What are the most effective survey question designs?

It can be effective to combine the two types of questions. Open-ended to capture qualitative insights, closed-ended for quantitative analysis. I've witnessed surveys go wrong because they focus too much on a single type, failing to capture the quantifiable trends or the nuanced feedback necessary for a thorough understanding.

Effective survey questions strike a balance between open-ended queries, which encourage detailed responses, and closed-ended ones, which provide quantifiable data. Open-ended questions allow respondents to express their thoughts freely, offering rich insights, while closed-ended questions offer structured options for easy analysis. Well-crafted questions are clear, concise, and unbiased, ensuring accurate responses. Employing a variety of question formats enhances the survey's effectiveness, and pilot testing helps refine questions before wider distribution. Ultimately, thoughtful design and iterative improvement ensure that surveys yield valuable and actionable results.

The type of questions designed are highly dependent on the purpose of the research and how it will be used. For example, in our work at Blueprint Consulting, we are looking for how the customer expresses expectations for performance and service in addition to their level of satisfaction. So, for this work, one-on-one interviews with open-ended questions allow for a detailed exploration of customers' experiences. While this type of question can be challenging to summarize, the depth of insights are valuable when trying to understand motivations and decision-making processes.

Here's one construct I like. First, identify your "saints, sinners and undecideds". For most businesses and brands, your task is to help the saints advocate for you and spread the faith, do everything possible to avoid spending a dime on the sinners, and pull the undecideds over to your side of the fence. Who are the undecideds? What are the segments within this usually large group? Which ideas have the best chance of pulling each segment your way? The problem with a lot of research is that it averages across all three of these groups. As such the results, while interesting, lack actionability. Just a thought...

One thing I have found helpful while designing a questionnaire is to draw insights from the qualitative study which is a precursor to the quantitative phase of the study. There is also the need to test the instrument by administing it on like subject of the study before conclusion is made. The pilot will assist to provide answers to the wordings and in most cases give some information on the likely response for questions.

One thing that I've found helpful while crafting and finalizing the questions is to imagine the output. Think about what is the business objective and imagine if these questions will help give you the desired inputs to make required business decisions.

Always test your questions. Keep your attributes at the same level of abstraction. An item such as ‘Is responsive’ is at a higher level of abstraction than ‘Answers your questions within an hour.’ The specific question is a way of being responsive. You may notice misleading results in your regression models if items that are a way of experiencing another attribute appear in the same model. Do not use jargon. People from different cultural backgrounds may not share the same understanding of colloquial terms. Some term’s definitions change with generational shifts. Asking potential study participants to explain how they interpret an item will help identify terms that mean different things to different populations.

An important aspect to consider is understanding the language and communication style of consumers in different countries or regions. Customizing survey questions to suit the target audience and keeping them straightforward can help maintain engagement and ensure a realistic understanding. When conducting surveys across multiple countries or regions, it's crucial to check if the questions are interpreted consistently. I recall a global survey that asked, 'Do you have a best friend at work?' The responses varied due to cultural differences in workplace relationships. In some cultures, colleagues may not define themselves as 'best friends' but still maintain close friendships.

Ter amplo repertório sobre que está sendo pesquisado é fundamental para se estruturar um questionário eficiente. Mais do que isso, dominar a linguagem do consumidor, saber como ele se refere ao produto/categoria/marca é fundamental para o desenho de um questionário capaz de trazer as respostas esperadas. Nem sempre o consumidor se refere aos produtos e servi?os da mesma forma que os executivos se referem aos seus produtos dentro da empresa. Quem está desenhando o questionário deverá saber fazer essa "tradu??o" para falar a linguagem do consumidor e n?o dos executivos da empresa.

Clarity and Simplicity are on both sides; what is the team asking the questions trying to uncover/learn at the most granular level? From there, it's building out a survey that's simple and asks questions that guide the respondents to provide details to help the survey be beneficial/productive.

One thing that I find helpful while designing a survey questionnaire is to develop a matrix with areas of inquiry, map potential respondents for those and a tool (qualitative/quantitative) that can best answer those. Based on this matrix, I then filter out different respondent groups, questionnaire types for the survey.

A survey asking participants to rate their satisfaction with specific aspects of a product or service (e.g., ease of use, customer support, value for money).

Deve sempre avaliar o modelo de negócio e a aplicabilidade. Realizar perguntas corretas s partir de uma escuta ativa. Ouvir o time e os clientes e fornecedores s?o fundamentais principalmente usando a pesquisa de satisfa??o para ter um diagnóstico preciso de como avan?ar.

El tiempo es el mejor aliado cuando se obtiene información auténtica. Hay que tener cuidado en no cansar al entrevistado de tal forma que se vaya perdiendo interés. He observado resultados más precisos cuando se generan encuestas breves y puntuales.

The most important thing that I strongly believe and consider very helpful while creating and designing a survey is to imagine the respondents and how to address the answers in a simple, straightforward way so the entire outcome shall reflect the majority of participants and not only the high tech specialist

Es gibt ein sehr bekanntes Buch, das hier jeden ans Herz legen m?chte, "how the question shapes the answer" (Schwarz, 1999). So einfach es klingen mag, im Endeffekt geht es darum, dass Ergebnisse unabh?ngig von Fragesteller erzielt werden. Ein wichtiger Punkt ist hier die Neutralit?t der Forschenden, die allzu schnell implizit Einfluss nehmen k?nnen auf die Antworten. Hier gibt es rückblickend in der Geschichte vor allem auf die NS-Zeit leider sehr viele Beispiele die beweisen dass es mit der Neutralit?t schnell vorbei sein kann. Heute gibt es viele Mittel und M?glichkeiten, um eine bessere Neutralit?t zu gew?hrleisten. Eine M?glichkeit auf die ich hier verweisen will ist unter anderem KI.

Be open to being surprised or wrong! For example, if you're asking for participants to rank their biggest pain points with your product - don't just ask about what you perceive to be your areas of weakness, also include in the options what you perceive to be your areas of strength.

The motive behind conducting the survey is to have honest responses. Hence, it is highly important to construct the questions in such a manner that it gives mindspace for the responser to think neutral. And how can we make the survey look unbiased? 1. Questions should have scope of making a choice 2. They need to be framed highlighting the attribute and not the brand 3. They should be in a language that is most common in the region. Language can also create bias

It is important to eliminate "social desirability". People tend to say "yes" rather than "no" or socially wanted or accepted options rather than critical ones. Do not only mention one alternative in your question ("Do you use social media?") but open your wording ("Do you use social media or do you prefer not to use them?"). Furthermore: There is always a discussion of using 4 or 5 or 10 ratings in an ordinal scale. My recommendation: Use 5! There is a middle or neutral rating possible. This is reality, sometimes people have a neutral opinion. A scale of 10 is nonsense, because it is a pseudo-accuracy. For a common understanding and statistical significance you need to put it in words (I fully disagree ... I agree / I fully agree).

a certain answer or attitude, such as "How much do you love our product?" or "Don't you think our product is better than our competitors?" Instead, use neutral and balanced questions that allow your respondents to express their true opinions and preferences.

In my opinion it also heavily depends on the situation. It is important to assess your target group first and if possible consider their background and background knowledge about what the topic of the survey is about. Taking this into consideration sometimes open ended questions, sometimes MC or any other closed format might be more suitable

I found it very respectful of the respondents effort, time and willingness of the respondent to have expectations regarding the time that is going to be allocated to answering the survey questions, the number of sections and their focus, also the grouping of similar topics together or even similar types of questions. So if a scale of 1 to 10 is used, sticking to that 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest in all similar questions will avoid confusion for the respondent. Same for the Likert scale questions with 5 only or 7 answers only is helpful specially within the same section questions.

Use appropriate and attractive fonts, colors, and graphics for your questions, so that your respondents can see and understand your questions clearly and pleasantly.

Getting the right answers (variables) can only be done with the right questions. Something I find very useful with my team is to push them not to ask the questions in a way they want to read the data, but in a way that feels neutral to the people. And it is on the structure. Also most of the time, you can ask things without asking.

The format and layout of the questions should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. The questions should also be relevant, unbiased, and aligned with the research objectives. I had to design a survey to measure customer satisfaction with our product. In my experience, one thing I have found helpful is to use a mix of closed-ended and open-ended questions. Closed-ended questions allow for quantitative analysis and comparison, while open-ended questions provide qualitative insights and feedback. By using both types of questions, I was able to collect rich and reliable data from the respondents.

Balanced Rating Scales: Ensure your rating scales are balanced. For eg, if you’re using a Likert scale, it should have equal no. of positive & negative responses. Avoiding Double-Barreled Questions: Questions that ask about two different things at once can confuse respondents. Logical Question Sequence: Order of the questions should flow logically. This helps keep the respondent engaged and reduces the risk of them abandoning the survey. Open-Ended Questions: While they can be more difficult to analyze, open-ended questions can provide valuable qualitative data and insights that closed-ended questions might miss. Pilot Testing: Before distributing your survey, conduct a pilot test to identify any potential issues with the survey design.

Survey design should start with strategy. If your survey design doesn’t link into your business objectives, then they’re just questions being asked with no purpose.

Effective survey question designs should be clear, concise, and unbiased. Consider: 1. Closed-ended questions:Provide predefined response options for easy analysis. 2. Avoid leading questions:Phrase questions neutrally to prevent bias in responses. 3. Use a mix of question types:Combine multiple-choice, Likert scales, and open-ended questions for comprehensive insights. 4. Logical flow:Arrange questions in a logical sequence to maintain respondents' interest and coherence. 5. Avoid double-barreled questions:Ask one thing at a time to ensure clarity and accurate responses. 6. Pilot test:Test your survey with a small group to identify and rectify any issues before wider distribution.

Reflecting on lessons learned from previous survey findings will help gain insights from both past successes and challenges. This activity is crucial, based on fundamental aspects including survey objectives, budget, time, and analysis methods, to reevaluate survey types and identify success factors and limitations for designing future similar survey questions.

In addition to all of the excellent survey question design considerations and best practices, we need to also keep in mind that the audience against which the survey is administered is in-line with clients' objectives and expectations. Panel providers and Measurement companies need to ensure quality control and accuracy of panels, devoid of bots, straight-liners and duplicates, for example, as well as basic targeting such as demographic and behavioral/ attitudinal. This is a tall order, to be sure; but to the extent you are surveying the "correct" audience, the best questions in the world won't get you the insights you need to adequately address the stated business objectives.