Using a Small Cash Incentive to Increase Survey Response

Abstract

Surveys tend to yield low response rates among human service professionals. This study examined whether a randomly-assigned prepaid $2 incentive increased response rates over time, and was cost-effective for increasing response count, among social workers and volunteer mediators. The incentive was enclosed with a mixed-mode survey of factors related to burnout and intention-to-remain. The incentive increased response rates over time. The effect of the incentive did not differ between mediators and social workers. The $2 incentive was not cost-effective for increasing response count. Implications are discussed for reducing nonresponse bias, decreasing time-to-response, and considering response rate versus response count.

Keywords: Behavioral health services research; Incentive; Mental health services research; Response rate; Survey research.