|
1. Your Goals and objective for the survey
|
|
As group size increases, the difficulties to question everyone are increasing too (organizing
The survey, costs of the survey, etc.). Although web surveys offer a very good cost ratio for large
Surveys, it becomes obvious that at a certain stage, only a sample of people can be questioned.
|
- One of the key success factors for survey research is the preparation before launch. A company should ask itself ;
- What specific feedback do you require?
- How are you going to structure the survey and its questions to best suit those requirements?
- When you have the feedback, how are you going to address issues found?
- After the survey is complete and a plan of action set in place to improve various aspects of the business, how will you measure improvement?
|
|
2. Visualize all of the relevant information items
|
- If it’s a customer satisfaction campaign, you would want to include all aspects of customer service.
- If it’s a product placement survey you would want to include questions that will inspire respondents to give their perception about your product.
- What will the output report look like?
- What charts and graphs will be prepared?
- What information do you need to be assured that action is warranted?
|
|
3. Rank each topic in order of importance
|
|
According to the value of the topic. List the most important topics first. Revisit items again to make
sure the objectives, topics and information you need are appropriate.
|
|
Remember, you can't solve the problem if you ask the wrong questions.
|
|
4. How easy or difficult is it for the respondent to provide information on each topic?
|
|
If it is difficult, is there another way to obtain the information by asking another question?
|
|
Online Surveys have to be Precise, Clear and Concise. If your questions are too complicated and are not easy
to understand, people will leave before completing the survey.
|
|
5. Create a sequence for the topics that are unbiased
|
|
Make sure that the questions asked first do not bias the results of the next questions. Sometimes providing too
much information, or disclosing purpose of the study can create bias.
|
|
Once you have established the sequence of topics, you can have a basic layout of a survey. It is wise to provide
an introductory text to explain the project and what is required of the respondent, this will give more motivation
to the respondent. Thanking the respondent for taking time to complete the survey is a must. If you are providing
information publicly, include a link so that respondents have the opportunity to see results when they are published.
|
|
6. Determine the type of question that is best suited
|
|
To answer the question and provide enough robustness to meet analysis requirements. These are some of the question types that you have available;
|
| Open-ended text questions |
| Dichotomous questions |
| Multiple choice questions |
| Rank order questions |
| Scaled questions |
| Constant sum questions |
|
|
In our experience tougher analysis requirements, will probably lead to
more complicated questionnaire design. We provide a couple of tools that help with creating the ideal structure : -
|
-
Page Breaks - Avoid having a huge scrolling survey. Introduce
page breaks as necessary. Please also refrain from just having one
question per page. This increases the time to complete the survey
as well as increases the chances for "drop outs".
-
Branching - Use branching and Skip Logic to make your surveys intelligent.
Design the survey using Branching Logic so that the correct questions are
automatically routed based on previous responses.
|
|
7. Write the questions.
|
|
You may need to write several questions for each topic, selecting the best one.
You might also be better off dividing the survey into multiple sections.
|
|
We also offer consulting on question design and are able to create appropriate questions for your survey campaign
|
|
8. Sequence the questions
|
|
So that they are unbiased.
|
|
9. Repeat all of the steps above
|
|
To find any major overlaps or missing bits. Are the questions really answered?
Have a person review the questions for you from an objective point of view.
|
|
10. Time the length of the survey.
|
|
A survey should ideally take about five minutes to complete. 10 mins should be seen as a maximum time allowance.
|
|
11. Conduct a survey pilot.
|
|
Send the group to a pre-defined group of about 20 people, before you consider mass distribution. Collect their detailed feedback.
|
| What were they unsure about? |
| Did they have questions? |
| Did they have trouble understanding what you wanted? |
| Did they take a point of view not covered in your answers or question? |
|
|
12. Revise your online questionnaire
|
|
Incorporating the feedback that you got.
|
|
13. Conduct a final testing round to ensure the revised questionnaire is working properly!
|
|
14. Send the Survey
|
|
Out to all your respondents!
|
|
Online surveys are a great alternative to expensive mail or telephone surveys
|
