Survey Smarter: Best Practices for Designing Surveys That Deliver Actionable Insights
If you’ve read part one of our series on quantitative surveys, you know that they are a tremendous tool to use when you need an efficient, objective, and cost effective method for market research. To truly maximize the value of your surveys, it’s important that you approach their design thoughtfully. In this installment, we share best practices to help you design a survey that delivers meaningful and actionable insights.
The Structure
Surveys don’t need to be complicated. In fact, you’ll gain better insights if they’re not. When designing a survey, there are two things that you should focus on: logic and length. When it comes to creating a survey that flows logically, it’s important that the questions in the survey are grouped together based on their topic and that they move from the most general to the most specific. This will make it easy for respondents to stay on track and allow them to shift their mindset and responses organically throughout. As for length, keep the survey itself brief and avoid including unnecessary fluff. This will maximize your response rate and help ensure that you get as much information as possible from each respondent.
The Questions
The questions you ask and the way that you ask them will make all the difference in the success of your quantitative survey research. It should be easy for those answering your questions to know what it is that you’re asking, so be sure to use language that is clear and concise. It’s also important to recognize that questions can benefit from different formats. As an example, when you want quantifiable results, closed-ended questions such as multiple choice or a scale for rating are a great choice. Alternatively, open-ended questions that are formatted as written responses are perfect for when you’d like to extract information that is a bit more detailed.
The Pitfalls to Avoid
It’s easier than you may think to fall prey to the common pitfalls of surveys. If you’re looking for authentic and honest insights, the first thing you want to be mindful of is asking leading questions in your survey. Keep the questions that you ask neutral so that you don’t sway respondents towards an answer that they may not have provided otherwise. Another thing to look out for is response fatigue. Respondents may become disengaged and provide inaccurate or less thoughtful answers to get to the end of a survey that they feel is too long. You can avoid this pitfall by limiting repetition in your line of questioning and by keeping things as concise as possible.
Designing an effective quantitative survey takes practice, but by focusing on structure, crafting clear and purposeful questions, and avoiding the most common pitfalls, you can make the process as seamless as possible and achieve meaningful results. The next time that you’d like to conduct a survey, whether your target audience is broad or incredibly niche, the Zintro team is here to support you every step of the way.
Other Blogs You May Enjoy
