20 Top tips to writing effective surveys

20 Top tips to writing effective surveys

by: Martin Day

Writing surveys is easy; or is 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 write more effective surveys.

1. What is the purpose of the survey?

Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By 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 loose sight of its purpose.

2. Title the survey

The survey title is a golden opportunity to instantly summarise a surveys 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. Do not make the survey any longer than it needs to be

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

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

Care must be taken in 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 long questions

Try to use short sentences wherever possible. 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 football and tennis?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

It is important not to load the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to children be prosecuted?’ is unlikely to have any value.

8. Ensure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Allow the respondent 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 ขDon’t knowข, ขCan’t sayข or similar response option.

9. At the same time that you compile the survey consider, when the survey is complete, how the compiled data is going be analysed

If a question is asked that allows a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example ขHow long have you worked here?ข ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 3 years’ and ‘more than 3’.

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 easily control the respondents 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 though for a large sample collection it may be difficult to analyse free text open ended responses.

13. If the survey you are conducting is to be confidential ensure that your pledge 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 benefits 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 ขpreข or ขpostข 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 practise 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. Do not use a check box if a radio response would do.

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

Respondent drop out can occur if the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions. It is good practise to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so the respondents can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform the respondents of the survey end date

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

18. Pilot 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 proof read the survey several times

Check and check again that the 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. Remember to say thank you

To complete surveys respondents need to invest their time and should be thanked either in a covering letter, at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a prize draw or reward.

For more information please visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

About The Author

Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy a website that allows anyone to create and publish online surveys. For more information please visit http://www.SurveyGalaxy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 01, 2004

by Martin Day

Overview on Qualitative Data Collection Techniques

Overview on Qualitative Data Collection Techniques in International Marketing Research

by: Otilia Otlacan

This article is meant to be a brief review and reminder of some valuable yet often bypassed techniques to collect data on international markets and consumers.

When thinking of market research, surveys are most likely the first technique that comes to ones mind. However, surveys are a quantitative research and, in order to understand customer behavior and the social and cultural context in which our business will operate, we will need to perform some qualitative research as well.

Qualitative methods are most certainly a more appropriate option when in need of researching patterns and attitudes in customer behavior, understand the depth of the environment around the customer, and understand the cultural characteristics then influence a customer – especially when the marketer is not familiar with the country of culture.

There are certain situations where qualitative research alone can provide the marketer with all insights needed to make decisions and take actions; while in some other cases quantitative research might be needed as well.

We will stop by the main qualitative techniques and see how and where they can be employed in international marketing. Craig and Douglas (2000), mention three major types of qualitative data collection techniques:

observational and quasiobservational techniques;

projective techniques and depth interviews;

creative group sessions (synectics).

1. Observational and quasiobservational techniques

Observational techniques involve direct observation of phenomena (in our case, consumersก behavior) in their natural settings. Observational research might be somehow less reliable than quantitative research yet it is more valid and flexible since the marketer is able to change his approach whenever needed.

Disadvantages are given by the limited behavioral variables and the fact that such data might not be generalizable – we can observe a customerกs behavior at a given moment and situation but we cannot assume all further customers will act the same.

Quasiobservational techniques are reported to have increased in usage over the past decades, due to the large scale employ of surveillance cameras within stores. Such techniques cost less than pure observational ones since costs associated with video surveillance and taping are far lower than a researcherกs wage; the tape can be viewed and analyzed at a later time, at the marketerกs convenience. When performing videotaping of consumersก behaviors, they can be asked to give comments and insights upon their thoughts and actions while the conversation itself can be recorded and be further analyzed.

Pure observation: the marketer watches behavior of customers in reallife situation, either in situ or by videotaping the consumers (less intrusive). Videotaping can be specifically recommended when studying patterns of different cultures, since we can easily compare behaviors taped and highlight similarities and / or differences.

Trace measures: consist in collecting and recording traces of consumersก behavior. Such traces can be fingerprints or tear of packages, empty packages, garbage cans analysis and any other ways a marketer can imagine (itกs all about creativity here!). In eMarketing, trace measures come under the form of recorded visits and hits – there are numerous professional applications that can help an emarketer analyze the behavior of visitors on his companyกs website.

Archival measures: can be any type of historical records, public records, archives, libraries, collections of personal documents etc. Such data can prove to be of great use in analyzing behavioral trends and changes in time. Marketers can also identify cultural values and attitudes of a population at a given moment by studying mass media content and advertisement of the timeframe questioned.

Entrapment measures: those are indirect techniques (by comparison to the previously mentioned ones) and consist in asking the respondent to react to a specific stimulus or situation, when the actual subject of investigation is totally different. The marketer plants the real stimulus among many fake ones and studies reactions. The method is quite unobtrusive and the marketer can gather valuable, nonreactive facts. When the respondent becomes aware of the true subject under investigation (s)he might change the behavior and compromise the study.

Protocols: are yet another observational marketing research technique which asks respondents to think out loud and verbally express all their thoughts during the decisionmaking process. Protocols are of great value for determining the factors of importance for a sale and they can be collected in either real shopping trips or simulated ones.

2. Projective techniques

Such techniques are based on the respondentกs performance of certain tasks given by the marketer. The purpose is to have the consumers (respondents) express their unconscious beliefs through the projective stimuli; to express associations towards various symbols, images, signs.

Cooper (1996) suggested that projective techniques can be successfully employed to: indicate emotional and rational reactions;

provide verbal and nonverbal communication;

give permission to express novel ideas;

encourage fantasy, idiosyncrasy and originality;

reduce social constraints and censorship;

encourage group members to share and กopen upก.

Projective market research techniques can take the following forms, presented below.

Collages – used to understand lifestyles and brand perceptions, respondents are asked to assemble a collage using images and symbols from selected sets of stimuli or from magazines and newspapers of their choice.

Picture completion – certain pictures can be designed to express and visualize the issue under study and respondents have to make associations and / or attribute words to the given pictures.

Analogies and metaphors are used when a larger range of projection is needed, with more complexity and depth of ideas and thoughts on a given brand, product, service, organization. The respondents are asked to freely express their association and analogies towards the object being studied; or they can be asked to select from a set of stimuli (e.g. photos) those that fit the examined subject.

Psychodrawing is a technique that allows study participants to express a wide range of perceptions by making drawings of what they perceive the brand is (or product, service).

Personalization consists in asking the respondents to treat the brand or product as if it is a person and start making associations or finding images of this person. This technique is especially recommended in order to understand what kind of personality consumers assign to a brand / product / service.

3. Indepth interviews

These techniques of marketing research put an accent on verbal communication and they are efficient especially when trying to discover underlying attitudes and motivations towards a product or a specific market / consumption situation.

Individual indepth interviews are performed on a persontoperson environment and the interviewer can obtain very specific and precise answers. Such interviews are common in B2B practices of market research, for example when a company conducts a research about a product among their existing corporate customers.

Interviews can be conducted by phone or via internetbased media, from a centralized location: this can greatly reduce costs associated with market research and the results are pretty much as accurate as the facetoface ones. The only disadvantage would be the lack of nonverbal, visual communication.

Focus groups are basically discussions conducted by a researcher with a group of respondents who are considered to be representative for the target market.

Such meetings are usually held in an informal setting and are moderated by the researcher. Videotaping the sessions is common these days, and it can add more sources of analysis at a later time.

Focus groups are perhaps the ideal technique, if available in terms of costs and time, to test new ideas and concepts towards brands and products; to study customersก response to creative media such as ads and packaging design or to detect trends in consumersก attribute and perception. One of the important advantages of focus groups is the presence of several respondents in the same time, providing a certain synergy. Disadvantages refer mainly to the costs involved and the scarcity of good professionals to conduct the interviews and discussions.

To conclude, we have to keep in mind just how important nonsurvey data collection techniques are in todayกs market research. Not only they provide more depth of analysis but they can be performed in significantly less time than surveys and theyกre more suitable to be employed during the exploratory phases of international marketing research.

About The Author

Otilia Otlacan is a young Marketing certified professional with expertise in eMarketing and eBusiness, currently working as independent consultant and epublisher. She developed and teach her own online course in กPrinciples of eMarketingก and is also a volunteer Economics teacher.

You can contact her via her Marketing resource portal at http://www.TeaWithEdge.com.

You can freely republish this article as long as you attach this resource box and enable the link within.

This article was posted on April 13, 2005

by Otilia Otlacan

Tips For Developing An Effective Questionnaire

Tips For Developing An Effective Questionnaire

by: Nick Hill

Developing the questionnaire is undoubtedly the most important part of conducting a survey. The quality of the questions will determine the quality of the results and the effectiveness of your survey. Here are 12 tips for developing an effective questionnaire.
1. Write a good introduction The beginning of your survey should have an introduction of the survey. It should state your objective in a way that grabs the attention of potential respondents and encourages them to take the survey. Also, since it is easy for online survey respondents to abandon your survey, you should include instructions on how to complete the survey and an estimate of how much time it will take.
2. Ask questions that provide the information you need Always keep your objective and the information that you need to gather to achieve it in mind while asking the questions. Also, it is best to avoid the temptation to gather กextraก bits of information that are กnice to knowก but irrelevant to your objective.
3. Ask important questions first, demographic questions last Since it is very easy for online survey respondents to abandon your survey, always ask the important questions first and the demograhic questions last.
4. Organize the questions in logical groups Always organize the questions in logical groups. It makes it easier for your respondents to understand and answer the questions, thus increasing the quality of the results.
5. Use plain, easy to understand language The most effective surveys always use plain, easy to understand language. Using unclear or ambiguous language will give you misleading results. So test your survey thoroughly to ensure that it is indeed easy to understand.
6. Avoid technical terms, jargon, and acronyms If you use technical terms, jargon, and acronyms, your respondents might not understand them, get frustrated, and abandon your survey. So strictly avoid them.
7. Use even number of responses Whenever possible, use even number of responses for multiple choice questions. That way the respondents have to give a positive or a negative opinion, they can’t give a กneutralก answer.
8. Randomize the responses Whenever it makes sense, randomize the order in which responses are displayed. This removes กorder biasก from the responses.
9. Avoid unnecessary graphics and embedded components Although it might be tempting to use graphics and embedded components, their use increases the time it takes to download and display your survey. So use them only when it is absolutely necessary and certainly don’t overdo it.
10. Be sensitive to the feelings of your respondents Always be sensitive to the feelings of your respondents. If you offend them, they might abandon your survey. So test your survey to ensure that it is not offending to any group of people.
11. Thank the respondents Your respondents spend the time to take your survey. So never forget to thank them for completing the survey.
12. Keep it short As a general rule, keep your survey short, simple, and to the point.
© Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org) 2004

About The Author

This article has been copyrighted and has been reprinted with the permission of Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org). If you want to reprint this article, please send an email to [email protected] to inform us and we will grant you the permission. But please ensure that this message appears at the end of the article and proper credits are given.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 24, 2004

by Nick Hill

Understanding Survey Software Features

Understanding Survey Software Features

by: Nick Hill

If you take a look at the features that different survey softwares offer, you will quickly realize that understanding all of them is no mean task. But it is very important that you do because only then you can choose the right survey software. It is important for one other reason, it determines your price. More features invariably means more dollars. So if you don’t choose the right survey software, you might end up paying more for features you don’t need.
While it is impossible and not even worthwhile to look at all the features, here is a look at some of the important ones. Chances are that these are the ones will make or break your decision. The features have been divided into 6 categories based on their function in the process of conducting an online survey.
Survey creation

Images, sounds, video This allows you to insert images, sounds, and videos in your surveys, and can enhance the appearance of your surveys. However, use it only when necessary since it increases the time it takes to download and display your survey, and certainly don’t overdo it.
Question library, response library, sample surveys These allow you to create surveys quickly since you don’t have to create them from scratch. They are a must if you do a lot of surveys regularly. And they don’t impact the price that much, so you might as well opt for them.
Skip logic This allows you to skip questions depending on the answers to previous questions. Most survey softwares allow either AND or OR logic to decide whether to skip or not, but some allow a combination of any logical conditions. It might sound like a กnicetohaveก feature rather than a กmusthaveก, but you will be surprised how often you need to skip questions in your surveys.
Data piping This allows you to use the answers to some questions in the following questions. This is a very neat feature and it allows you to กpersonalizeก your surveys. For e.g., you can say ‘thanks Steveก instead of only ‘thanksก if you know that the name of the respondent is Steve from a previous question. It also allows you to ask questions like กWhat do you like most about Coke?ก when the respondent has selected Coke as his/her favorite drink in the previous question.
Advanced survey creation features (spell check, autocorrect, thesaurus, import from MS Word) These are fairly advanced features and not really required in most cases, especially if you don’t do surveys regularly. You can spend the time to spell check the survey yourselves. However, if you do a lot of surveys, then you might want these features. But they will impact the price quite a lot since they are considered as กpremiumก features.
Branding (your logo and background color) This allows you to place your company logo and use your company websiteกs background color for your surveys. This is good enough in most cases, but not if you are looking to customize each and every aspect of the survey. It is quite an important feature since it gives your respondents the feeling that they are still on your website.
Advanced survey presentation features (predesigned editable survey templates, new templates, fullcustomized look) These are fairly advanced features and allow you to customize almost every aspect of the survey. Survey softwares do this in a variety of ways: they have predesigned editable templates, ability to create new templates, or create surveys with a fullcustom look. These features are also considered as กpremiumก features and will impact the price quite a lot.

Survey Distribution and Tracking

Handheld device This allows you to distribute your surveys on hendheld devices. This method of distributing is not as common as the other methods like placing link on website, embedding entire survey in websites, sending email invitation with link, or embedding entire survey in emails and newsletters. But it is definitely becoming popular because of the convenience it offers for taking surveys กon the roadก. As of now though, it is considered as a กpremiumก feature and will impact the price.
Track respondents These allow you to track your respondents after they receive your email invitations. The simpler ones allow you to maintain an email list and send email invitations to all or some email addresses in the list. The more complex ones allow you to create an กaudienceก from the list in a variety of ways. They also allow you to track who read your email invitation and clicked on what links, who took the survey and who didn’t, send reminders to the ones who didn’t, etc. All these complex tracking activities fall more under the realm of กcampaign managementก than conducting surveys though. If you need these features, you are much better off going for a fullblown campaign management solution than a survey solution with half of what you need.

Taking Survey

Password protected surveys This allows you to protect your surveys with a password. The respondents have to know the password to be able to take the survey.
Save and continue later This allows your respondents to save the survey and continue later. It is a very good feature to have especially if your surveys are going to be long. Some survey softwares make the respondents explicitly save a link and bookmark it to continue later. These don’t work that well compared to some others that don’t require the respondents to do as much.
Response validation This allows you to validate the responses your respondents enter. These features are very important since they ensure that your respondents enter กvalidก responses and increases the quality of the results. Always prefer survey softwares that have more types of response validation.
Respondent uniqueness control This allows you to ensure that a respondent takes the survey only once. There are a few ways to do this and not all of them are กfullproofก. If you want to strictly enforce respondent uniqueness, make sure that the survey software allows you to send unique URLs to every email recipient. It is the only กfullproofก method of enforcing respondent uniqueness.

Response Collection

Email notification upon response submission This allows you to get email notifications when a respondent completes a survey. It is the only way to get the responses with survey softwares that don’t store them in a database. But it is also offered as an addon by those that do store them in databases.

Survey Analysis

Graphical reports This allows you to graph the results and not all survey softwares have this feature. If you like to see results in neatlooking graphs, make sure that the survey software has this feature. Check out the sample reports; most companies have them on their website. Or better yet, try out the product and generate them yourselves!
Advanced analysis features (crosstabulation, subset analysis, 360 degree feedback, etc) These allow you to perform advanced analysis on the results. Crosstabulation allows you to relate the responses of one question to those of another. Subset analysis allows you to perform analysis on a subset of the responses by filtering out certain responses. These are definitely กpremiumก features and will impact the price.
Export data This allows you to export the responses so you can do analyses in your favorite tool, like Excel or SPSS. Make sure that the survey software has this feature, especially if it doesn’t natively support the advanced analyses that you want to do.

Report Distribution

Save in PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint format This allows you to save the report in one of the mentioned formats. It is a very convenient feature to have if you are going to distribute your report a lot.

© Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org) 2004

About The Author

This article has been copyrighted and has been reprinted with the permission of Web Based Survey Software (http://www.webbasedsurveysoftware.org). If you want to reprint this article, please send an email to [email protected] to inform us and we will grant you the permission. But please ensure that this message appears at the end of the article and proper credits are given.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 24, 2004

by Nick Hill