Anyone who has experience in conducting market research, particularly in the form of surveys, knows how difficult it is to make the experience interesting and engaging for other people. Surveys are a form of collecting information about a certain demographic, in order to improve upon an existing product or service, or to generate feedback about something new being produced. This is a hard sell, because participants typically don’t see the results of their feedback, at least not straight away, or the topic may not be interesting to them. It’s also challenging if the survey itself is dull, either due to bad formatting, repetitive questions or being too long
Advancements in online survey creations have resulted in improvements that aim to make the experience more engaging for participants. This includes, conditions, skip logics, sounds, videos, pictures and other uses of multimedia. While the multimedia aspects of online surveys are yet to be fully realized, the potential for its use in a wide range of areas is certainly a possibility.
The reason these new ideas are starting to develop is because many online surveys currently don’t take advantage of the possibilities that are out there. The most basic HTML survey typically doesn’t function any radically different from the traditional pen & paper approach, with the biggest benefit being in the form of convenience; from the building stage, modifying, distributing and having algorithms calculate the results for you. These are extremely important features to have when creating a survey, but there are other additional tools worth looking into.
Conditional logic
In the context of surveys, conditional logic allows creators to input questions (or a particular selection of possible answers) based on a participants previous responses. This may be used in the form of a follow-up question, where the survey may ask you further information regarding why a certain response was chosen. Or, they could be used to ask certain questions depending on your age or personal interests.
Conditional logic can also be input to allow users to skip certain questions, based on the responses they’re previously given. This is commonly known as skip logic and it allows surveys to be much more condensed and streamlined. A survey that’s courteous to its users will implement skip logics so that participants won’t see questions that aren’t relevant to them. This way, they can then focus on the questions that reflect their qualities and characteristics.
This type of strategy can help maintain a participant’s interest, by removing unnecessary elements that would typically cause them to dropout. It also reduces the overall length of the survey, thus making it more accessible to the average user.
Many online survey providers offer a range of conditions to experiment with. The only downside to them is that they require a dedicated amount of testing, in order to ensure that they work correctly.
Images
Images can add a great deal of variety to your survey and also be implemented in interesting ways. For example, if you’re testing out the response of a new design or logo, you can upload several images presenting different variations, then have your respondents choose their preferred one. You could also implement images in the form of a long or short answer question, in order to get a more detailed response regarding the chosen topic. This process is extremely easy and lets users upload images directly from their computer, straight to the survey itself.
Videos and sound
Naturally, if you plan on having images in your survey, consider the possibility of having video and sounds as well. Many online providers are beginning to give users the option to upload videos and sounds to their survey, which can be used in a variety of ways.
For example, if you’re looking to get feedback on a TV or radio jingle, you could upload different variations and have participants listen to each one and let them choose the best one.
Online survey providers also let you link videos directly from YouTube and other streaming services, along with giving you the option to link straight from a page’s URL. If you have certain media on your computer, they can also be uploaded in conjunction with the other content.
Metadata
Metadata is information that allows a host or ‘end user’ (in the case of an online survey, the person who created and manages the survey) to view certain data related to their customers. This type of data could include:
The type of device that was used for the survey
The general location of the survey participant
How the survey reached the participant (e.g. Email, search engine, or links)
When the survey was undertaken
These are just some examples of metadata that survey creators can collect and analyze, in order to learn more about the people participating in them. Metadata allows survey creators to monitor their traffic and learn where their audience is coming from, along with the geographical locations that are generating the most interest. This type of data can greatly help survey creators understand what distribution channels are most relevant to their target audience, along with the types of communities they’re involved in.
The important thing to remember about metadata is that it only collects and stores a limited amount of information regarding each user. This means that personal information (other than what the participant has provided in the survey itself) is not stored in any way, and allows users to maintain their desired level of confidentiality.
Overview
As online surveys become more sophisticated, they will gradually begin to operate in a way that’s totally unique from traditional pen & paper surveys. Survey creators now have the ability to upload their own images, videos, sounds and more, in order to present questions that previously would not have been possible. Survey creators are also able to learn more about their participants and take advantage of the right distribution channels, so as to reach their desired target market.
With the array of features available to consumers, it’s becoming easier for creators to have greater control over how their survey is presented.
Picture this: you’ve just finished collecting all the data obtained from your survey, and it looks to be a resounding success. Graphs, charts, organized values for multiple choice answers and……wait, what’s this? You stare blankly at your screen as you scroll through pages and pages of open text responses, realizing that you’re going to have to analyze and attempt to categorize every single one (or at least hire someone to do the job for you).
Thankfully, there are ways to avoid this dilemma. Part of the solution is understanding why open-ended questions are asked in the first place and to implement them when they’re needed. This article will go through some basic details outlining how to incorporate open text responses into your survey, without having to sort through a barrage of lengthy and time consuming answers.
The difference between quantitative and qualitative research
At its purest form, quantitative research is any research that can be measured in numerical data or other forms of information, while qualitative research produces data that is immeasurable or non-numerical. Most surveys focus primarily on conducting quantitative research in the form of pre-determined answers that are given hidden values, which are then analyzed and calculated after the survey data has been collected. These typically come in the form of multiple choice questions, scale-based questions or questions related to demographics. Qualitative research is generally conducted through asking in-depth, open ended questions, which allow respondents to reply through a provided open field or text box. A good survey will have a balance between both types of research, so as not to exhaust respondents with the same repetitive format over and over again.
When to use qualitative research for your survey
Qualitative research is often performed during the early phase of the survey creating process, which can heavily influence the quantitative data the researchers wish to gather . For example, a company may want to study the personal traits and habits of their target market, which would require in-depth questions regarding their lifestyle choices and activities. Having this information can then help you form narrow-based questions that focus on common characteristics surrounding your chosen demographic.
When creating your survey, you will often need to ask questions that help justify a previous answer that a respondent gave. This is part of your qualitative research, since you’re asking ‘why’ a certain response was given and is something that cannot be measured or categorized (at least not easily). However, this kind of information is valuable because it provides insight into a person’s response, which would not have been possible with a typical multiple choice or close ended question. Another example of implementing an open ended response could be adding ‘other’ and providing space for a response, in conjunction with a list of possible answers to choose from.
Qualitative research is unique because it produces responses that cannot be replicated. Their subjective nature is both their greatest advantage and disadvantage as they provide insight into a person’s character. Yet, they can also lead to potentially misinterpreted answers, depending on who is analyzing the responses and the kind of language that was used.
When to use quantitative research methods for your survey
Quantitative research will comprise most of your survey, due to the benefits of being measurable and categorized for the sake of data collection. They also offer a wide range of question types that can be arranged accordingly, based on their suitability surrounding the question itself. These types of questions also involve less effort on the respondent’s behalf, which makes your survey easier and more accessible to people.
The topic of your survey will heavily dictate which form of research is most suitable for you. Surveys that veer towards subjective and opinion-based topics tend to benefit more from qualitative methods of research, as it allows people to express themselves freely and explain why they’re responding in a certain manner.
Types of open text questions
Typically, open text questions can appear in one of the following formats:
A brief input field with limited space for text. This usually accompanies a list of possible answers, where respondents can fill in an additional answer that isn’t included on the list
Large text box for long-answer questions. Generally used for in-depth questions that require long responses.
Small text box for short-answer questions, usually have a text limit to condense the information provided
Placing open text questions at relevant points
When using open ended questions, be sure to input them at relevant points during the survey process. Many respondents may feel uneasy giving in-depth answers during the early stages of a survey, so it’s best to save them for a later section. Open ended questions can be used as a follow-up to a previous question, where you wish to learn why an individual gave a certain response. This should be used if you’re seeking certain answers that relate directly to the business goal.
How to analyze qualitative responses
When conducting qualitative research, you will need to analyze the results and come to a suitable conclusion based on what the respondent is saying. Understanding a respondent’s use of tone and language requires an interpretive approach to analyzing the data. This can be achieved by first outlining a descriptive note about what has been said, irrespective of why it was said, and then performing a deeper analysis to uncover the underlying meanings, implications and inferences behind that answer. This process should also involve removing any elements of an answer that aren’t relevant to the topic at hand.
By comparing your responses with each other, you will start to a form a bigger picture surrounding the thoughts and opinions of your respondents, which can then be categorized into various sub-sections.
Summary
By understanding how to effectively incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods into your research, you will be able to produce a survey that’s sympathetic towards your target audience and reduce the hassle of analyzing too many open ended responses.
When it comes to producing an online survey that captures your audience, it is a difficult task that requires you to stand out from the hundreds, if not thousands, of other companies trying to do the same thing as you. Asking someone to participate in a survey requires them sacrificing time for the sake of helping your business or organization. In this scenario, you have very little time to make a good first impression, before a respondent decides it’s not worth the effort.
They key to executing a successful survey campaign is to design questions that engage with your audience and caters towards the demographic you’re targeting. A survey that produces a positive response from the participant is more likely to results in higher quality answers, as opposed to someone who is disinterested or rushing to finish it. This article will discuss how to take advantage of different questions types and presenting them in a manner that will resonate with your target market.
Types of questions explained
This first aspect involves outlining the types of questions you can ask in your survey, which are as follows:
Multiple Choice– This gives respondents a range of answers to choose from. Survey creators can allow respondents to make one choice, or let them select multiple answers at once.
Scale-Based Questions– Radio style buttons are commonly used in a Likert scale, where participants choose from options such as ‘favorably’ or ‘unfavorably’ with each answer representing a certain numerical value. Other variations that ask you to rate based on a scale, include ratio scale questions (eg age, income, hours), ordinal (eg hierarchy based on importance from 1 – 5) and interval scale questions (eg rate from ‘extremely likely’ to ‘unlikely’. Can also be represented as a side-by-side matrix or grid).
Numerical Questions– A numerical question is a special text box that only accepts numerical values as a response.
Short and Long Answer Questions– Both of these questions allow respondents to freely reply to a question, the main difference between the two is the limitation of text imposed on them (short answer responses will generally have less space or a limit on characters used) and the content of the question itself (long answer questions can be more involved and complex than shorter ones.
How to decide which question type to use
Choosing question types that will produce the most accurate answers depends on the topic itself and what kind of answers you’re looking for. Thankfully, there are some common instances of each variety where they’re most suitable. For example, questions regarding age, income, location or marital status, are most often asked as multiple choice or on a provided ratio scale. An interval scale type question will often be used when asking about the level of customer satisfaction, while an ordinal scale may be used to ask you a question based on level of preference to specific items.
Long and short answer questions are commonly used either as a follow-up to a previous question (eg if you chose ‘no,’ explain your reason behind this choice) or to ask an in-depth question that’s irrespective of previous answers given. Be mindful of implementing long answer questions as they require more time and resources to analyze, so don’t put in too many. Avoid placing them near the beginning of the survey too, because respondents may feel uncomfortable with sharing detailed information before becoming accustomed to the survey itself.
Keep your survey fresh and interesting
When establishing structure and flow for your survey, be sure to have the right balance between different types of questions. A survey that mulls over the same format can get repetitive and exhausting for participants, which can lead to early dropouts or inaccurate data. Incomplete surveys or poor answers result in wasted time and effort for the research team, so make sure to test and review your survey before releasing it to the public.
Other varieties of question types
With the advent of online surveys, more and more interesting forms of question asking have begun to appear in surveys. This aims to deliver a more optimized and unique experience for participants, by encouraging increased interaction between the respondent and computer. Here are some examples of question types that can add some originality to your survey:
Sliders– A slider gives participants the ability to click and drag an icon directly to its desired position. This is a more advanced variation on scale type questions, as they can be implemented to replace the traditional radio or check box format. Answers can be given in numbers, percentile values or level of satisfaction.
Maps– This is becoming more prevalent in regards to answering location based questions. An interactive map can be implemented into a survey, which allows respondents the select locations based on the question being asked. An example of this could be when searching for your nearest retail store.
Multi-Tier Tables– In most surveys, a dropdown box may be used when selecting your country of birth or current location. A more advanced variation on this standard is the multi-tier dropdown list, where selecting one option will produce another list of choices, based on what the first response was. An example of this could include selecting your country of residence, along with the state you live in.
As new methods of survey responses continue to thrive, it is important to keep your survey accessible and easy to navigate. Having too many unfamiliar methods for giving answers can polarize participants and result in confusion or early dropouts.
If you choose to adapt to new methods of answering questions, be sure you understand how you’re going to collect that data and categorize it. For example, this can be particularly problematic if you adopt a slider representing percentile values, as this would require breaking up the responses into sub-categories (eg 11-20%, 21-30%).
Summary
Creating a survey can be a difficult and time consuming process, however, don’t make the mistake of having your participants go through the same experience as well. By creating a survey that’s sympathetic towards your audience, you’ll deliver an experience that is both engaging and satisfying for all participants involved.
In today’s climate of busy schedules, such as meetings, deadlines and managing time for friends and family, persuading people into completing a survey is a difficult task. Producing a survey that is short, concise and accessible can be challenging, especially if you’re trying to satisfy numerous aspects or departments, along with achieving the business goals you’ve established. Statistics show that unnecessarily long surveys produce the highest rate of dropouts, inaccurate results and low respondent rates. Below are some important factors to consider when creating a short and concise survey:
Keep in mind the business goals and ask questions that are relevant to that goal. Try not to stray too far from the objectives that need to be met.
Use simple language when asking questions. Avoid technical or industry-specific terms that may confuse your respondents.
Consider the rate at which you or your company/organization produces and distributes these surveys. Annually? Bi-annually? This will help dictate how long your survey should be.
Optimize your survey for mobile devices and desktop systems. For example, having single questions for each screen may be ideal for smart phones, but are typically unnecessary for personal computers that have the screen capacity to display multiple questions.
Experiment with artificial limits (eg. a limit of 5 questions for each survey) in order to condense and optimize the survey.
Be careful when offering incentives for your respondents. This may result in low-quality answers and oversaturated data, due to participants who simply want the incentive and have no interest in the survey itself.
Test and review the survey on yourselves and participants who weren’t involved in the survey creation process.
This article will take you through aspects related to survey length, so as to help you produce a survey that resonates best with your target market.
Ask questions that relate to the business goals
The first step to creating an effective survey is to establish your business goals. What kind of answers are you looking for? What questions do you need to ask in order to get those answers? Are they long term or short term goals? Going through this process first will greatly influence the questions you ask in your survey. It will also help keep your survey going in the right direction, without straying off into areas that aren’t relevant to the business goals.
If your survey relates to several departments within a large company or organization, then produce individual surveys that relate to the needs of each department. Trying to condense too many requirements into a single survey will overwhelm respondents and result in potential early dropouts, or inaccurate data.
Use simple language and condense your questions
Optimizing your survey doesn’t just correlate to the amount of questions asked. Consider how you ask each question and decide whether you can rephrase them in a simpler way. Be sure to stick to one concept for each question you ask. Presenting too many variables within the one question can confuse respondents and result in inaccurate or biased answers, as each variable may not apply to the respondent (eg. presenting a limited range of transport options that don’t apply to everyone).
Avoid using technical or industry-specific terms, so as to make your survey accessible to all your participants. Coincidentally, this may result in having to make questions longer for the sake of using simple language. However, the trade-off means that respondents will be less confused and be able to give you better answers.
Optimize your survey for multiple devices
This means testing and reviewing your survey on several devices, including smart phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers. Each device should be optimized according to their technical limitations and functionality. Avoid crossing over features or concepts that don’t apply to each device, such as reducing each question to a single page. This is typically not ideal for desktop computers or laptops, since they have the screen capacity to manage more information than mobile devices.
Implementing features that are relevant to mobile devices is important to consider. This includes swiping between pages, zooming in and out, fitting each question on a single screen and more. Test your survey on all devices to ensure each one functions according to their technology and how people use them.
Experiment with artificial limits
Try imposing a limit on the amount of questions you ask and see if it enables you to more effectively optimize them. Is it possible to derive the same answers you need by asking less questions? This will help keep your survey focused, without straying into potentially irrelevant data.
Be careful to avoid implementing multiple concepts into one question for the sake of satisfying your artificial limit. If this occurs, then it is probably best to expand your artificial limit for the sake of producing a simpler and more optimized survey.
Apply logic skip rules and filters
Logic skip rules allow you to filter out and prioritize questions, according to the answers given by the respondent. For example, if a respondent says they prefer eating apples over bananas, then the survey may produce a follow-up question that’s relevant only to those who responded with the answer ‘apples.’ This allows for more detailed responses, because it lets people justify why they chose that particular answer, which can provide invaluable information for your findings.
Test and review your survey
Once you’ve produced a survey that satisfies all of the main criteria’s, test the survey out on yourself or your team, along with participants who were not involved in creating the survey. Have each respondent take the survey, uninterrupted, as if the survey was final. Give them a platform to provide feedback and then act upon their feedback.
When you have revised any errors related to your survey, repeat the process and present it again to your participants, allow them to give any further feedback. Continue the review process and finalize the project once each respondent has expressed a consistent level of satisfaction for your survey.
By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to deliver a survey that will be easily accessible to your participants. Avoid the pitfalls of an unnecessarily long and time consuming survey through simple language, optimizing for multiple devices and keeping track of your desired business goals.
Online surveys are one of the most effective tools in reaching out to your potential target market or audience. They’re designed to collect information that helps achieve your businesses goals; whether it be testing public perception on a new product, analyzing employee morale or researching your competition.
Irrespective of how you approach your survey and what its purpose is, it is important to design a survey that’s both easily accessible and visually appealing to the respondents. This involves taking into consideration factors such as:
Overall look and feel of a survey: Aspects that are relevant to the user experience, including flow of text, page transitions, question/answer format and overall structure.
Visual appearance: What colors are used, choice of text, backgrounds, banners and more.
Pacing and flow of questions: A good survey should have a balance of different question types throughout the process. A constant stream of one question type (eg. pages of multiple-choice questions) can frustrate or bore respondents, which can result in rushed responses, early dropouts and inaccurate data.
Branding: Decide what is considered reasonable in regards to branding. Excessive branding can warrant biased responses or early dropouts.
Understanding the audience: Knowing your target audience will influence the right choice of colors, format and structure, so as to cater towards their taste and preferences.
Reviewing and testing: Implemented before a survey is publicly released, in order to correct errors and make adjustments.
This article will go through the basic concepts that will assist you in designing a visually appealing survey, which will provide your respondents with a visually appealing and user-friendly survey experience.
Overall look and feel
The overall look of your survey will be heavily influenced by the purpose of your survey and who the respondents will be. It will also be important to decide if your survey will feature the company or brand you’re representing, whether it be through the presence of a logo or a color scheme that matches the company profile. If you wish to remain neutral and present an unbiased image, then a ‘generic’ approach to your survey may be the best idea.
Optimizing the user experience is an important aspect of designing your survey. This is achieved through a careful balance of question types, including multiple-choice, short-answer and long-answer questions.
Too much emphasis on a single question type can become repetitive and tiresome for some, as respondents may feel they’re not being challenged (often the case with multiple-choice questionnaires) or that they’re being too drained of their time and energy (a common problem with excessive long-answer questions). Achieve the right balance through testing your survey and revising regularly until a satisfactory flow has been established.
Visual appearance and color
When producing an online survey, it is important to establish a visually appealing color scheme for your respondents. Color is used regularly by companies in order to establish a theme that matches their brand or image, along with triggering emotional responses or actions from their customers.
Each color can signify different meanings between people. For example, red is often associated with excitement or action, which is often applied to persuade impulse purchases or decisions. Green is commonly associated with health, nature or growth, while black or white can be used to present balance and neutrality.
While these factors are quite broad and subjective between respondents, understanding your target audience will assist in making the right choice for your color scheme.
Pacing and structure
The flow of your survey should allow respondents to be given the time and space to carefully answer questions, without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted during the process. Try to avoid having too many questions on a single page, as this can produce clutter and affect the overall look of your survey.
For short-answer and long-answer questions, be sure to provide either an expandable text box or appropriate word limit that gives respondents enough space to write detailed answers. Be cautious though, as giving too much freedom to write may result in answers with too much information. This may involve the tiresome process of reading through every single response and analyzing their feedback, which can be time consuming in the event of receiving hundreds, if not thousands of survey responses.
Good pacing and structure should consider the right balance between question types and implementing page breaks that don’t interrupt the flow of the survey (many online survey providers allow you to manually insert page breaks).
Branding
If your survey is representing a company or organization, you may want to incorporate that into your survey design. This may be achieved through a consistent color scheme, presence of a logo or featuring other relevant images associated with your brand.
This can be beneficial if you’re looking to establish brand recognition among your target audience, however, it should not be used to persuade or influence their perspective on the questions being asked. Excessive branding should be avoided, as it may come across as overbearing and will negatively reflect how your target audience perceives your brand.
If you do not wish for your branding to impact the results of the survey, consider a neutral style or design that your target market will find appealing. This will likely guarantee the most accurate results from your survey and ensure you’ll receive unbiased answers from your respondents.
Reviewing and testing
Once you’ve developed a survey that satisfies these criteria’s, test it out before you launch publicly. Have a selection of test respondents (who were not involved in the survey creation process) to take your survey, and give them a platform to provide comments and feedback. Ideally, your test recipients should represent a small margin of your desired target audience, however, this isn’t always necessary.
Act upon their feedback and suggestions, then have them take your survey again. Repeat this process until your test respondents are satisfied with the quality of the survey. Be sure to test your survey on multiple devices as well, including smart phones and tablet devices (along with their associated systems, either iOS and/or Android). This will deliver the most user-friendly experience for all participants, regardless of what device they use.
The purpose of an online survey is to enable a business, person or organization, to gather information about a desired target market, group or demographic. This involves creating a survey that satisfies a number of criteria’s in order to achieve the most accurate results, including:
A clear definition of the business goals and how the survey supports those goals.
Understanding what the information will be used for.
Asking questions that are relevant to the business goals.
Surveying respondents that fit within the desired group or target market (this could be pre-selected respondents such as company employees, a panel, customers who have used your product or service before etc).
A rigorous testing, revising and editing process, undertaken prior to launching the survey.
Establishing accurate methods for analyzing, reviewing and reporting data.
And most importantly, acting upon the data and information received.
These are just some of the many components and processes that should be considered when creating an online survey. This article will provide a general overview on what makes a good survey, along with basic tips on testing your survey and analyzing the results afterwards. First, let’s start with….
Establish business goals
Business goals allow a company or organization to have a clear vision of where they want to go, whether it be short-term or long-term achievements. This may include increasing sales forecast, developing brand etiquette, improving customer/employee satisfaction or introducing new products and services to the market. The important thing to remember is that business goals are usually intangible, they’re designed to introduce a goal that can be acted upon through a series of measurable objectives. An example of this could be:
‘Our goal is to gauge public perception towards a proposed brand re-imaging Objective: Assess the customer-base through surveying and testing, by presenting concept images and analyzing their feedback.
Depending on the business goals that are established, this will dictate the kind of questions that you ask and how the survey is structured. For some surveys, long-answer responses will be required to acquire detailed information, while others will benefit more from multiple-choice or short-answer responses. Understanding the business goals and objectives required to achieve those goals, will greatly assist in creating a survey that achieves the results you need.
Provide relevant questions
Coming up with good questions for your survey is important if you want to receive responses that are relevant to the business goals. When devising questions, keep in mind the business goals and objectives required to achieve those goals, so as not to lose direction during the process.
Understanding the different types of questions associated with surveys is also important to remember. Questions such as age, location and date of birth are typically asked through dropdown lists (in the case of date of birth, a dropdown calendar), while questions regarding the quality of customer service may implement a Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly negative’ to ‘strongly positive.’ Carefully analyze the questions you’re asking and decide which method of response is most suitable for them.
Good survey questions should be as unbiased and objective as possible, without the risk of persuading a hidden agenda or forcing a certain way of thinking. Objective questions that help reach the prescribed business goals, will provide a realistic overview of how an organization, service or product is perceived by the respondents. A survey that ignores or sugarcoats potential flaws is a disservice to the investment and effort made by those who created the survey, which will return results that do not accurately represent the company, product or service.
Take note of question structure and balance too. This means having a balanced amount of question types throughout the entire survey, ranging from multiple choice, short answer and long answer responses. An overabundance of one question type may result in fatigue and frustration among respondents, as they will grow tired of writing long-answer responses, or become bored with multiple-choice questions and begin to rush through them. This produces inaccurate results and undermines the entire survey process, which can be avoided through careful planning and consideration for the respondents.
Understand the respondents
The goal of the survey heavily dictates who the respondents will be. If you’re a company looking to assess the current mood or attitude of staff, then the employees will be your main focus group. If you’re launching a new line of toys aimed at children 5 years and under, then you’ll be asking parents and children on their opinion of the product.
Think about the desired demographic for your survey and what their wants/needs are. Factors such as age, gender, income, location, education and occupation, all play a huge part in developing your survey, along with understanding what challenges they face and the typical problems they encounter. Whether it’s a person’s attitude, lifestyle, hobbies and interests, or general behavior; all of these aspects influence the decision to invest in a product or service.
Understanding the kind of action you want respondents to take is very important to remember. Do you want them to buy? Donate to a charity or good cause? Volunteer their time? Establish what kind of response you wish for your target market to make and decide whether your questions match that desired action.
When deciding upon the type of respondents you wish to attract, consider the kinds of media they interact with. If you’re developing an online survey, think about the most effective way to introduce the survey to people, whether it be through social media, e-mail or through association with a website they regularly visit. For more traditional surveys, consider aspects including location and execution, whether it be through letterbox drops, one-on-one surveys at shopping centers or other viable avenues.
Optimize your survey length
Typically speaking, shorter surveys are more desirable for respondents, as they reduce the risk of people dropping out midway. However, if your survey demands considerable time and lengthy responses, there are ways to manage this issue.
For online surveys, providing a progress status is a great way to allow respondents to monitor their time and accurately gauge when the survey will be finished. This may be achieved through implementing a percentile figure or represented through a progress bar.
For lengthier surveys, provide respondents with an estimated time figure that outlines how long the survey will take to complete. This allows respondents to decide whether they wish to begin the survey or not, based on those conditions. While this may result in dropouts early on in the process, those participating in the survey will be less likely to leave it unfinished.
The length of a survey relates to two important factors; the amount of questions being asked and how long it takes for respondents to answer those questions. These concepts correlate with each other in several interesting ways. Typically speaking, respondents will spend less time on each question when it comes to longer surveys, and will spend more time per question for shorter surveys.
The risk of producing lengthy surveys is that respondents may begin to rush their answers if they start feeling fatigued during the process. Even worse, respondents may opt out of completing the survey if they feel the process is unnecessarily long. Progress bars may help with this problem, however, it should not compensate for a survey that is unnecessarily long.
In order to gauge the overall length of your survey, test it out on willing participants (people who weren’t involved in developing the survey) and listen to their feedback closely. Act upon the response of participants and condense accordingly to make the process less time-consuming for for them.
Use clear and simple language
A good survey is one that is easily accessible to participants, with clear and simple language. When asking questions and presenting concepts to people, avoid using industry-specific language unless the survey demands it, or if it’s relevant to a specific target market.
Don’t make assumptions when devising questions either. This may occur when asking a question regarding your own company, without actually explaining what your company does first! Another example of this could be when referring to a competing business; don’t assume that every respondent will know what they do either (unless your target market is very specific or niche).
Remember to avoid presenting multiple ideas within the one question, unless the method of response suits the situation (this would most commonly suit a long-answer style of response, as opposed to multiple-choice). This can lead to confusion and frustration, with the potential for respondents to prematurely end the survey. To solve this problem, simply break up the question into two separate questions, in order to achieve the most accurate responses.
When possible, be sure to provide multi-language options when developing a survey, along with ensuring that each question translates the same meaning across several languages.
Test before you launch!
One of the most crucial aspects regarding surveys is testing it first, before releasing it to the public. The most effective way to pre-test a survey is to conduct it in the same manner you would if the survey was finished. Present the survey to willing participants, whether it be friends, colleagues or family members (as long as they weren’t involved in the survey creation process) and allow them to complete the survey uninterrupted. Once they have finished, let the respondents provide feedback and ask questions about the survey; take note of all feedback you receive and act upon them accordingly.
Undergoing this process is time-consuming, however, it will reveal potential errors in your survey. This may include poor grammar, inconsistencies in language, overly-technical phrasing, inappropriate response methods or exceedingly lengthy completion times.
Take the time to revise any areas that require improvement and repeat the testing process again, until a consistent level of satisfaction has been reached with all respondents. With each new adjustment that is made to the survey, the potential for new problems to arise exists; never assume that a revised survey is automatically better than the last one. Be sure to test the survey with each new revision that is made.
Use proper data analyzing and reporting techniques
When it comes time to collect your data and information, you’ll need to assess the value of your responses and decide how to organize everything. Many online survey services provide an array of analyzing tools, which lets you customize how your information is presented. This may include representing data through pie graphs, charts, tables and text descriptions.
The type of questions asked will heavily dictate how that data is represented. In the case of categorical responses, a nominal scale may be used to represent different categories or classifications. This is commonly used in the event of dropdown list responses such as age groups (eg 21-24 or 25-32) or annual income/earnings questions (eg $25,000 – $50,000 or $55,000 and above).
In regards to multiple-choice questions, use reporting values to categorize responses in a hierarchal manner, based on preferences that are relevant to the business goals. This is typically used in a Likert scale style of response, where a numerical value (hidden to the respondents) is applied based on its importance. For example, in the event where a ‘neutral’ response is less important than ‘strongly satisfied’ or ‘strongly dissatisfied,’ you would place a higher reporting value on the two opposing responses.
Take action upon your findings
Once you have compiled all your data and reported them accordingly, it is time to reflect on your feedback and decide what to do next. A survey that produces negative results regarding customer service will require a re-evaluation of work practices and staff training. In the event of positive feedback, reflect on methods that currently work and how they can continue to be successful.
It is important to take action after completing a survey, as it displays effort and loyalty to your staff or customers. Constructive feedback that reflects your business goals allow you to evaluate and improve upon existing methods, in order to deliver better products or services in the near future. Utilize this valuable information available to you and use it to your advantage.
We are very pleased to introduce to you to bravoSURVEYS, an incredibly powerful system, created to provide you and your organisation with relevant feedback and actionable insights of your business. bravoSURVEYS is a brilliant tool that allows organisations to effectively plan and gather information, produce comprehensive reports, build action plans and follow up with repeat cycles. Maximise the benefits of big data and modern connected IT by using bravoSURVEYS to professionally manage your continuous internal surveys.
What kind of tool is bravoSURVEYS?
In its core, this is a survey generating software, helping businesses of all sizes and industries to create questionnaires, distribute them and collect responses. However, there’s much more to come with bravoSURVEYS for the benefit of your organisation. For example, sophisticated reporting, presented to you in an easy to understand manner, as well as, extensive data analysis of the key indicators for the organisational state and performance.
Although, the software is able to carry out different tasks, it is very user friendly and easily accessible. It is online based, so all you need is a browser. If you prefer, however, you can have other programmes, tools and softwares such as Excel and enterprise-level business intelligence, integrated with bravoSURVEYS.
Our application is hosted on the Cloud and can be accessed in the form of a SAAS (Software as a Service). This means, by having a subscription to the service, you automatically gain access to any improvements, updates and new features as soon as they are added. You don’t have to clutter your desktop computers or organisational servers with installation of the software. As long as you have a good Internet connection you will always be able to take advantage of the full benefits bravoSURVEYS has to offer you and your business.
We have different subscription plans, designed to fit the needs of any organisation. You can use the free tier for limited use if you are a small company, individual or a start up who doesn’t collect data often and just wants to try out the software features. The real power and beauty of bravoSURVEYS, however, unveils in the Premium and Entrerprise subsciption packages, suitable for big organisations and frequent users.
Meet our Products
We are very passionate about providing value to our customers. This is why when you sign up for a bravoSURVEYS package, you get an instant access to a comprehensive business analysis tool suite. You can choose the products that best match your needs as an organisation. In each and every one of them you will experience fantastic functionality features and encounter advanced elements to experiment with. Nonetheless, we’ve grouped our products in three categories, catering for various aspects of organisational needs.
bravoSURVEYS Surveys
In this category, you can find our generic product for creating and analysing online surveys. Although it is not designed specifically to target a predefined purpose, you can freely create any types of surveys, questionnaires, forms and quizzes with it, which will give you the relevant insights you are looking for. There a wide variety of templates you can pick from and if you are the creative type, you have the freedom to design your own and share it with your targeted audience.
bravoSURVEYS Customer Engagement
You need to be able to get feedback from your customers effectively at all times. It is crucial to the growth and development of any business. Because we understand that better than anyone else, we’ve created a product that enables you to collect the information you need from your customers quickly and easily. The unique features of the bravoSURVEYS Customer Engagement tool are uniquely adapted to measure and predict customer attitudes, behaviour and satisfaction. If excellent customer service is important to your organisation and you learn from consumer feedback, this product is for you.
bravoSURVEYS Employee Engagement
Just as good levels of customer engagement are vital to any business, measuring the employee engagement plays a key role in the success of company of any size. Having a clear picture of how your employees feel about the workplace and what motivates them to do their job well will determine the direction, in which your organisation is going. With bravoSURVEYS Employee Engagement you can explore the most advanced and efficient ways of understanding the people who work for you, their moods, attitudes and common practices. What is more, by giving your employees a safe platform to voice their opinion, you are already taking the first step towards higher levels of employee engagement.
How does it work?
Plan, collect, analyse, act. This is the cycle on, which you will be operating with bravoSURVEYS to take out the maximum of what our products have to offer. Every step of the process is fully supported by the system and if you ever need help with anything, you can get it directly from our user interface, comprehensive documentation or by contacting the helpdesk. No matter what is bringing confusion at first, you would soon become a pro in creating specific questions, distributing surveys, viewing reports and many more.
Looking for an additional feature? No problem, send us a feature request and we’ll get on working to create it for you. No other survey software will give you the advanced power and freedom, bravoSURVEYS provides. And guess what, it only gets better by the day!
What to Expect from bravoSURVEYS?
However high you set your expectations, bravoSURVEYS will match them. Our products help you grow your business, take care of the well-being of your employees, measure your customer satisfaction and much more. Your options are limitless.
Take the first step towards becoming a leading organisation today. Sign up for bravoSURVEYS, you will be delighted!
This is the place to come whenever you need some ideas, tips and specific knowledge on employee related surveys. bravoSURVEYS blog is regularly updated and brings you value beyond the use of our products.
For your convenience we’ve divided our posts into 4 categories – Analysis and Reporting, Collecting Responses, Online Surveys and Survey Design.
In the Analysis and Reporting section you can find insightful information, statistical data with trends, specific movements and key indicators.
The Collecting Responses articles will help you define your target groups and send the relevant surveys to them in order to get valuable responses in a defined timeline.
Online Surveys present an important product and focus on Employee and Customer Engagement.
When you read the posts in the Survey Design category you will gain knowledge on creating surveys for the right purposes and the right requirements. We aim to give you information on how to make your survey user friendly, build confidence and comply with quality assurance.
What is bravoSURVEYS all about
bravoSURVEYS is a multifunctional, extremely powerful online survey software with dynamic tools. It allows you to design a survey in a way to collect the correct targeted responses in large scales. You will also be able to monitor the survey process, analyse and report the results all in one place. Our software provides invaluable information on different aspects of your organisation with specific data and trends.
Are you an HR officer, member of the executive board, manager or a business owner? bravoSURVEYS survey software is for you. Regardless of the size and nature of your organisation, our powerful tool will make a great difference in the progress of your company, by giving you insights on your staff movements and behaviour, productivity, customer satisfaction and sales volume.
We hope you find our posts helpful to some of the challenges you may be facing in your company. We will be thrilled to read your comments and feedback on our articles. Feel free to give us any suggestions for topics you may be interested in and we will try our best to tailor our content to respond to your needs. We’d love you to visit other pages of our website where you can learn more about us and our products. bravoSURVEYS provides a free demo, so click here if you want a tryout.
