Personalization of Mail Surveys: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cover letters with and without pictures of the researcher were included with questionnaires to test the effects of this type of personalization on responses to a mail survey. In addition, the researcher's attire, title, and affiliation were varied across different forms of the cover letter to evaluate the effects of status, role-clothing consistency, and similarity to the perceiver on perceiver's willingness to return the survey form. The questionnaires were mailed to a sample of 384 university alumni. The total number of returned questionnaires, after the initial mailing and two personalized follow-ups, were lower in the researcher-pictured cover letter conditions than in the control conditions. This finding offers some support for the hypothesis that repeated use of personalized mailings may have a negative effect on response rate. Response latencies suggest that within the researcher-pictured conditions, inconsistency of cues may also inhibit questionnaire returns.

This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit: