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In the wise words of author Conan Doyle, while writing as Sherlock Holmes, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”
And therein lies the benefit and power of surveys. When you have the right survey tools to capture insightful data for informed decision-making, you move beyond assumptions and hypothesized conclusions.
To increase survey response rates, property managers should promote surveys across multiple channels, simplify the survey experience, offer participation incentives, follow up with non-respondents, and share results with the community.
These steps improve engagement, reduce survey fatigue, and help gather more accurate resident feedback.
Therefore, the value of surveys for gathering critical feedback can’t be overstated, as they can be used to assess satisfaction across a wide range of areas, including community amenities, services, and management.
However, getting residents and tenants to participate in property management surveys can be a challenge, and there is a fine line you walk to avoid survey fatigue. Thankfully, there are some best practices for improving survey response rates.
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What Is A Good Survey Response Rate?
Defining a “good” response rate depends a lot on how you’re sending the survey, who your audience is, and the survey channel you choose. But in today’s feedback-science landscape, some benchmarks are helpful to aim for because the higher your engagement, the more accurate and actionable your feedback will be.
- The average survey response rate is 10%-30%, depending on audience engagement.
- Response rates for digital surveys vary by channel.
Why It Matters
For multifamily and commercial real estate teams, a higher response rate gives far more reliable, representative insights. When more residents or tenants engage, you get a more complete picture of satisfaction, pain points, and service gaps. That helps you make smarter decisions — from improving maintenance workflows, to refining amenity offerings, to reducing turnover risk.
Best Practices for Improving Response Rates
✅ Promote Your Survey Early and Often
Simply put, the more people who know about your survey, the more likely they will participate. Optimizing participation, though, requires expanding your communication efforts.
If you rely on one communication channel for survey promotion, you likely will be disappointed in your participation rates. Today, you must use a variety of channels to promote your survey program, including:
- Social media
- Resident/Tenant newsletters
- Community bulletin boards
- In-person events
People use a wide range of sources to stay informed and gather information. By tapping into various communication channels, you increase the likelihood that residents and tenants will be aware of your survey program and respond when they see the invite.
✅ Make Your Survey Easy To Complete
The shorter and simpler your survey is, the more likely your community is to complete it. At Grace Hill, we keep survey questions clear and concise and avoid asking for too much personal information.
Consider adding text/SMS surveys that allow tenants and residents to complete surveys on their mobile devices with a mobile-friendly interface. People generally are happy to share their feedback, but if your survey is hard to navigate and time-consuming, you can be certain it will be quickly abandoned or deleted.
✅ Offer Incentives for Participation
Sometimes, even the most well-timed and expertly crafted surveys don’t produce the desired participation response you need or want. That’s where offering participation incentives can deliver a win.
While it may seem insignificant, offering participants a small incentive — like a chance to win a gift card or small prize — can greatly encourage residents to participate in your survey.
✅ Follow Up With Non-Respondents
Life happens. People get busy. If a resident or tenant doesn’t respond to a survey, it’s likely that it just slipped from their “To Do” list, as opposed to consciously ignoring it.
Gentle reminders and follow-ups are often appreciated.
With Grace Hill’s Surveys in PerformanceHQ, you can rest assured knowing they will automatically receive two reminders before the survey closes. With that in mind, if you still don’t receive a response, you can also send them a more personalized follow-up email or letter to encourage participation. Remind them of the importance of their feedback and offer to answer any questions they may have.
✅ Share the Results of Your Survey
Once you’ve collected your survey results, share them!. It’s a simple step that helps build trust and show residents and tenants that their feedback is valued.
You can share the results in a variety of ways. The following are a few suggestions:
- Host a meeting
- Blog post
- Social media post
- Newsletter
By following these best practices, you increase the likelihood of participation in your surveys, giving you valuable feedback to improve your community.
5 Tips To Improve Your Property Management Surveys
While improving your survey response rates hinges on a host of factors, there are steps you can take today to encourage participation and engagement.
In addition to the above best practices, here are a few survey response rate tips for property managers. Implement the tips below to help improve your survey response rates:
1. Personalize your survey.
Address residents and tenants by name and use language that is relevant to their interests. Because people are bombarded by messaging, adding a personalized touch to your surveys helps them stand out in a crowded and noisy inbox
2. Make your survey timely.
Send your survey out when they are most likely to be thinking about the topics you are asking about. Surveys, such as move-in, move-out, maintenance, and more, should be sent soon after the event while the information remains fresh on the resident’s mind.
Additionally, annual surveys should attempt to fall at the same time each year, so residents and tenants know when to expect them. Implementing a timely cadence for survey delivery provides more impactful responses, giving you more accurate insight into satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) and a better gauge of what is working and what needs improvement.
3. Make your survey relevant.
Don’t get lost in the weeds. It can be tempting to have a “one and done” mindset, believing that people prefer a single survey to several. But that’s not the path to success. It’s important to ask only questions that matter to residents and tenants, and most of the time, that includes a laser focus on their journey and the sum of their experiences.
💡Blog: The Key to Better Resident Satisfaction Survey Scores
4. Make your survey easy to understand.
Creating confusing or unclear surveys is a common pitfall. Industry insiders often forget that the terminology and acronyms they use daily don’t always translate clearly to the general public. It’s important to use clear and concise language and avoid jargon, even if you think certain phrases hold universal understanding.
But crafting surveys that are easy to understand also depends on your ability to write well-constructed sentences with an eye on grammar and spelling. Writing survey language with clarity is both an art and a science and often compels multifamily leaders to partner with survey experts for help.
5. Thank residents and tenants for their participation.
It should go without saying, but it’s too often an overlooked step. Feedback from surveys gives you reliable data to make impactful decisions about your property. It helps you improve both your property and performance. So, by all means, say thank you, and let them know that their feedback is appreciated. It’s a simple step that goes a long way. When people feel valued, it builds loyalty and trust, two critical markers for success.
How SMS and Mobile-Friendly Surveys Help
Mobile-first feedback is a powerful lever in multifamily and CRE because residents and tenants are almost always on their phones, making SMS and mobile-friendly surveys extremely effective.
Here are a few of the benefits:
- Faster, More Immediate Responses
SMS surveys deliver results quickly because texts are typically read almost immediately. - Higher Engagement, Less Friction
Compared to email, SMS has far fewer barriers — no logging in, no long forms, no complex links. That low friction means people are more likely to respond. - Personalization Boosts Participation
Including a resident’s or tenant’s name in the SMS intro can significantly improve engagement. In a field test, personalization lifted opt-in rates from 29% to 33% and response rates rose from 19% to 23%. - Quick Turnaround and Actionable Insights
With mobile surveys, property teams can trigger feedback at the right time — for example, after a maintenance request, a lease renewal, or a community event. That timing helps surface real-time sentiment, so you can act before issues escalate. - Broad Accessibility + Trust
Most people carry their phones everywhere. SMS survey invitations don’t require special apps, and because they’re highly personal, they often feel more trustworthy. This accessibility helps drive higher response rates and more representative data.
For this reason, Grace Hill launched Text/SMS Delivery as a Survey feature in PerformanceHQ. With a 98% delivery rate and average response times under two minutes, Text/SMS Delivery enables much faster, more reliable feedback — not to mention a competitive edge.
💡Blog: How to Gain a Competitive Edge With Text/SMS Survey Delivery
Survey Response Rates: FAQs for Property Managers
Here are a few answers to frequently asked questions about how to improve survey response rates.
1. How can property managers reduce survey fatigue?
Keep surveys short, focused, and relevant. Limit the number of surveys sent, clearly communicate the purpose, and close the loop by sharing key findings or improvements made based on prior feedback.
2. Do incentives actually increase survey participation?
Yes — small incentives such as gift cards, raffles, or rent-credit drawings can boost participation. The key is offering something meaningful to residents and tenants while keeping the survey quick and easy to complete.
3. What are the best channels for promoting a survey?
While face-to-face surveys often draw the highest response rates, they are not always the most realistic way to capture feedback. Text/SMS is typically the most effective, followed by in-app or web pop-ups and email notifications. However, using multiple channels — especially mobile-first options — ensures visibility and improves the likelihood that residents will respond.
Start Turning Survey Feedback Into Action
By following these timely tips and industry best practices, you can increase the odds that residents and tenants will participate in your survey and provide honest feedback, which is critical to prioritizing your property improvement projects, amenities, and community activities!
Grace Hill offers comprehensive survey programs that have proven to increase property performance and NOI for multifamily and commercial real estate organizations. We take the hard part out of designing surveys off your team and provide the tools to monitor your survey results and compare them to trusted industry benchmarks.
Contact Grace Hill today to get started on your next survey!
