Raising Response Rates in Mail Surveys of Small Business Owners : Results of an Experiment

The study attempts to identify survey treatments that have the potential to boost mail survey response rates among small business owners. In the past, researchers wishing to raise response rates have relied on financial incentives, stamped return envelopes, reminders, and university sponsorship. These treatments, however, raise such issues as the tendency of researchers to assume little or no change over time in the effectiveness of survey treatments. For this study, a survey was mailed to 16,000 randomly selected small business owners and members of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB).Seven survey treatments were selected and used in 128 combinations. Treatments included prenotification letters, Monday mail dates, three-color prints, personalized addresses, and stamped (rather than metered) envelopes. Although a few of the survey treatments yielded more responses than the control surveys, none of the treatments raised response rates significantly. Taken together, the findings suggest that attempts to grab respondents' attention with survey treatments, such as three-color design, are ineffective. (SAA)