How To Collect And Use Attendee Feedback For Future Events?

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | May 25, 2023 | Promo Feature

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The relationship with the attendees begins long before the actual event occurs and continues even after the event ends. It is no secret that this relationship is based on communication. It is why collecting feedback is essential to organize a successful event. Collecting feedback has numerous benefits. It sheds light on the attendees' experience, which helps plan future events better. In addition, it also provides insights into whether the agenda of the event was met or not. Finally, feedback offers valuable data, which is critical to learn more about the attendees and increase the ROI by providing a better experience. Here is how event organizers can collect attendee feedback for its benefit. 

1. Send Out Online Surveys 

Online surveys provide an easy way to connect with a broad audience with little investment. It is the reason why McD prefers to send McDVoice, an online survey, to its customers. Also, online tools make it easier to analyze the feedback than traditional paper feedback. Therefore, we recommend the event organizer use online surveys, which are convenient and sustainable. 

Even though crafting an online survey is easy, one should be mindful of the questions included in it. Firstly, the question should be well-worded. Secondly, it should consist of critical questions which can provide valuable data. You can look at the survey form of KrogerFeedback to get an idea of meaningful questions in a questionnaire. 

2. Analyze The Registration Form 

The registration form for an event itself can provide the organizer with many hidden insights, which helps organize the events. For example, if you are organizing an event in multiple slots, it is a good idea to look at the most preferred slot to prepare accordingly. 

If one does not find enough information in the registration form, it may be time to consider relevant questions in it. The registration form is essential to learn more about the attendees, which helps plan a better event. 

3. Organize Live Social Media Updates 

Nowadays, people prefer to update their followers about an event they attend. Therefore, monitoring live social media updates is an excellent way of collecting feedback. The social media team can look at what the attendees say about the event through tags and mentions. A social wall is an innovative way to interact with the attendees in a fun way.

Another benefit of organizing a live social media update is that it can also pique interest amongst the followers of the attendees who might consider attending the event in the future. 

4. Collect Feedback In Person 

Having team members talk with the event attendees to gather their feedback is a good idea. Also, collecting first-hand feedback will make the attendees feel heard and valued, which is essential to building a successful relationship. Another benefit of collecting feedback is that it ensures the negative feedback is not out in the open. Also, if possible, one can easily tackle the negative experience right during the event. 

5. Comment Cards 

Comment cards are widely used in restaurants to showcase good feedback. One can do the same for events too. The beauty of collecting feedback with a comment card is that it is not time-consuming, and therefore, the attendees generally do not shy away from jotting down their experience. Also, when an attendee finds another attendee giving their feedback in a comment card, it pushes them to do the same naturally. However, when distributing comment cards, collecting back the cards and analyzing them properly is crucial. 

How To Analyze Event Feedback?

Merely collecting feedback brings no good if one fails to analyze it. Sometimes, feedback analysis can be overwhelming, especially if the quantity is massive. Therefore, organizing and visualizing the feedback is a must to analyze. Online tools for sentiment analysis can quickly shed light on the users' overall experience. Other ways of analyzing feedback are by reading the data in graphics forms with the help of dashboards, charts, graphs and tables. 

Implement The Feedback 

After analyzing the feedback, it is equally crucial to act on it. Implementing the input can highly benefit the success of future events. One can also notice a pattern in the changing ratio of positive and negative feedback. SWOT analysis can make it easier to look at the areas of improvement. The deeper perspective that the feedback brings help increases the proportion of satisfied attendees, which has many benefits.