Research conducted by Skift Meetings shows that 91% of event professionals measure the success of their events on attendee satisfaction. Indeed, at the end of the day, your participants’ opinions are the only thing that really matters and can make or break your event’s success.
When you organize an event, your main goal should be to provide the best experience to your attendees. But, unless you measure their satisfaction level in some way, how can you possibly know if you have attained your goal and if your event can be considered a success? Also, how do you improve your subsequent events if you haven’t measured attendees’ satisfaction at your most recent event?
So how should you go about it? No worries, we’re here to help! In this article, we will share five ways to measure your attendees’ satisfaction.
Measure the engagement of the participants
Engagement is one of the best ways to determine if your event resonates with your participants.
Indeed, people now have so many opportunities to have their attention snatched away from the experience you built for them that you need to make sure they don’t get distracted.
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As we discussed in a previous blog post, ensuring your audience is engaged can be achieved through several means.
Measuring this engagement is an excellent way to determine the level of satisfaction of your participants, as there is a good correlation between engagement and satisfaction.
The more engaged your attendees are, the more satisfied with your event, and the stronger possibility they will attend the next time.
Check instant polls results for sessions
Whenever your event is based on content (think conferences, webinars, etc.), you need to assess the participants’ opinions regarding specific sessions and speakers.
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Instant polls after each session can help you evaluate the reactions of your audience to a speaker or the session’s content.
These polls can be pushed through an event app and should be kept short and to the point.
Don’t be afraid to use them at any time during your event to get a good sense of your attendees’ state of mind.
The ratings of the different sessions and speakers will help you decide what you need to keep or toss away for your next event, as they will give you a strong indication of what’s of most interest to your participants.
Get actionable data from post-event surveys
Surveys are a type of active data tracking tool that will help assess your attendees’ opinions on the event. They are the ultimate way to give a voice to your attendees and see what worked and what didn’t for them.
They are an essential complement to the instant polls that you would have conducted throughout the event, as they will give qualitative insight into the state of mind of your attendees, as well as some quantitative data.
Use a mix of questions that ask participants to rate an item on a numeric scale,
Yes-No questions that are easy to analyze en masse and open-ended questions that can provide valuable qualitative feedback.
Don’t forget to include a question that will help you calculate your event’s Net Promoter Score (NPS=% of promoters—% of detractors). This question can be phrased like this: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this event to a friend or colleague?”
If you host events on a regular basis, you want to have this kind of data so that you can make changes to ensure the participants get the most out of your event.
Monitor the activity on social media
In this day and age, if you didn’t see something on a social media platform, it didn’t happen!
So make sure you take the most advantage of your social media accounts to spread the word about your event and what is going on and monitor the attendees’ reactions and inputs. Don’t forget to create a specific hashtag for your event, as it will make it a lot easier to track the activity related to your event across several platforms.
The number of shares or posts about your event can give you a good idea of the level of engagement of your attendees, and the monitoring and evaluation of the reactions will tell you what the attendees thought of your event.
This should ultimately give you an accurate idea of their level of satisfaction.
Also, don’t swipe negative comments under the rug! Instead, take the time to answer them so that people know their voice is being heard.
Evaluate repeat registrations
One of the best ways to evaluate satisfaction is to look at repeat registration numbers in the case of a recurring event.
If your event let down your attendees, it is doubtful they will come back. It’s also unlikely they will promote it to their friends or colleagues. Participating in an event costs time and money, and participants want to know your event will be worth their while.
So, if you get a majority of attendees to register again for your next event, there is a good chance they were highly satisfied with their experience the first time.
Consider personalizing your messages when sending invitations to repeat attendees, as this will emphasize the fact that you pay attention, and most people will think of it as a nice touch.
In conclusion
From huge trade shows to smaller-scale conferences, the success of an event is always measured by the satisfaction of the people who attend. This is why evaluating how your attendees feel about your event is essential.
You can go about measuring that satisfaction level in a number of different ways that we described above.
Analyzing the data you collect will then provide precious insight into what works and what doesn’t and help you develop efficient strategies for your next events.