Survey Software HQ

Don’t ask open-ended questions that will give you a wide range of answers. That will make it difficult to analyze the results. Questions should be either yes or no, or multiple choice. Sometimes more complex questions are called for, but focus on them and do not embed them within a larger study unless the participants really are vested and want to give you feedback that is important to you AND them.

Take Your First Pass, Then Cut it in Half!

While you may think a 20 page web-based questionnaire is necessary for your company’s improvements in the future, please think twice. Go back to the first draft of your survey, asking yourself the difficult question of:

“Do I Really Need to Include This Question?”

The person creating the survey often has a difficult time being objective about what to include and what not to include. So make sure you ask others as well. Survey design software with workflow-type features (features that allow administrators to define users and groups and control access to certain functions within the software) makes this process simple. The survey author

I was talking to my wife about this the other day. She got a survey from an online store that she bought gifts from earlier this year. Although she isn’t in the industry, she knows companies routinely botch this.

I said “Companies really ought to set a limit, like 10 questions.”

She said, “More like 5. I have better things to do.”

Here’s an example of a survey that is too long!

Make sure respondents will understand the questions. Don’t use jargon and don’t make the questions too complex.

Did you ever start driving before you knew where your destination was?
Probably not too often.

In the same light, before you start surveying your customers, it’s a really good idea to figure out exactly what you want your customers to tell you. For instance, you may want to find out if they are satisfied with your service. Or you might want to gather opinions towards improving your product.

There are many reasons people perform surveys, but taking some time up front to plan can save you in the long run by avoiding the following disasters: typos, re-sending of surveys, and other errors which can quickly lead to survey respondent fatigue and eventual churn/burnout.