Online surveys for mobiles: 5 useful tips

According to our statistics, more than 70% of surveys today are answered through mobile phones.

The mobile phone is now a central part of our lives. It is the real personal computer: it penetrates all aspects of our daily lives, accompanies us all day long and we take it everywhere. Perhaps that is why more and more people have a smartphone: the latest report from We Are Social indicates that in Latin America there are more cell phones than people and that their use is increasing to connect to social networks or to buy products and services. 


The evolution of technology allows us to do more and more things with the same device: surf the Internet, chat, shop, watch movies... and respond to online surveys.

According to our statistics, more than 70% of surveys today are answered through mobile phones. The amount of users that choose to complete them with their phones increases, as it is the resource that they have available immediately, at any time and place, such as waiting rooms, trips in public transport and any other situation in which they have the sufficient time to comment on the quality of a service received or a product purchased, their tastes and preferences, etc.

"When choosing the platform to create an online survey, it is important that you select one that offers a multi-device experience and is especially friendly to complete with the cell phone”.

Therefore, to get a high completion rate, you should create an online form using as many resources as possible so that it is attractive to complete with a mobile phone.  What characteristics should it have to conquer the public? Let's take a look at some ideas below.


1- Use a platform that offers a satisfying multi-device experience

When choosing the platform to create an online survey, it is important that you select one that offers a multi-device experience and is especially friendly to complete with your mobile phone. In other words, the form must be displayed correctly to be viewed optimally with whatever screen the respondent uses.

For example, using a platform that allows you to choose the option to force vertical scrolling or not is a very useful resource to facilitate your response through phones and other mobile devices.


2- Take a mobile test

When creating your online survey for mobiles, you will most likely be using a desktop computer or laptop. However, your audience is going to respond to it in very different conditions. Therefore, before activating it, we recommend that you test it with several mobile devices to check that it actually works well and also detect any possible failure.


3- Make short surveys

Usually, people don't want to spend a lot of time responding to online surveys. For this reason, it is necessary to create surveys with few questions that are clearly and briefly stated, divided into different screens so that the respondent is not forced to “scroll down” to answer each one.


4- Simplify the answers

Just as the questions should be short, we also recommend that you simplify the answers. Preferably use the multiple choice format and avoid open answers in which the respondent has to write a lot.

All this is even more relevant if we consider that the phone screen is much smaller than that of a computer, so it is advisable to reduce the amount of text to make it easier to read. User attention is not limitless, and if you can't solve the survey quickly, you're likely to lose your patience and leave it half done.


5- Avoid videos in case the respondent does not have a good connection

This advice is closely related to the previous one. Completing a survey through a cell phone screen is different from doing it with a computer connected to a business or home Internet network. Therefore, it is preferable not to use videos in your questions because if the respondent does not have a good mobile data connection they can be loaded with greater difficulty, which will cause them to become frustrated or scattered. 

It is preferable to avoid adding videos to simplify the experience of the respondent who responds with a mobile phone and thus achieve our main objective: that they complete the entire form.


To sum up, the dominant position that smartphones and other mobiles occupy nowadays forces us to design online surveys designed to be answered by mobile users, that will look and work in a simple and attractive way, offering a dynamic and multi-device experience.


For this reason, we invite you to visit SurveyKiwi, a cloud tool that allows you to create highly visual and dynamic surveys that will allow you to understand better your customers and analyze the results in real time. Visit our website and get in touch with us! We will explain how to create, manage and distribute online surveys that automatically adapt to the screen resolution of each mobile device, allowing you to get more responses.


Subscribe to our blog and receive notifications of new notes

Start now to make better decisions

Create account

Free - No credit card needed - Cancel anytime