Writing Effective Surveys
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Writing surveys is considered easy; but is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is a little bit more difficult. The following tips will help you write more effective surveys.
1. What is the purpose of the survey?
Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in many ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey don’t lose sight of its purpose.
2. Title the survey
The survey title is a golden 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 you need to encourage them that their investment will be worthwhile.
3. Keep the survey as short as possible
Every question asked should be asked for a reason. Minimize the questions providing you with ‘nice to know’ information and focus instead on the ‘need to know’ questions.
4. Use plain English, maintain consistency and avoid terminology, acronyms and asking questions that could result in ambiguous answers
Care must be taken in wording a 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. Don’t have long questions
Where practical use succinct 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 golf and tennis?’
7. Avoid influencing the answer
It is important not to load 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 can answer how they really feel or they may be inclined to abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “No comment”, “Can’t say” or similar response option.
9. While compiling your survey consider how you will want to analyse the results once the survey has been published
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 grouping answers. For example “How long have you worked here?” – ‘less than 1 year’, ‘between 1 and 3 years’ and ‘more than 3′.
10. Try and ensure that the questionnaire flows
Group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.
11. Target your respondents carefully
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 that don’t match your target profile.
12. Provide a channel for your respondents to expand on their answers 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 that for large sample collections it may be difficult to analyse free text open ended responses.
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 not used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and any contact information destroyed once the survey has finished.
14. Weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable
If your respondents are to be anonymous then you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. In some cases allowing people to remain anonymous will however allow people 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. If a radio response format can be used do not use a check box format.
16. Advise the respondent as to the approximate time it will take to complete the survey
Respondent drop out can become a problem 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. Inform respondents of the survey end date
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 a pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to confirm that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.
19. Before publishing the survey check the survey carefully
Carefully check and then check again that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If practical get a colleague to check the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.
20. Remember to thank the respondent
To complete surveys respondents have to devote their time and should be thanked 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.
For further information please visit Survey Galaxy
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Posted on: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 9:37 am 
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