How do I respond to people who respond to my survey with an email?

June 17, 2013 10:56 AM

I've recently run into the situation in which I'm trying to gather responses from dozens of respondents in my section typically via Doodle Poll or Google Forms and numerous people simply send me their response rather than entering it into the form. Can you help me with a script for politely responding to these folks?

Generally these emails will be because I'm trying to schedule a call about a topic, or because I need people to tell me what X they'd like and where they'd like it positioned.
Most of the time people who email me back will say something like "thought I'd email you rather than respond to the survey", sometimes they reply with no explanation, and occasionally they tell me the link won't work.

Neither I nor my admin have time (and I won't ask her to) to sort through 75 responses to decide when the best time is going to be for six dozen people to talk about widgets when replying to the Doodle poll literally takes 10 seconds to fill out.

I also don't want to encourage this behavior, because I work in an area in which habits become quickly entrenched, particularly in employees that have been in my department for a long time.

So far, I generally just reply back with "Great! If you can enter that in the survey, that would be helpful" but then I get some inevitable "But I already told you" emails. Also, I really don't have any ideas for how to respond to "The doodle poll link doesn't work on my computer". When I've tested this out in person (e.g. walked over to the person's desk and clicked on the link on their computer) it has always worked with no problems, and I always test these surveys on all the browsers our office has.

Advice? Thanks

posted by stewiethegreat to Work & Money (21 answers total)

Do you tell them what the survey is about in the email? Maybe put less info in the email (or be more vague) so they are forced to click the link to see what the survey is about - then maybe they will be more likely to fill out the poll since it's already open.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 10:59 AM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

So far, I generally just reply back with "Great! If you can enter that in the survey, that would be helpful" but then I get some inevitable "But I already told you" emails. Also, I really don't have any ideas for how to respond to "The doodle poll link doesn't work on my computer".

"Your response will only be compiled if entered into the survey."
posted by Etrigan at 11:00 AM on June 17, 2013 [18 favorites]

Just set up a standard email saying thanks so much for responding, but you don't have the resources to insert the answers for all responses, so would very much appreciate it if they would fill in the survey itself. Include a link to the survey. And for people who say it doesn't work, just send a response that says, Sorry! Thanks for letting us know, which includes the link to the survey again.
posted by bearwife at 11:01 AM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

I would stress the importance of letting EVERYONE see the survey responses via Doodle in a friendly way: Thanks for your response! The great thing about Doodle is that we can all see the responses as they are added. I'm unable to enter your data for you, so it would be great if you could respond through link.
posted by zem at 11:12 AM on June 17, 2013 [3 favorites]

I wouldn't even say it's difficult/time-consuming - I'd lean on the old standby of "It's not possible." As in: "I'm sorry, but it's not possible for me to enter data manually into the poll, so could you just click through and add your preference? Thanks!"
posted by Tomorrowful at 11:14 AM on June 17, 2013 [5 favorites]

This is really interesting, because I have always just hated doodlepoll requests for some reason and never really examined that feeling, and when presented with one I will often just shoot off an email.

I hate two things about it.

1a. I hate how it puts the onus of schedling on the attendee, and not the organizer. Like, that is your job, is it not? Stop chipping away at my time to do my job.

1b. The only people in my network who use it are people who are kind of tone-deaf to the existing protocol and culture, or in positions percieved as somewhat at odds to the technical staff and thus met with derision when they try to streamline their own job at everyone else's expense (see 1a). Does anyone else in your office schedule meetings this way?

2. I work in a very non-cutesy industry and being requested to put info into something with "doodle" in the name is dumb to me.


Anyway, your question has made me contrite to my irrational resistance, and I will make an effort to comply with the doodle-pollers in my life in the future.
posted by cakebatter at 11:18 AM on June 17, 2013 [10 favorites]

Rather than make it look like a poll, is there a way you can make it a form that MUST be filled out to make the reservation? I'd position it like that in the email.

"Please provide your responses via the link, as this way we can collect all of the data in a similar format."

If you can rename the link to "Response Form" rather than Doodle Poll, that might help, because Doodle Poll and Survey Monkey, while being fine tools have really stupid names.

If someone insists on being a butt, simply say, "Thanks for the info, please enter it via the form so that all the responses can be counted."

If they say the link is broken, refer them to IT.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:24 AM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

If they are truly averse to the name "doodle," consider using Whenisgood, which has a more professional name.
posted by samthemander at 11:28 AM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'd start with the initial email. Maybe something like:

Dear all,

Please complete the following Doodle poll with your availability for the XYZ meeting. There will be up to 75 people in this meeting, so it's important that we all log our availability in the same place. Please don't send your response to me by email.

Thanks,
Stewie

Some people might still write back by email because they want to add something about the agenda or whatnot, and then you can respond:

Dear Tim,

Thanks for the suggestion about adding a conference line for those who can't be in the office for this meeting. I'll set that up. Unfortunately, I can't track scheduling information by email, though. Can you please fill out the Doodle poll? Here's the link again: link.

Thanks,
Stewie
posted by Meg_Murry at 11:46 AM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

Can you set up a noreply email address to use for polls/surveys?
posted by headnsouth at 11:49 AM on June 17, 2013 [4 favorites]

Most of the time people who email me back will say something like "thought I'd email you rather than respond to the survey"

These people know the survey is there, but they're deliberately choosing to email their responses instead. Why are they doing that? Are they including additional comments/options that aren't provided for in the survey? Are they trying to be more involved in the decision-making process? Are they trying to show enthusiasm and participation?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:05 PM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

I think the best responses depend a little on the numbers/groups involved - is it the same 75 people every time, and 15 of them failing to fill in the survey? Because at that scale, for instance, dropping by the desk of anyone who says 'the link doesn't work' is scalable, and once they learn you will do that and see it working, people should stop using it as an excuse unless it actually doesn't work. But if it's a different group of people each time then 'teaching' responses aren't going to solve the original problem and you need to focus on making the first email crystal clear.
posted by jacalata at 12:07 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think it depends who your respondents are and what their relationship to you is.

If they're other employees of your company, your response will depend on status. I ran a Google Survey office lunch order scheme for a while, and people at or below my level simply did not get lunch if they did not cooperate (within reason of course). For the bosses, I had to take the time to deal with their preferred way of submitting a lunch order.

If they're people at other companies who don't have any formal work relationship with you, can you maybe remind them that, if they don't use the survey, you won't be able to facilitate whatever it is they're working with you on? If they want to set up a call to find out about Product X, they need to use the survey or they will not be able to learn more about Product X.

(FWIW if you do need to resort to letting some people not use the survey, IME the fastest fix is to just fill out the survey according to the details in their email.)
posted by Sara C. at 12:30 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

Explain your pain, and how they can help.

Take a look at your survey and see if there are any roadblocks (too long, perceived as being too long, too much information being requested)

Offer and be sure to award prizes for people who complete the survey. Could be coffee cards to Starbucks (1 free coffee) or something.

Don't email the survey from your personal email.

Just tried out Doodle over the weekend. I'm not sure if I like it compared to Survey Monkey or Google Forms. The name is completely stupid, for one thing.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:33 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm with cakebatter.
In our office, we get occasional requests to use one of these services for scheduling, where we have to propose our available free time - but as an attendee it's not my job, so I reply by email. We have Outlook calendars that are up-to-date for everyone, and it's the hosts job to schedule for when everyone has a free slot. But I'm not passive aggressive about it - I'll state what our protocol is, because it's usually a new person.
If it's a survey for something else, opinions, etc. then I'll play the game.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 1:18 PM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

I've been getting a bunch of these recently, and I have to say that doodle is one of the less user-friendly polling sites out there. I greatly prefer MS Outlook options, followed by Survey Monkey. Can you change platforms? Perhaps you're getting push back at least partly because it's a pain to use.
posted by bonehead at 1:18 PM on June 17, 2013

You cannot use doodle on a mobile device. If these are people that aren't at their desks a lot. It's going to be hard for them to get back to you in a timely fashion, they figure it's faster to email directly. See if you can find something that works on phones.
posted by edbles at 1:59 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it works on mobile devices, but I'm a big fan of When2Meet over Doodle. Way more intuitive for the pollee.
posted by ootandaboot at 3:05 PM on June 17, 2013

Are their schedules easily researched? Do you all use the Outlook calendars? If so, what is the added value to YOU or THEM for filling out a poll?

To the people saying it's not their job to schedule, if they're not using an office-wide scheduling system, or this involves folks at a variety of vendors or locations, how are they supposed to do it with upwards of 20+ people? I'm genuinely curious because I've found myself in a similar situation at my non-profit.
posted by barnone at 3:24 PM on June 17, 2013

We use email and the organizer figures out the best time from several options. Most people are busy but usually can make one of the times if it is the only choice given.
posted by cakebatter at 4:33 PM on June 17, 2013

"Neither I nor my admin have time (and I won't ask her to) to sort through 75 responses to decide when the best time is going to be for six dozen people to talk about widgets when replying to the Doodle poll literally takes 10 seconds to fill out."

Really? 75 * 10 seconds is 12 and a half minutes. OK, add some time to read their email too, but this doesn't really sound like such a huge task--unless that 10 seconds is an underestimate.

Also, I'm confused: you said "numerous" people respond by email, but the above assumes every single one of them does.

Could you junk the poll, identify the 3 or 4 people (presenters, key decision makers) that you absolutely have to have at the meeting, pick a time with just them, and then just announce that?

The time you pick won't work for everyone, but you're probably not going to get 100% attendance at a 75-person meeting anyway.
posted by bfields at 7:43 PM on June 17, 2013 [2 favorites]