Boosting web pick-up rates by referring to compliance principles

In 2011 Statistics Norway conducted a survey on education completed abroad. More than 200 000 immigrants had to be contacted in order to fill the gap in the Norwegian education register. A multi-mode approach was chosen. The respondents received a paper questionnaire and a link to a web option. In this survey we tested the effect of five different motivation phrases based on the following five compliance principles; helping, authority, social validation, reciprocation and scarcity. The experiment was conducted in six sub-groups which represented respondents from different parts of the world. Here we will look at the effect of these compliance principles on the web pick-up rate. Moreover, we will discuss if there are cultural differences in how the compliance principles worked and how these principles affected the web pick-up rate in different age and education groups. Finally, we will discuss the relation between the web pick-up rate and the response rate.