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Great Tips to Writing Effective Surveys

August 6, 2009

How to create a survey using Survey Galaxy

Writing surveys is easy; or is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective 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 purpose of the survey?

Questionnaires are conducted for many reasons. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When compiling a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.

2. Title the survey

The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents need to invest time in completing the survey so encourage them that the investment they make will be worthwhile.

3. Keep the survey as short as possible

Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, maintain consistency, avoid jargon and acronyms and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers

Be careful when wording the question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a risk that any analysis of the survey results will be meaningless or at the very least misleading.

5. Don’t have long questions

Where practical use short sentences. Long questions can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.

6. Ask only one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like athletics and football?’

7. Don’t influence the answer

Avoid loading the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to children be prosecuted?’ is likely to have no value.

8. Ensure that the chosen 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 abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “No comment”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.

9. When you are compiling your survey consider how the compiled data is going be analysed when the survey is complete

Appreciate that questions that allow for a free text open ended response is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “Indicate your length of service?” – ‘less than 2 year’, ‘between 2 and 4 years’ and ‘more than 4′.

10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows

When asking questions group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.

11. Target your respondents

In some cases 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 respondents to expand on their answers and/or make comments

By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections free text open ended responses may prove 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 the information is not going to be used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained and any contact information deleted after the survey is complete.

14. Consider the benefits and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing people to remain anonymous for example it would allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Carefully consider what the best response format will be

It is good practice to maintain a consistency in the format used for responses. When designing your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data single selection radio buttons are easier to analyse than multiple selection check boxes. 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

Respondent drop out can increase if there is no end in sight to the survey questions. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so that the participants can determine the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform the respondents of the survey end date

Try and 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 the survey as a trial 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 carefully

Check and then check again that a survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible get someone else to proof read the survey before you publish, if no one else is available then take a break before checking again.

20. Thank the respondent

To complete surveys respondents will need to invest their time and therefore should be thanked either 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.

Getting started is easy and there are many survey software websites to choose from.

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