How to design effective customer surveys: Insights from Caroline Jarrett

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When it comes to creating an effective customer survey, there’s no substitute for user research, says renowned forms and survey expert Caroline Jarrett .

“You need to interview first to practice your questions, to get a feel for the vocabulary, to find out what issues matter to your potential respondents,” she said.

This foundational step ensures that the survey questions are relevant and clear, ultimately leading to more meaningful data collection.

In this week’s #InsightsUnlocked, the Surveys That Work author talks with UserTesting’s Mike McDowell , sharing her extensive knowledge on designing effective surveys and forms.

When executed properly, surveys can be an efficient method to connect with your customers or target audience to gain a snapshot of their successes or struggles with a product or service.

Caroline said you’ll never know whether a question is any good until you’ve watched users try to answer it. Skipping that initial research could result in survey questions that are poorly written, filled with jargon, biased, or otherwise work against your goals.

In fact, Caroline offers a downloadable poster on her website that says “Listen first, ask second.”

“Really,” she said, “You need to know what matters to your audience.”

Caroline takes her clients on a four-step exercise, “Which is what do you want to know? That's pretty easy. Why do you want to know? Generally, fairly easy. What decision will you make? Often a lot trickier because they haven't drilled down to that level. And then what number do you need to make the decision? And that's often really tricky.”

Going through the exercise helps you identify your most crucial question, Caroline says. That’s the question that makes a difference, she said. The one question that will provide the essential information for your organization to make a decision.?

"A survey is a quantitative method. The result is a number," says Caroline. By prioritizing the most important questions, survey designers can avoid overwhelming respondents and ensure that the data collected is both reliable and actionable.

Caroline also highlights the iterative nature of testing in survey design. "Testing is not one and done. Research is not one and done," adds Mike McDowell. Continuous refinement based on feedback is essential for creating effective and user-friendly surveys.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of their conversation, including Caroline’s thoughts on AI’s role in surveys.