. By using data, event organizers can make better decisions that lead to better outcomes and higher participant satisfaction.

Using feedback data means continuous improvement. It shows you trends and patterns to inform future event planning. This proactive approach means each event builds on the previous one, so your virtual event strategy gets more refined and better over time.

Article Overview

This article will cover best practices for getting virtual event feedback, types of feedback surveys and survey questions. We’ll also cover administering surveys and answer common questions about virtual event feedback. By following these tips you’ll be able to get valuable insights for your virtual events.

We’ll look at timing, context and survey length and the different types of questions you can ask to get comprehensive feedback. We’ll also provide examples of good survey questions and how to distribute and follow up on surveys.

Virtual Event Feedback Surveys Best Practices

Timing

Timing is everything when it comes to getting feedback. Send out surveys immediately after the event while the experience is still top of mind. That way the feedback is accurate and reflects their true feelings.

Consider sending a follow up reminder if participants haven’t completed the survey within a few days. That will help increase response rates and get you more feedback.

Add Context to Your Surveys

Adding context to your surveys helps participants understand what the questions are about and how their feedback will be used. That means more thoughtful and detailed answers. Explain why you’re getting feedback and how it will help future events.

Include specific examples or references to parts of the event to help participants remember and give more accurate feedback. That context makes the survey more relevant and interesting to participants.

Survey Length

The length of your survey can impact response rates. Keep surveys short and focused so you don’t overwhelm participants. Balance getting comprehensive feedback with respecting their time.

Use a mix of question types to keep the survey interesting. Close-ended questions give you quick answers, open-ended questions give you more detail. Limit the number of questions so participants will complete the survey.

Virtual Event Feedback Surveys

General Surveys

General event surveys are to get overall impressions of the event. These surveys usually ask about the content, organization and overall experience. They give you a broad view of participant satisfaction and areas for improvement.

These surveys will help you identify common themes and trends in participant feedback. That information can be used to make strategic changes and improve future events.

Professional Surveys

Professional event surveys are about the specific needs and experiences of professionals attending the event. These surveys may ask about the relevance of the content, networking opportunities and overall value of the event for their professional development.

Getting feedback from professionals will help you ensure the event meets their expectations and provides value for learning and growth. That feedback can be used to tailor future events to the needs of professional attendees.

Event Planning Surveys

Event planning surveys are done before the event to get input on what participants want and expect. These surveys will help you understand what participants are looking for and plan the event accordingly.

By getting feedback during the planning stages you can make informed decisions on the format, content and logistics of the event. That proactive approach will lead to a better and more successful event.

Types of Questions

Close-Ended

Close-ended questions have pre-set response options for participants to choose from. These questions are good for getting quantitative data and identifying trends. Examples are multiple-choice and rating scales.

Close-ended questions are easy to analyze and will give you quick answers to participants’ experiences. They’re good for finding common issues and areas for improvement.

Open-Ended

Open-ended questions allow participants to give detailed and personal feedback. These questions will uncover insights that may not be captured by close-ended questions. Examples are asking participants to tell you their favorite part of the event or suggest improvements.

While open-ended questions can give you valuable qualitative data, they can also be more time-consuming to analyze. But the detailed feedback they give will give you deeper insights into participants’ experiences and preferences.

Likert Scale

Likert scale questions ask participants to rate their level of agreement to a statement on a scale, usually from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. These questions are good for measuring attitudes and perceptions.

Likert scale questions will give you nuanced insights into participants’ experiences and help you identify areas for improvement. They’re good for overall satisfaction and specific parts of the event.

Examples of Virtual Event Survey Questions

Did you attend the virtual event, and if not, why?

This question will help you identify barriers to attendance and understand why some participants didn’t attend. It will give you insights into scheduling, accessibility or communication issues.

Knowing the reasons for non-attendance will help you address those issues and improve attendance for future events. This feedback will also help you plan better promotion and communication for the event.

How would you rate this virtual event?

This general question will give you a quick overall sense of participants’ satisfaction with the event. It will help you identify the good and the not so good.

By asking participants to rate the event, you can get quantitative data that can be easily analyzed and compared across events. That data can be used to track progress and make data-driven decisions for future events.

How can we do better next time?

This open-ended question will ask participants to give you specific suggestions for improvement. It will uncover insights and ideas that may not be captured by other types of questions.

Asking participants to give you suggestions on how to improve future events will give you actionable feedback. That feedback will help you make targeted improvements and overall better virtual events.

Survey Administration

Mobile Friendly Surveys

Make sure your surveys are mobile friendly to get maximum response rates. Many participants will complete surveys on their mobile devices so make sure to design your survey for smaller screens.

Mobile friendly surveys should be easy to navigate and complete on a smartphone or tablet. That will increase participation and make sure you get feedback from a diverse group of participants.

Email Surveys

Email is a popular and effective way to distribute surveys. Sending surveys via email allows you to reach a big audience and give participants a convenient way to provide feedback.

When emailing surveys, make sure to include a clear and catchy subject line and a brief intro explaining the purpose of the survey. That will help participants open the email and complete the survey.

Survey Reminders

Survey reminders will help increase response rates. Participants may need a gentle nudge to complete the survey, especially if they missed the initial email or forgot to respond.

Send a reminder a few days after the initial survey invitation to make sure you get a full set of feedback. Be sure to thank participants for their time and input in your reminder messages.

Virtual Event Feedback Survey FAQs

How do you get feedback?

Feedback can be collected through various ways including online surveys, feedback forms and direct communication with participants. Online surveys are a popular and easy way to get feedback from a big audience.

To get event feedback effectively you need to ask the right questions and give participants an easy way to respond. That will ensure you get valuable insights to inform future event planning.

What questions to ask for event feedback?

Good questions for event feedback should be clear, relevant and focused on the event. Examples are overall satisfaction, specific parts of the event and suggestions for improvement.

Make sure to include a mix of question types, close-ended, open-ended and Likert scale questions to get comprehensive feedback. That will give you a full view of participants’ experiences and preferences.

How many questions in a feedback survey?

The number of questions in a feedback survey should be balanced to get comprehensive feedback without overwhelming participants. Aim for a short survey with a mix of question types to keep participants engaged.

Typically a feedback survey should have 10 to 15 questions. That’s enough to get detailed feedback without taking up too much of participants’ time and encourage higher response rates.

Summary

In this post we talked about why you should capture virtual event feedback and the benefits of data driven decisions. We covered best practices for creating feedback surveys, timing, context and survey length.

We also looked at different types of feedback surveys and questions, with examples of good questions. And we answered common questions about virtual event feedback.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is key to successful virtual events. By gathering and analyzing feedback regularly you can make informed decisions to make your events better.

Making changes based on feedback will give you more engaging and effective virtual experiences. This proactive approach means each event will build on the success of the previous one and your event strategy will get more refined.

Go Implement

We encourage event organizers to put into practice the best practices mentioned in this post to get valuable feedback from their virtual events. That way they can get insights to inform future event planning and continuous improvement.

By putting feedback and data driven decisions first you will get more successful and impactful virtual events. That way you’ll meet participants’ needs and preferences and get higher satisfaction and better outcomes.