In order to reduce any bias created by non-response to your survey it is critical that you work as hard as possible to increase your survey response rate.

In the research paper titled “Personalized salutation, power of sender and response rates to Web-based surveys” published in “Computers in Human Behavior’ the researchers (Adam N. Joinson & Ulf-Dietrich Reips) highlight that while a personalized salutation is important to your responce rate i.e. Hi John, please do my online survey. What is more likely to impact on the web survey is who the sender is and whether or not the sender can be seen to have a high power status e.g. Hi John, Please do my survey. Signed ‘Very Important Person!!

Surveys that used a personal salutation delivered from a high power achieved a response rate of 53.4%. Compare this to just 40% of students who responded to a survey without a personal salutation from a neutral power.

So if you are looking to optimise your response rate, serious consideration needs to be given to both the use of a personal salutation and who is to send the email invitation. Beware though, if your survey is anonymous and is asking sensitive personal details the use of the personalised salutation may in-fact have a negative impact on your response rates.