Let’s face it – the world today is obsessed with information gathering. How many times have you been casually browsing the Web in the past few days when a pop-up box appeared asking you to fill out an online survey? You can all put your hands down now.
Admittedly, some of these surveys are probably worthwhile, but the shear number of requests to fill them out has jaded most potential respondents to ever taking the time to do so. Most likely, this bombardment of trivial survey requests has poisoned the environment for those surveys that actually have some merit.
Like the one CropLife magazine is currently conducting.
In the next few days, many of you will receive via regular mail a survey form looking for information on how your company uses precision agriculture in its operation. Our magazine has looked in-depth at this topic for more than 15 years and the results always make for a good, informative read in our annual June issue.
But for the past few years, our response rate has declined. In most years, out of the 2,500 surveys we send out, our return rate has hovered around 20% and been steadily falling. Now I know from experience that precision ag practices and products are very, very important to many companies in the ag retail marketplace, so lack of interest in the topic isn’t the issue. Instead, I think our survey is getting lost amidst the endless parade of superficial ones that daily make the rounds.
I would encourage you not to ignore or discard this year’s CropLife Precision Ag Survey if you receive one. Please, fill it out and return it to our staff. This way, we can continue the history of excellence CropLife has built over the past 15 years chronicling the ups and downs of this important market segment.
Sure, this ultimate boils down to another request to fill out a survey. The difference is that we, as an acknowledged media partner, will share this information with all our readers, hopefully helping them to learn and improve upon their precision ag efforts.
But we can only accomplish this with your input.
