Create the Perfect Survey

With the right survey, not only can you learn who your clients are, you can also get invaluable feedback on what they think about your products, services, partners and employees. Here are 10 ways to ensure that your survey gets the results you want.

Determine the Purpose of Your Survey

Identify the information needed and from whom it will be collected. You may, for example, want to compare awareness of your product to that of your competition; quantify attitudes and preferences about your products among your customers; determine unmet needs of your target market; and measure employee satisfaction. Keep in mind, however, that the most effective surveys focus on just one area.

Choose the Method for Your Survey

How you conduct your survey depends on the customer information that you have (e.g., phone numbers, e-mail, addresses). Other considerations are response rates (rates are dropping for mail and phone), timing (mail surveys take longer to field and tabulate) and your budget (telephone surveys are the most expensive and online the least expensive). Online survey services like Surveymonkey.com offer both free and inexpensive options for creating surveys via the Web. Finally, if you are going to do a telephone survey, keep in mind the “Do Not Call” list (refer to donotcall.gov for information).

Determine Your Sample

A sample is a representative segment of the market that you want to survey. Do you want to sample all customers or just certain segments? If you want to survey a certain segment, make sure to choose the participants randomly to avoid bias.

Determine the Size of Your Sample

The larger the sample, the more reliable the data. For example, a sample size of 100 has a 10% chance of error (not being an accurate read of the marketplace); a sample size of 1,000 reduces that margin to 3%. In addition, if you plan on segmenting data, you’ll need to include more people in the survey.

Should You Identify the Sponsor of the Survey or Not?

Your answer will be determined by whether the respondents’ knowing the sponsor will bias the results or improve the likelihood of getting the survey answered.

Write a Questionnaire That Gets Answered

Make sure the questions are straightforward and clear. Open-ended questions take more thought and time to answer, so limit their number.

Organize the Questionnaire

Ask general, easier-to-answer questions first. This will prepare respondents for the more detailed questions that follow. Hold personal, more sensitive questions (such as age and income) until the end. Organize questions into sections that flow logically.

Use Plain English

When writing the survey and invitation, use language that anyone can understand, such as “a survey” or “a few questions” instead of “research study.” Avoid industry buzzwords and MBA- and tech-speak.

Increase Response Rates

Response depends on many variables, including the sample, sponsor and questionnaire design. But other factors can also come into play. Use an incentive — offer to include the respondent in a drawing for $100 or an iPod, for instance. For each survey completed, you can also make a contribution to a charity. Offer to share the results with the respondent.

Attend to the Details

For mail and online surveys, be sure to check the logic to ensure that the respondent can complete the survey easily and successfully. For example, make sure respondents are not asked about a product or feature if they had indicated no interest in it earlier in the survey. Most commonly encountered errors in logic and skip pattern can easily be avoided. An easy way to do this is to have several people test the survey.