The goal of any survey is to gather data and gain relevant insights. Companies conduct surveys to uncover answers. Marketers design surveys with the intent of capturing meaningful opinions, feedback, and comments. Surveys are also meant to inspire discussion about key topics. Marketers can also leverage survey insights to gain a broader perspective about what customers think. A big challenge for marketers and companies is how to make surveys better.
You might also think of surveys as offering an unbiased approach to decision making. Valuable time and resources need not be wasted in asking questions of little concern. With an effective survey design, marketers can gain a snapshot, in real time, of their customers’ attitudes and behaviors.
There are several reasons why typical surveys fail. One of the most important things to remember is that a survey’s design will influence the respondent’s answer. The wrong questions along with too much information can destroy survey results.
- The First Error: Usually, the questionnaire is too long. If it takes too long to complete, you can rest assured that respondents will hurry to finish it—or not finish it at all. Those who finish are likely to represent a small percentage. Beyond 20 questions, boredom tends to set in. Effective questionnaires focus on customer satisfaction. Respondents can answer them in a short amount of time.
- The Second Error: Faulty surveys offer biased questions. Example: “We think our customer service reps are awesome. How effective do you think they are?” ‘Awesome’ is a vague term and may impeded the respondent’s ability to provide an honest answer. It might be better to ask, “How helpful do you think our customer service department is?”
- The Third Error: You failed to ask the right questions. This is an area where most marketers fail. Relying on a third party to create a survey often fails because the customer’s best interest is never understood by outsiders. Why end up with only a vague idea of what satisfies your customers?
Things That Ruin Data
There are a number of elements that can ruin data that is relied on to interpret how customers feel about a product or service. One of the main keys to success is how you’ve written your survey questions. The right questions can mean the ultimate difference between a good or bad survey. The wrong survey questions can render data useless.
Helping Customers Gain the Right Perspective
Effective questions can give respondents the right perspective so they can answer questions accurately. Otherwise, respondents will be pulled to one side or the other and fail to respond truthfully. If there are options to select in a question, respondents may end up feeling confused about which option/s to choose. There may be a million mistakes one can make in designing a questionnaire. We will examine several of the most obvious.
- Questions That Lead – If you ask questions that sway the respondent to one side of the argument, you may not get the honest answers you are looking for. All of the survey’s wording should be kept neutral. Here’s a simple example: If I asked the question: “How tall do you think Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is?” The word ‘tall’ immediately causes an image to form in the mind of the respondent. If I ask, “How would you best describe The Rock’s’ height?” I may get a more truthful and insightful response. Another example: Answer yes or no. “Responsible parents spend time helping their children with homework after school.”
Respondents become confused by what to answer because there are responsible parents who may not always be able to spend the desired time with their children. A better question might be, “Do you think it’s productive for parents to spend quality time helping their children with homework?”
- Loaded Questions – These are questions that force respondents to answer in a way that may not reflect their true opinion. Example: “Do you enjoy being the boss?” The focus is on ‘boss,’ and not everyone sees their role as such. A better question would be, “What is your opinion on the role of leadership?” These might seem like small differences, but surveying hundreds or thousands of people can provide a complete set of data that may be completely off the mark. Again, your goal is to help the respondent to answer truthfully.
- Double-Barreled Questions – These are some of the most common mistakes. Example: “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the caliber of products/services and customer service?” It is a bad question because a customer may be satisfied with one part and not the other. It is better to break up the question into two. Never force customers to answer two questions with one answer. Another mistake that many surveyors make is using language that is not clear and concise. Unnecessary acronyms and over-the-top concepts may turn respondents off.
The Following Are Key Elements for Creating a Successful Survey.
How do you want to ask questions? Why ask a particular question? Are you asking the right questions? Who do you want to answer your questions? Where do you want to ask your questions? When to do you want to ask your questions? Your product can be the most innovative of its kind, but failing to gain additional insights may cause you to lose additional business opportunities.
Swurveys can assist you with all of these problems, but today, with a little care from you when designing your questions, the All Swipe, No Type Swurvey will help you build short, engaging surveys to help you achieve your marketing goals.