20+ post-event survey questions to ask after an online event

Post-event surveys help you collect deep insight directly from your event attendees—in their own words—so you can plan and improve future events that are guaranteed to be worthwhile to your audience.

But what questions should you ask, and what should you do with the feedback you collect? In this article, you’ll learn which post-event survey questions to ask and how to analyze your responses. We cover:

• The importance of post-event surveys questions

• 2 types of post-event survey questions (with 20+ example questions)

• What to do with post-event survey data

The importance of post-event surveys questions

Whether you held a webinar, virtual event, or conference, collecting feedback from attendees and event stakeholders helps you plan (and improve) next year’s event and reveals key insights you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

Although you can gather data without surveying attendees—like the event’s ROI or sign-up rate—quantitative data is limited and won’t help you understand how to improve future online events or why your event performed the way it did.

Giving a voice to your attendees through post-event surveys will help you understand who attended your event and pinpoint areas for improvement.

Post-event surveys help you:

• Build trust: when you ask your audience for their opinion, you're telling them you care about their experience and they can trust you to host more worthwhile events in the future

• Eliminate guesses: get feedback directly from event attendees so you don't have to make guesses about why your online event was or wasn’t a success

• Estimate event growth: NPS analysis (more on this later) helps you estimate how much your event will grow in the following years

• Improve future events: you can use the insight and constructive feedback you get from attendees to improve future events

Now you know why you should send post-event surveys, let's help you figure out which questions to ask, and how:

2 types of post-event survey questions

You can ask two main types of questions after your event: open- and closed-ended questions.

Open-ended questions allow for deep insight but are harder to quantify and analyze, while closed-ended questions are easier to analyze but don’t offer deep insight.

Useful post-event surveys—that is, surveys that give you actionable feedback—include a mix of open- and closed-ended questions, but the types of survey questions you ask ultimately depends on the feedback you want. For example:

• If you want thoughtful answers,

   ask an open-ended question like “what would you like to see improved for the next event?”

• If you want to know whether your event met attendees’ expectations, ask a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question like “did our event meet your expectations?”

• If you want to know the level of satisfaction with your event, use a Likert scale so attendees can rate your event on a scale

• If you want to track potential event growth, use rating scale questions like “how likely are you to recommend this event?”

• If you want to segment your audience, ask nominal questions like “what is your job title?”

Here are some examples of questions to ask after your event depending on your goals and the type of feedback you need:

1. Open-ended post-event survey questions

Open-ended questions are broad questions that cannot be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They require thoughtful answers from your event attendees, making them useful for collecting rich, qualitative data.

Open-ended questions are beneficial for gathering detailed answers, but they can be difficult to analyze and require more time (and thought) from participants than closed-ended questions.

Limit open-ended questions and make them explicit so participants know exactly what you’re asking.

Examples of post-event open-ended questions

2. Closed-ended post-event survey questions

Closed-ended questions are narrow questions that don’t require detailed answers. They usually come in the form of

• 'Yes' or 'no' questions: "did you like today’s event?"

• Likert scale questions: "on a scale from 1-5, how satisfied were you after attending the event?"

• Rating scale questions: "rate our event on a scale from 1 to 10"

• Nominal questions: "did you attend the event live or watch the replay?"

Closed-ended questions are easy to quantify and analyze because they have a specific set of answers your recipient must choose from.

Here are four types of closed-ended questions you can ask to gather meaningful data after an event:

‘Yes’ or ‘no’ questions

‘Yes’ or ‘no’ questions are easy to answer (there are only two options!) and can help you segment respondents for follow-up questions.

Examples of post-event ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions

Likert scale questions

The Likert scale is a 5- or 7-point scale that measures a respondent’s level of agreement or the intensity of their feelings for a particular statement. Likert scale questions are helpful when you want more in-depth insight into how attendees feel after your event.

Using Likert scale questions to learn about ease-of-use (e.g. how accessible the event was or how easy it was to sign up) will help you measure your Customer Effort Score (CES). CES helps you understand attendee satisfaction, which can give you insight into whether they’ll attend future events and the chance that they’ll refer someone to your event.

Examples of post-event Likert scale questions

Rating scale questions

Rating scale questions display answers on a scale, usually from 1 to 10.* You can plot responses on graphs and charts to find trends in your data.

Rating scale questions are beneficial for evaluating multiple online events to learn whether they're improving over time.

* You can customize your rating scale to your liking, just be sure to clarify what each number on the scale represents.

Examples of post-event rating scale questions

Nominal questions

Nominal questions, also known as multiple-choice questions, are useful for segmenting your audience into categories for further analysis.

For example, you might notice those who watched the event replay also had lower levels of satisfaction with your event than those who attended live. This information helps you pinpoint specific areas you need to address.

Examples of post-event nominal questions

What to do with post-event survey data

Once you collect your answers, it’s time to analyze your survey data and use it to plan your next event.

Closed-ended questions are easy to analyze and organize since you can arrange the responses into charts and graphs:

To analyze open-ended questions, you can use Hotjar’s open-ended questions analysis template.

After organizing and analyzing your survey data, use it to:

• Schedule follow-up calls to dig deeper within a specific area

• Reach out to dissatisfied event attendees to gain back their trust and learn more about what caused their dissatisfaction

• Get permission from event attendees to create from survey responses

• Plan necessary changes for your next event