Top Tips to Writing Effective Surveys

Designing surveys is easy; isn’t it? The truth is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is a little bit more difficult. The following twenty tips will help you with your survey questionnaire design.

1. What is the purpose of the survey?

Surveys and 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 the survey’s purpose.

2. Give the survey a good title

The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents are going to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. The length of the survey needs to be as short as possible

Every question 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

Be careful when wording the question. If a question is unclear then there is every chance that respondents may understand the question differently to that intended by the publisher making any analysis of the data worthless or at the very least suspect.

5. Avoid questions that are long

Try to use short sentences wherever possible. Long questions can cause a respondent discomfort and lead to them abandoning the survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

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

7. Avoid influencing the answer

Avoid loading the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell alcohol to minors be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any 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 “Don’t know”, “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

Appreciate that questions that allow for a free text open ended response, such as when asking the respondent for their comments, is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider how the answers could be grouped. For example “Indicate your length of service?” – ‘less than 3 year’, ‘between 3 and 6 years’ and ‘more than 6′.

10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows

Group questions into clear categories as this will make it easier for the participants completing the survey.

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 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 though for a large sample collection it may be difficult to analyze free text open ended responses.

13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is upheld

If you have assured 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 at all times and any identifying information destroyed after the survey is complete.

14. Weigh up the advantages 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. Allowing respondents to remain anonymous will however allow respondents to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Consideration carefully the best response format

Being consistent with the format used for responses is good practice. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data single selection radio buttons are easier to analyse than multiple selection check boxes. Do not use a check box format if a radio response format would do.

16. Give the respondent an idea of how much time the survey will take

Respondent drop out can increase if the survey appears to be a stream of never ending 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. Advise the respondents of the survey end date

Encourage respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise respondents as to the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Test 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 proof read the survey several times

Carefully check and then check again that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible ask a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.

20. Thank your respondents

Respondents devote their time when completing surveys and should therefore be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider an incentive such as a reward of some sort.

To get started there are numerous survey software websites to choose from.