Contrary to popular belief, surveys don’t have to be boring! Unless you’re carrying out user research for an academic dissertation, your surveys and the whole process of collecting customer feedback can be both valuable to you in terms of your research goals and enjoyable to your respondents.

Keep it interesting, up your response rates, and boost customer satisfaction with the tips below.

How to make surveys fun

1. Use friendly language

Have you ever taken a survey that was so academic you nearly fell asleep?

While surveys can contain serious information and valuable customer feedback, there is a balance to find. You don't want it to be so serious that your respondents close the window because they get bored. Strike a tone that is friendly and informal.

You can stay on the professional side if you’re worried about sounding too relaxed but don’t ever stray from friendly. It’ll work wonders if you want to give your respondents a more entertaining survey experience!

Also, don't shy away from emojis. We're not saying you should make rebus puzzles and ask your readers to decipher them, but if you want to come across as less formal, it won't hurt to throw in an emoji or two.

Free content rating survey template

2. Ask fun survey questions in the middle

Ready to spice up your survey? Asking some funny questions is a great way to do it, especially if your reader doesn't expect them!

Your survey is bound to get dull and boring if it just questions after question on a serious topic. Yet, it goes a lot faster if your participants aren’t expecting some fun questions here and there.

Try some of these out and alternate them with your more serious ones to break up a dense questionnaire.

‍Here are some examples:

1. Are you a dog person or a cat person?

‍2. Do you like pizza or burgers?

‍3. Would you rather have one life lasting 1000 years or live 10 lives at 100 years each?

‍4. What superpower would you like to have for one day?

Interrupting the survey flow with a surprising question can make your respondents regain attention and show your sense of humor.

Humor That Works recommends utilizing a ratio of four serious questions to one funny question.

‍PRO TIP: Are you worried you'll annoy your respondents by providing unflattering answer options? You can always make sure the funny questions are skipped automatically with a good customer feedback tool like Survicate, or even replaced with follow-up questions focused more on the here-and-now behind their dissatisfaction.

3. Use emojis

We live in the day and age of emojis. They’re everywhere. Even Dictionary.com recently added emojis to its website:

'Nough said, people love to see emoji faces pretty much wherever and it can add a little bit of pizzazz to any written text.

Emojis can boost survey completion rates without hurting the quality of the data.

Mobile users are now taking over the internet. What people used to do on their desktop computers and laptops, including checking their emails, now gets done on tablets and mobile phones.

That said, people are also much more likely to abandon websites and surveys on their mobile devices than they would on their computers. If it doesn’t load as quickly or just takes longer than expected, the users tend to get impatient and easily abandon their survey.

It’s been demonstrated that using emojis, along with shorter questions and response formats, can help reduce drop-off rates. WARC has also found that emojis could boost survey completion.

Definitely worth giving a shot, right?

4. Provide conversational answers

Sometimes surveys can seem so serious when a little bit of humor could do the job just as well.

When you’re polling about your business, there are many opportunities for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers that you can jazz up just by providing conversational answers.

For example, if the question is:

‍“Would you like to receive a complimentary chocolate bar with your next delivery?”

Don’t do the typical “Yes” and “No.” and go for a more unique set of answers!

The responses could include:

‍Bonus: Think about how much more fun a survey like that is to write. You won’t be falling asleep behind your screen. You’ll get to make your survey fun for everyone involved, including yourself! :) 

Fun questions to ask in surveys

All the above information shows you just how to make informative surveys more fun. But what about questionnaires that have a completely different goal? In some cases, the sole purpose of a survey or questionnaire is to entertain and put a smile on somebody's face.

‍Heck, why do you think Buzzfeed was created?

‍Now, of course, how you structure these surveys still depends on your goals. For example, whether you’re collecting and analyzing data about your audience, or you’re just looking to engage them in a dialogue.

Here are some ideas you can use if you’re in the “just for fun” camp.

• A poll on a popular news site: “How well did our team do in yesterday’s game?”
• On a blog: “Do you think the writers of the Game of Thrones should redo the entire last season?”
• Quizzes: You can turn a simple questionnaire into a quiz which can make its engagement rate skyrocket. You might recall it was incredibly popular in the golden age of Facebook apps.
• On social media: For example, take Instagram or Twitter. Use polls in your stories and Tweets for an extra engagement boost.

Create fun surveys with Survicate

Making your surveys fun to fill in can boost your engagement and completion rates. However, if you don't want to go all out, even shifting to a more friendly tone can take your polls from dull to inviting.

Adding fun survey questions in the middle is a good way to surprise the participants and encourage them to keep answering the questions. Don't forget emojis! 😹

Once you decide what you'd like to ask your customers, make sure you pick a tool that allows you to fully customize the survey templates to suit your needs. With Survicate, you've got access to over 125 ready-to-use templates, but you can also create your own survey from scratch! With a freemium plan, that comes with unlimited responses and a wide range of native integrations, what's not to like? Sign up for free and get the ball rolling! ⚽