Why Another Survey Reminder Probably Won’t Improve Your Response Rate

Around every graduation, Career Services staff across the country do essentially the same thing. Their career outcomes survey goes out, and a few days later, the first reminder is sent.

Then another. Then another. And still, not enough responses.

Eventually someone asks, “Should we send one more reminder?” It can start to feel like hitting the same wall a little harder each time, hoping this time it will move.

Sometimes another reminder helps. Often it doesn’t.

Graduates receive more email than ever before. Many begin checking their university email less frequently after graduation, while others quickly shift their attention to jobs, graduate school, or moving to a new city. As a result, many colleges and universities are finding that the techniques that worked just a few years ago simply don’t produce the same results today.

That doesn’t mean survey response rates can’t be improved. It means there probably isn’t a single change that’s going to dramatically increase them.

Why the Response Rate Matters

Of course, the goal isn’t simply to produce a higher response rate.

Career outcomes data is collected because people use it to make decisions. Students and families want a clearer picture of where different degrees can lead. Faculty and administrators want to understand what graduates actually do after leaving campus. Career Services professionals need that same information to help students explore their options and make more informed choices.

A major may sound interesting on paper, but understanding where graduates actually go, the kinds of roles they take, and what their early careers look like gives students another piece of information to consider. It doesn’t make the decision for them. It helps them ask better questions before making it.

That is what makes improving response rates worthwhile. The objective isn’t a better percentage on a report. It’s having enough reliable information to give people a clearer picture of what happens after graduation.

What We’ve Learned from Working with Colleges and Universities

After working with colleges and universities across the country, we’ve found that institutions with the best response rates rarely rely on a single tactic. Instead, they consistently make small improvements to their survey process each year. The cumulative effect is often far greater than searching for one breakthrough idea.

Small Improvements Add Up

Timing and reach

Let them know it’s coming. A short heads-up before the survey launches, from a department chair, advisor, or someone the graduate already knows, sets the expectation that a real email is on the way.
Start the survey as close to graduation as practical, while students are still actively checking their university email.
Send invitations to both university and personal email addresses, since graduates often begin checking their university email less frequently after graduation.
Supplement email with text message reminders, which are often seen more quickly than email.

Design and personalization

Design the survey for mobile devices first, since many graduates will open it on a phone.
Keep the survey invitation short and focused so it doesn’t read like just another mass email.
Personalize the subject line with the graduate’s name or major.
Personalize the body of the message too, not just the subject line.
Use more than one version of the invitation, varying wording between reminders and across the graduating class, rather than sending 500 to 5,000 nearly identical emails.

Deliverability

Send it to yourself first. Check how it lands in a personal Gmail and Outlook inbox before it goes to the full list, phrasing in the body (leading with an incentive, urgency language, excessive punctuation) can trip filters even when the subject line looks fine.
Run it through a free spam checker too, like mail-tester.com or Postmark’s spam check tool, for a second opinion on the technical side.

None of these changes is likely to double your response rate by itself.

Together, however, they can make a meaningful difference.

One institution we worked with made small changes to their process each year, rather than searching for one big fix. Their response rate moved from 5.3% to 18.6% to 28.7% over three years. No single change accounted for the jump. The improvement came from stacking small, deliberate adjustments year over year.

Response Rate Is Only Part of the Picture

Even the best survey won’t tell the complete story of where graduates go after graduation. That’s why many colleges and universities are looking beyond the survey itself and incorporating additional sources of career outcomes data.

In our next article, we’ll explore where that information can come from and how institutions are using it to create a more complete picture of graduate success.

Many of the ideas discussed here are incorporated into the COutcomes platform by default. If you’re evaluating your current career outcomes survey process – or simply looking for ways to improve response rates – we’d be happy to share what we’ve learned.

About the Author

Mark Fischer is the founder of COutcomes. For more than two decades, he has worked with colleges and universities to improve career outcomes reporting by increasing response rates, identifying additional sources of outcomes data, simplifying data collection, and helping institutions communicate the success of their graduates.