Ha, ha, 'tis to laugh!
Is there a place for humor is surveys? According to researcher and author Matthew Champagne, PhD there is indeed room for a bit of good clean humor is surveys. Surveys are known for their overwhelmingly serious tone and rigid adherence to proper grammar. This may have worked in days past, but as Millennials are taking over the market, it may be time to rethink our rigidness.
It is perfectly normal to open a conversation with a light tenor that may even include a bit of humor. This seeks to set an overall tone that is friendly and open. Respondents that are open tend to be more engaged which in turn yields better response and completion rates.
There are several places in the course of a survey where humor can be employed. Starting with the instructions the researcher can set the tone. For example instead of leading with a fixed completion time estimate you could say that expected completion time is 12 hours and 32 minutes. Of course you would want to follow this up with a re-assurance that you were just testing them to see if they were following the instructions and provide a realistic time estimate.
You could also use pop-ups or sub-questions that when triggered provide a brief humorous respite. For example if the respondent answers “no” to a question you could follow with a pop-up that says “bummer dude!”
One-offs are often used to bring the respondent back into the fold by leveraging a non-sense question and/or categories. It takes little effort to include a response category that has humor embedded.
The “thank you” page is also another place to include a humorous moment. You can wrap up the survey experience with a friendly passage, just like you would if concluding a conversation with a friend.
A cautionary note: humor is in the eye of the beholder. This means we have to know our audience and what they will and will not respond to. Sensitive subjects, such as bankruptcy, loss of a loved one, etc. are not the best place to use a light-hearted tone. However, if you are reaching out to video-gamers then an enthusiastic high-five may be just the trick.
Photo Credit: “Gags Key Shows Humor Jokes Or Comedy” by Stuart Miles courtesy of Free Digital Photos