Surveys are a big part of event success. They are the best way to learn what attendees thought of the event and what you might want to change for the next event you plan.
Unlock valuable insights with our post-event survey questions! Discover essential event feedback strategies and free templates, such as event evaluation forms, to measure the success of your event. Everything you need is right here.
Table of Contents
Post-Event Survey Questions for Every Occasion
Best Practices for Creating Event Survey Questions
Essential Post-Event Survey Questions for Measuring Event ROI
How to Ask for Feedback Post-Event
Using Event Survey Data to Improve Future Events
Creating a survey is easy with some great prewritten questions. These answers can help you plan future events and better shape your fundraising strategy. Here are some of the best survey questions for different types of event participants.
Why are post-event questions for attendees important? Feedback. You want to learn about the event's strengths and weaknesses from people who attended, contributed to and/or supported the event. Survey feedback will give you a much better understanding of each group’s experiences and insights.
The best questions for post-event surveys for your nonprofit event measure success with key performance indicators, or KPIs. Some questions you can ask include:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Evaluation Template
Since COVID, virtual events have grown in popularity. In fact, in EventMB’s survey of event planners, which examined attitudes on the most positive effects of online events, increased attendance ranked number one (34%), followed by lower costs (27%).
However, it can be difficult to know what virtual attendees think about an event. You can’t gauge attendees’ reactions online, which makes post-event surveys even more critical than they are for live events. For example, ask virtual attendees these questions:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Virtual Survey Questions for Attendees
Creating survey questions for staff managing the event is something many event planners overlook. With these questions, you can identify the challenges that the staff encounters, giving better insight into the communication between planners and staff. You can ask these questions in your survey for staff:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Survey Questions for the Staff
Another questionnaire audience that is often overlooked is event speakers. Ask speakers these questions to understand how you can create a better experience for future speakers:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Survey Questions for Speakers
Most events have sponsors, but how many sponsors are actually pleased with their sponsorships? Many nonprofit sponsors make contributions for the common good after receiving a sponsorship proposal letter; however, they may have other concerns. For example, many companies sponsor sporting events because they generate more business for them. In fact, 20% of individuals will base their purchasing decisions solely on an organization’s sponsorship of a sports team or event. Aside from a business’s bottom line, there are additional considerations such as feeling appreciated and knowing their investments actually achieved something meaningful. As an event planner, it is key that you address all of these concerns, which is why you need your sponsors’ feedback. Here are a few questions you could ask:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Survey Questions for Sponsors
To have a successful event, you need satisfied vendors. This is normally what attracts people to the event. Here are examples of questions for vendors to include in your survey:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Survey Questions for Vendors
No event can succeed without volunteers, especially if your event is for charity. Some questions you can ask volunteers in your survey include:
Looking for a Free Survey Template? Download the Word Document!
Post-Event Survey Questions for Volunteers
To make your survey easy and interesting to complete, the questions should be relevant to your event and the audience. The number one thing to know is to keep the survey short and simple.
There are a large variety of questions you can include in a post-event survey. However, always include these basic types of questions to make your survey effective:
Open-ended questions require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. The audience answers the questions in their own words. Why is it important to have open-ended questions in your survey? Here’s why:
Rating scale questions are where respondents rate their answers from 1-5 or 1-10. It is easier to answer these questions, and responses can be more accurate than yes or no answers. Other reasons to consider rating scale survey questions include:
It is essential to balance closed-ended and open-ended questions in your survey to get structured and quantitative data. It isn’t just important to include both types of questions, you need the right number of each type of question. Here are tips on how you can balance the two types of questions in your survey:
To make survey questions more engaging, use these proven strategies to get more valuable feedback:
What is ROI? It is the return on investment for events. You can calculate ROI by using a survey with both quantitative and qualitative questions. Here are some samples of post-event survey questions that will help you measure ROI:
To gauge the overall event experience, ask questions that measure if the event was successful, for example:
The key reason to create a post-event survey is to see if the event was a success. A few questions will help measure the success of the event’s marketing efforts, such as:
What’s the best way to ask post-event survey questions to get relevant and accurate feedback? Try these best practices:
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but the percentage of people responding to surveys falls off after more and more survey requests. In fact, the University of New Mexico did a study on its students and found there was a 22% drop in responses after students completed just two prior surveys.
The key is to ask for feedback sparingly. Otherwise, you won’t get enough responses for an accurate sample to help you make decisions. In the same study, response rates were above 50% for the first two surveys, but the third fell below 50%. This means you’ll likely want to conduct only one survey per event to prevent fatigue, especially if your organization is reaching out for details on multiple events.
Let’s face it. The ability to focus on a single task for an extended period of time is becoming more difficult. In fact, during the past 20 years, attention spans have fallen to 45 seconds from 2.5 minutes according to Northeastern University.
Unfortunately, the decline in attention span likely won’t likely improve. A poll of TikTok users found that 50% admitted that watching a video over a minute long was stressful. When you consider that most of TikTok’s users are under 35, and a quarter are between ages 10 and 19, the task of filling out survey questions will likely become more taxing to respondents. That’s why it is key to be precise in the questions you ask:
When you receive your survey responses, it’s a mistake to continue planning the next event without following up. When you receive negative feedback, try to follow up on it. Ask more questions about the feedback and what you can do to improve your event next time.
You have your survey answers, now what’s next? How can you use the event survey data to improve as you plan your next event? Start by analyzing your feedback and sorting it from positive to negative. Focus on impactful areas that are the most important or areas where there were the most negative answers.
Setting goals related to the problems or negative areas of your event helps you improve it going forward. Make a list of the things you can change for the next event and look for ways to make them better next time.
Identifying areas where your next event can improve is not as hard as you might think. You just need to know what questions to ask in your post-event survey and begin the strategic planning process for what's next. Here are some ideas:
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