Best Tips for Making an Effective Survey

December 16, 2020

Surveys are not something new. In fact, the first written questionnaire was published in London back in 1838, and from then, everyone is using them.

From professional sports teams, like the ones in BetAmerica Extra NBA daily picks, to huge corporations like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, with a goal to find out more about other people’s opinions.

Whether you are doing a survey to get additional information about the market, or you want some information about your business procedures, the key is making the survey effective.

Most people often make the same mistake of not asking the right questions or making the survey extra-long, which makes it hard to find participants.

The first thing you need to work on is the type of questions you include in your survey. The types of questions depend on what you expect to receive as information from the survey.

In today’s article, we will go through some of the tips that will help you write a great survey.

  • Keep Your Questions Neutral

It is important to pay close attention to the type of questions you ask your audience. You have to avoid asking questions that can influence respondents to answer in a way that they don’t really feel.

That’s why all the questions included in your survey should be neutral and avoid using phrases from the answers.

  • Focus only on closed-ended questions

There is a reason why many people don’t include open-ended questions (also known as free-response questions). They require more effort, and they are more time-consuming than closed-ended questions. So, when you are designing your survey, make sure you avoid using open-ended questions.

A rule of thumb says that it is preferable that you use up to two open-ended questions per survey, and if possible, put them on a separate page at the end. Just because most people tend to drop-out and quit the survey when they see open-ended questions, putting them, in the end, will allow you to collect all their previous answers.

  • Avoid asking multiple things at once

Most people would get confused if they see a question that requires an answer to two or more things. Confusing your respondents is even worse than influencing their answers, which is why you have to ask each question separately.

Multiple questions in one or otherwise known as “double-barrelled” questions can confuse respondents leading to inaccurate answers or dropouts.

  • Ask different questions

Since most people are participating in your survey without expecting anything in return, it is crucial that you make their time spent answering the questions peasant. Can you if someone asks you the same question over and over again? – Of course, it will frustrate you.

That’s why you should avoid using similar questions that lead to an identical answer. That will only lead respondents to leave your survey or answering your questions without putting too much effort into them.

  • Make All Questions Optional to Answer

Obviously, it is best to get answers to all of your questions, but this doesn’t mean that you have to make all your questions required to answer. Additionally, responders might not know the answers to all of your questions, which will lead to negative feedback since they didn’t answer truthfully.

At the same time, there may be some questions that they are not comfortable answering.

That’s why you have to make all of your questions optional to answer. Many people will abandon the survey or select a random answer if all the questions are required.

  • Test, Test, Test

There is nothing worse than finding some mistakes in your survey once it is already sent. To prevent this, you need to test your survey before you sent it to your participants. Share your survey with friends, colleagues, or family members and ask them how it feels and if it is easy to fill out.

Getting their feedback is extremely valuable just because it will improve the user experience from the survey.

Final Words

Running a survey can be a complicated process, and it all depends on the type of your audience, type of survey (on paper or digital), and the type of questions you won’t answer to. However, if you follow all the things we mentioned in this article, you’ll be able to create an effective survey that will point out all the answers to your questions.

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