When you take a survey it seems like the structure seems very self-explanatory or even easy to replicate. How hard can it be to ask a few questions? Surprisingly, it can be rather difficult, especially when you are trying to get valuable information from the participant(s). Read some tips below on how to make the most out of your survey!
Use Words With Clear Meanings
When writing a survey, the main focus should be on being clear to the participant. Using words such as many or several can lead to interpretation and ultimately skew your results. The question may even be received differently, ultimately making it pointless. Try using words/phrases such as few, a majority of or almost all instead.
Make Sure to Offer a “Skip” Option
You don’t want the participant to feel like they have to answer something that doesn’t apply to them. By offering a “do not know” or “does not apply” option to questions you feel weary about the participant knowing will allow for more correct data now that they will not put down a random answer.
Keep Your Answers Balanced
There are many answer options when creating a survey. You could have: pick the following, agree or disagree and many more. The options are endless! Remember, when creating question responses to make them somewhat consistent with the survey because you want to give the participant some consistency when taking your survey. This way they become more familiar with the format and can spend more time understanding the actual question.
Ask Mostly Close-Ended Questions
Open-ended questions may seem like they will lend more information to your survey, but you have to think about when you are calculating the results of it. If you have all open-ended questions, and you have 100 participants, you are going to have to read over all of those responses. Evaluate your survey and the participant pool and see what will work best for you.
Avoid Double-Barreled Questions
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, double-barreled questions. A badly formatted question can mess up your data you have worked so hard to collect. A double-barreled question is when you force someone to answer two questions in the format of one with a single answer. An example of this is, “how do you like your work environment and salary?” Someone could love their salary but hate their work environment. Just separate the one question into two to ensure the most reliable form of data.
Survey writing can be tricky, and things that seem obvious can trip you and your participants up. Follow these tips when creating a survey and they should lend the most reliable and helpful data!
Hopefully, these tips help with your survey writing, now head over to Burkhart Marketing to see if we can connect with you!
