Personalizing Mail Questionnaire Correspondence

In their efforts to increase response rates for mail questionnaire surveys, researchers have explored the effectiveness of a wide range of variables, including the number and timing of mailings,' cash or prize incentives,2 stamped versus metered reply envelopes,3 printed versus mimeographed questionnaire forms, and various forms and wordings of cover letters.4 Many of these techniques are in fact designed to personalize the communication between the researcher and the respondent. The (often unstated) assumption is that the more the respondent feels his unique answers to be important, the more likely he is to fill in and return the questionnaire. In a recent attempt to explore systematically the effect of personalization on response rate, Simon found that a personally typed letter sent to the general public in two studies tended to increase the response rate by 7 and 8 per cent over a form letter.5 In these same two studies, personally typed letters to employees yielded mixed results. In one case, the response rate among employees improved marginally while in the other it declined. In a third study of hospital insurance subscribers, Simon achieved a 15 per cent greater response rate from his personally typed letter. Simon, however, concludes that . . per-