Exhibit Booth Exit surveys serve an important and useful tool in your trades show management toolbox
A great deal of effort and money goes into attracting attendees to visit a trade show exhibit. You should find out if the design, staff, demo, and other elements did the job of projecting the image and information you wanted to share.
Why should I have an Exit Survey at my booth?
You spend a lot of time, effort, and money to exhibit at a show and too often, you don’t have a good idea of how effective you’ve been. For example, you may want to know:
- Did my targeted audience (title, region, functional area, industry, etc.) visit my booth?
- Was my booth staff attentive? Knowledgeable?
- Did attendees find what they were looking for?
- Did my messaging resonate?
- Did attendees learn about my new offerings?
- Will attendees be visiting my competition?
- What brought attendees to your booth?
- Did attendees received pre-show marketing and did it influence the decision to visit the booth?
Learn if your presence changed perceptions about your company and your products & services.
As exhibitors, we generally design booths to inform, educate, and demonstrate. We want to take attendees on a journey of discovery about our company and our products and services. A few simple Exit Survey questions can provide the information we need to evaluate our success. The questions can be general or specific. For example:
General: As a result of your visit, how has your opinion of [company] changed?
Very Positive
Moderately Positive
No Change
Moderately Negative
Very Negative
N/A
Specific: Please rate your perception of [company] as it relates to the following:
Quality products that help me perform my job
Products are dependable
Products give me a competitive advantage
Products are priced appropriately
Determine aspects of your event that may need to be improved
Exit surveys can also let you know how you can improve your next event. For example, if you asked:
Booth Staff
Helpfulness
Ability to answer questions
Accessible
Booth
Product and demo accessibility
Ability to find what I’m interested in
Demos
Provided the information I needed
Were appropriate for the show
Helped me in my buying decision
Evaluate Initial Contact with Booth Staff
The first impression you make on attendees is when they are greeted and welcomed into the booth. You can evaluate your staffing level and their performance when greeting visitors by asking:
Were you greeted in a reasonable timeframe?
Yes
No
How long did it take to be greeted?
Within 1 minute
1 to 2 minutes
More than 2 minutes
The person who greeted me helped me find what I wanted?
Yes
No
See if You Are Attracting Your Target Audience (title, region, functional area, industry, etc.).
Find out the characteristics of who visited your booth by asking:
What is your job function in your organization?
Executive Management
Operations Management
Operations
Purchasing
IT/Networking
Other
(Tip: Only list the job functions you care about.)
In what global regions do you operate? (select all that apply)
Americas
EMEA
APAC
Japan
In the USA, in what regions do you operate?
Northeast
Southeast
Mid West
South
Southwest
West
Which of these are your primary industries?
Finance
Pharma
Information Tech
Construction
Travel
Entertainment
Determine Why Attendees Came to Your Booth
There are many reasons why an attendee opts to visit an exhibitor’s booth at the show. Understanding that motivation helps you focus on the more productive means and change or eliminate those that don’t produce the desired results. You could ask, for example:
What drew you to our booth? (select all that apply)
Pre-show marketing
Current custome
Talking with a Sales Rep
Know of products/Services
Know of company
Sponsorship/Signs
Presentation topics
Just walking by
Social media
Invitation by company rep
Colleague recommended
Other (please specify)
Suppose you notice that only 2 percent of attendees said they heard about the event through social media. This may mean that your target audience is not on, or receptive to, social media or your social media messaging/delivery is wrong. This information helps with marketing and promotional efforts for your next event!
Partners and Competition
One of the most cited reasons attendees go to trade shows is to compare potential solutions to their challenges in one location over the course of a day or two. This means they will be visiting your competitors. Knowing which companies the attendee has visited or intends to visit offers Marketing valuable information for competitive positioning. You might ask, for example:
Which of these companies’ booths have you visited?
Competitor 1
Competitor2
Competitor3
Competitor 4
Which of these companies’ booths do you intend to visit?
Competitor 1
Competitor2
Competitor3
Competitor 4
For similar reasons, you may want to know which of your partners or your distributors are on the attendee’s list. This can tell you which companies should get your focus in alliances, co-op marketing, and the like.
Which of these companies’ booths have you visited?
Partner 1
Partner 2
Partner 3
Partner 4
Which of these companies’ booths do you intend to visit?
Partner 1
Partner 2
Partner 3
Partner 4
You Should have an Exit Survey at your booth!
Exit surveys are an easy and affordable way to get attendee feedback regarding their experience before they leave you booth. The information captured can guide you in terms of marketing your presence at shows. You can also learn if you are drawing the right audience; the staffing level and performance of booth staff; attendee reactions to your messaging, demos, products & services; your industry positioning; your overall effectiveness at the show; and more.
ShowValue’s Exit Surveys Always Include:
Survey Design
Hosting
Results Reporting
But wait! There are many great things you can get your exit survey to do like:
-
Send you an email after a respondent has noted a particular type of response
-
Redirect your survey visitor to a special offer or website after they complete it
Call us today at (978) 866-3856, send an email, or fill out the contact form below to get more information about Exit Surveys and how affordable it is to get one for your exhibits.