How to Write Effective Surveys
How to create a survey using Survey Galaxy
Designing surveys is easy; isn’t it? The truth is that writing surveys is easy but writing effective surveys is more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you with your survey questionnaire design and help you write effective surveys.
1. What is the survey’s purpose?
There are many reasons for conducting questionnaires. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in many ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.
2. Give the survey a good title
The survey title is a golden opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and encourage respondents to participate. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so encourage them that the investment they make will be worthwhile.
3. Keep the length of the survey as short as possible
Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Limit asking questions that will provide you with ‘nice to know’ information and instead concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions.
4. Use plain English, avoid jargon and acronyms, be consistent and ensure that the questions you ask will not result in ambiguous answers
Take care when wording a question. If a question is not clear then there is every chance that respondents may interpret the question differently to that intended by the publisher making any analysis of the data meaningless or at the very least misleading.
5. Avoid having long questions
Where practical use concise sentences. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.
6. Ask one question at a time
Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like athletics and golf?’
7. Do not influence the answer
Do not load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell alcohol to children be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.
8. Ensure that the selected answer format allows the respondent to answer the question being asked
Ensure that the respondent is able to answer how they really feel or they may be less inclined to complete the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Can’t say”, “No comment” or similar response option.
9. While you are compiling the survey consider, when the survey is complete, how the compiled data is going be analysed
When asking questions that allow for a free text open ended response, such as when asking the respondent for their comments, appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping the answers into groups that will match your analysis requirements. For example “How long have you worked here?” - ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 4 years’ and ‘more than 4′.
10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows
Group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.
11. Target your respondents carefully
Sometimes you will want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t control who responds to your survey consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents who don’t fit your target profile.
12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments
Allowing the respondent to make additional comments will increase their satisfaction level and will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections that free text open ended responses may be difficult to analyze.
13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is upheld
If you have guaranteed the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and not used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained and any identifying information deleted after the survey is complete.
14. Weigh up the benefits and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable
If your respondents are to be anonymous then you will be unable to follow up specific complaints or match “pre” or “post” surveys. However in some cases allowing people to remain anonymous will allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.
15. Give careful consideration to the best response format
It is good practice to maintain a consistency in the format used for responses. Keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. If a radio response format can be used do not use a check box format.
16. Give the respondent an estimate as to how much time the survey will take
If the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions then respondent drop out can occur. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can choose the best time to complete the survey.
17. Provide respondents with the survey end date
Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.
18. Trial the survey
Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.
19. Before publishing the survey check the survey several times
Check and check again that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.
20. Remember to thank the respondent
To complete surveys respondents have to devote their time and should be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a reward of some sort.
To get started there are numerous survey software websites to choose from.