Effects of Foot-in-the-Door, Cash Incentives, and Followups on Survey Response

Abstract

Only followup contacts and monetary incentives have been shown to be consistently effective in improving survey response rates. Recently researchers have been encouraged by findings that compliance with a smaller request (i.e., a foot-in-the-door) increases the probability of subsequent compliance with a larger request and have sought to exploit the technique to increase survey responses. In the authors’ study, the “foot” had no effect on initial responses to a mail survey, but did affect responses to a followup request. A cash incentive worked significantly better than the “foot.” No difference was found in the overall response rates whether the incentive was sent with the initial or followup mailing or with both mailings.