What event feedback surveys tell you (and what they don’t)

You've launched your event and sent out an event feedback survey to understand what attendees thought of it and measure whether it was a success. But can you take the feedback you get at face value?

Well, maybe not. Event feedback isn't always so straightforward—it's complicated.

Attendees may have rushed through the event feedback survey, giving inaccurate or shallow feedback that doesn't give you any real insights. Or maybe they want to be polite, so they don't share their true feelings. Perhaps they only remember the most recent elements of the event, so they can't give you complete feedback.

Despite the potential for misinterpretation and inaccuracies, event feedback is still a widely used success metric for event organizers. Just as high ratings don't necessarily equate to success, negative feedback doesn't always mean your event was a failure.

To get an idea of whether your event was successful, you'll want to combine feedback with other metrics. But you'll also need to understand what feedback actually reveals vs. what it doesn’t, so you can pull relevant data from your event feedback surveys.

We're breaking it down, from what feedback tells you, what it doesn't, and how to uncover deeper insights.

What event feedback really tells you

If you want a play-by-play analysis of your event, you won't get it from attendee feedback. You're more likely to get general attendee sentiment that, while good to know, won't give you the insights you need to make data-driven decisions to improve future events.

"Loved the workshops."

"The technological challenges were frustrating."

"Lunch was delicious and I loved the swag bags!"

The feedback is straightforward but it's also generic. While these comments offer high-level feedback that may reflect general attendee sentiment, you know there’s more to the story.

‍Why do attendees love workshops or rave about one speaker but discredit another? Will they not attend future events because of the technology challenges?

When taking attendee feedback at face value, you'll likely learn about:

• ‍Attendees' first impressions of the event. Was the venue freezing and made a poor first impression? Or maybe tech issues made a virtual event a nightmare. Event feedback will likely give you insights into what stood out at the start of the event.
• Attendee frustrations. Attendees will often share their frustrations with you, whether it was long lines, internet issues, or parts of the event that didn't live up to their expectations.
• Moments that stood out to attendees. If there was a remarkable speaker or a workshop attendees couldn't get enough of, you'll likely hear about it.

But, as a strategic event organizer, you want to dig deeper. Why did attendees feel this way, and why does it matter to them? What aren’t they telling you?

What event feedback doesn’t tell you

Someone may have nice things to say about your event, but will they buy your product and generate revenue for your brand? Maybe. But maybe not.

Just because an event received mostly 5-star reviews doesn't mean attendees are interested in what you're selling. And it certainly doesn't mean they'll bring in recurring revenue. High ratings don't always equate to leads, conversions, and revenue.

And without context, you don't know if an attendee will return for future events (even if they rated this one highly). You need to understand the why to predict long-term engagement with attendees.

But there's another hurdle—event feedback can be biased—making it harder to get real insights:

• Thanks to recency bias, attendees will likely remember the events or moments that came last than those that happened first, skewing feedback toward their most recent experience (not the holistic experience).

• Negativity bias may bias feedback by emphasizing the more potent negative feelings over positive ones, so even if they had an overall great experience, a few negative ones might stand out more.

• Politeness bias suggests that people think being honest (or negative) is impolite. Because they don’t want to seem disrespectful or unappreciative, they tend to leave out the less savory details. 

And then you've got people who don't respond to event feedback surveys, so you have no idea what attendees who say nothing thought of your event. Whether they loved it or hated it, you have no idea.

Sounds all doom and gloom, right? But don't worry—you can still draw actionable insights from event feedback surveys. You just need to know how to collect event feedback that probes deeper.

We’ve got tips on that later.

Is positive feedback too much of a good thing?

We all love praise, whether it's about our work, who we are, or, in this case, the events we put on. But is too much of a good thing... bad?

Think about it: your event scores almost perfect ratings across the board. No one provides any harsh feedback. Great, right?

Well, if attendees are giving stellar feedback because they're being polite or are focusing on standout moments, it could hinder your ability to improve future events. Don't let positive feedback overshadow where you can do better.

There's always room to grow. But without nuanced feedback that gets into the good and bad of the event, you don’t know how to optimize for the future. 

Remember politeness bias? Keep in mind that, while negativity bias is also a possibility, event attendees often skew toward being polite rather than being honest. Take positive reviews with a grain of salt.

People tend to remember standout moments rather than the entire experience—they’ll naturally rave about the most exciting highlights and not give feedback on the full event.  

This can look like reviewing a particular session or moment within the event rather than talking about how the event felt as a whole and what they got out of it. 

To encourage more holistic feedback, be sure to include questions about what to improve for next time:

• How relevant was the content?
• How clearly was the information presented at the event?
• How satisfied were you with the event communication?
• What did you want more of? Less of? 

Everyone's got an opinion—but will they share it?

The people who fill out event feedback surveys are typically those with the strongest opinions. You'll get lots of positive feedback... and lots of negative responses.

The attendees with neutral opinions? They either don't respond or pale in comparison to the number of attendees with extreme opinions, skewing data and giving you the "loudest voices” problem.

The loudest voices problem is just another reality of feedback culture. Attendees who have something to say are far more likely to fill out your event feedback survey than someone who had a perfectly nice time but doesn’t have strong feelings either way. 

One way to combat this and boost response rates? Make your calls for feedback as dynamic and personal as possible. 

That means addressing attendees by name and customizing their post-event feedback survey experience so it feels effortless (dare I say enjoyable) to fill out. 

These small changes can make a big difference in your response rate—which also helps you get more quality data (see how Superside did it).

Reality based on expectations

If you're getting responses like, "I wish there'd been more time for networking," or "All the speakers did was promote their brands," you're likely dealing with attendees who had expectations that weren't met. But that doesn't always align with reality.

For example, you may have offered plenty of time for networking, but it wasn't as much as an attendee expected, you'll probably get negative feedback about it. Why? Because event satisfaction relies on expectations, not what actually took place.

Common post-event survey mistakes include only focusing on impressions vs. factoring in attendee expectations. And following up on previous questions with "Why?" can help you uncover what they expected and whether you delivered.

Include open-ended questions in your post-event survey to give attendees a chance to explain why they answered yes or no to “Would you recommend this event to a colleague or friend?” or why they rated the event a 3 out of 5 on a Likert scale question.  

Timing is everything

Another crucial element that can impact the responses from your event feedback survey? Timing. And it's not as simple as it sounds.

Immediate feedback typically captures emotional responses, not deep reflection. Delayed feedback might reveal more thoughtful insights, but response rates are often lower and survey-takers may have forgotten about parts of the event.

The solution? Multiple touchpoints:

• Real-time pulse checks. Set up survey stations around the conference (or a virtual survey for online events) for people to give feedback during the event. They can give detailed responses about the quality of their latest breakout session or share insight into what they’ve been learning so far.

• An initial post-event survey. Send your post-event feedback survey a few days or a week after the event. Waiting a bit gives attendees some breathing room and the opportunity to reflect on all their learnings before crafting thoughtful feedback.

• Survey follow-up. Send personalized follow-up emails to anyone who hasn’t responded to your event feedback survey to ensure you get as many responses as possible. You might be surprised by how many people appreciate the follow-up—especially when it’s personalized. 

You can add your feedback reminders to your event wrap-up content for a seamless plug to complete your survey. Include a link to your survey in your highlights email and make it easily accessible across platforms where attendees might be soaking in all the post-event content.

Again, ease of use is crucial to encourage high response rates.

Get rid of survey fatigue by building surveys people want to fill out

Let's be honest—people get tired of answering questions. Don't be surprised if they rush through surveys (or don't respond at all) or skip open-ended, higher-effort questions in your survey.

When you ask them to fill out yet another survey, they probably already have survey fatigue. But you can combat this by carefully crafting your survey.

To maximize response rates, keep your survey short and to the point, ideally only taking a few minutes to complete.

‍Typeform customers see higher completion rates when their surveys include six questions or less.

Your survey should also be dynamic and use several different question types, like multiple choice, ranking, and open-ended questions.

Remember to prioritize getting quality feedback rather than trying to ask every question you want answered. This respects your attendees’ time and gets you the information you need to continue optimizing your event strategy.

Another consideration? Survey design.

When you use Typeform for event marketing, you can create the sleek, dynamic survey you need to boost completion rates and get high-quality insights. Typeform only displays one question at a time, helping the survey-taker stay focused and preventing overwhelm.

And making beautiful surveys is easy, with plenty of customization options to fully brand your event feedback survey.

Uncover deeper insights with strategic post-event surveys

With the different biases, attendees not responding, and event feedback not being as straightforward as it seems, you're probably wondering, "What's the point?"

Well, you can easily avoid these post-event survey mistakes and collect invaluable event feedback. Here's how.

Combine feedback with behavioral data

Sometimes what we say doesn't always match what we do—it's why parents love telling their kids, "Do as I say, not as I do!"

And it's often what we see in event feedback, giving you only a partial view of what attendees thought of your event. But combining feedback data with behavioral data is a powerful way to analyze the true success of your event.

It can reveal patterns and sentiments that attendees might not be able to put into words for themselves. Add event feedback with behavioral data, like:

• Day-by-day attendance rates (for multi-day events)
• Session attendance rates 
• Dwell time throughout the event
• After-hours attendance rates
• Attendee engagement
• Social media activity 
• Closed deals 

Combining behavioral data with feedback paints a fuller picture of what went well (or didn’t) and how it all adds up.

Put conditional logic to use

Not all attendees are the same, and they didn't have the same experience at your event. Instead of sending them the same survey, created a personalized survey experience using conditional logic.

‍Logic allows you to route survey-takers to different questions based on their answers to previous questions, making it feel personalized. And most importantly, they're not skipping through countless irrelevant questions.

And adding logic with Typeform is simple. Create as many branches as you like to get as specific as you need to accommodate all your different attendee types. Build a logic map to visualize logic in your event feedback survey. 

The more relevant and personal the survey feels, the more likely attendees will fill it out—which means more data and deeper analysis that'll help you improve future events.

Gather in-the-moment feedback

Event feedback is paramount to creating better events. But when you combine post-event feedback with real-time feedback during the event, you get a chance to improve the event... in real time.

Let's say your workshop just ended and you're about to open the floor for questions. Whether virtual or in-person, you can share a QR code on the screen for people to answer a few questions (keep it very short) before they settle into questions.

If you review the live results, you may find that it was hard for attendees to hear the speakers. Or that the content wasn't as in-depth as they'd hoped. You can instantly optimize the rest of your event—especially if there are multiple sessions or days—to create a better event now.

And when you improve the event in real time, you might just see more positive feedback after the event.

Use qualitative and quantitative data

Data is always about more than just numbers—what story is the data telling? That's where qualitative data comes in.

Qualitative questions are typically open-ended and give people a chance to share their thoughts and go deeper than a multiple-choice or rating scale question.

Digging through qualitative data, you’ll uncover attendees' perceptions and personal experiences. You can then compare responses and identify recurring themes or patterns to reveal true attendee sentiment. 

Qualitative data analysis also lets you separate true patterns from one-off complaints or experiences, helping you focus on the most valuable metrics instead of getting bogged down by outliers. 

Typeform for event marketing streamlines the often resource-intensive process of qualitative analysis with Smart Insights. It uses AI to analyze your results and create a high-level overview of your responses, including key topics and themes.

You can also ask AI about different response themes, like:

• What did attendees find most valuable?
• What was the lowest-rated session?
• What did people think of the venue?

Build your best event yet with Typeform

Crafting a strategic event feedback survey is an art. You want to ask the right questions and get the timing just right. But to get the most out of attendee feedback, you need to think critically about their answers—don't take it at face value.

As you review feedback, look at it from a strategic mindset that will allow you to be more strategic with future events. Better strategy, better events.

Now, all you have to do is create your post-event feedback survey.

Typeform makes it easy to build beautiful, engaging surveys that gather thoughtful responses. And, with robust analytics, Typeform also offers holistic insights into the attendee experience, giving you the information you need to build an even better event the next time around. 

Ready to get started? Try it out with this free template.