How to write surveys that deliver valuable information

If you’re going to the time and effort of carrying out a survey, you’ll want it to uncover information that’s reliable and useful. And that depends largely on the quality of the questions you ask.

 

Badly written questions can be confusing, frustrating and lead to unreliable data or respondents leaving the survey uncompleted.

 

But write them well, and you can gather carefully considered, useful information – and you might even build some supporter and staff goodwill along the way.

 

 

“Why are you asking me?”

 

Whether you’re writing for supporters, volunteers, or staff, it’s important they understand why you are asking for their opinions. Explain how their responses will be used, for example, to improve a helpline, create effective new branding, or improve training for staff. Having a reason to complete the survey is good motivation for them to start and finish it.

 

Explain why you’re specifically asking them. That could be: “As a volunteer who’s recently joined us, we’d love your feedback on our recruitment process.” Being specific about why you’ve asked them to participate, will make the person feel more valued and that their input is important.

 

It’s also worth remembering that sending out a survey is a chance to build stronger relationships with staff, supporters or volunteers – by showing how you value their opinions, experience and time.

 

 

Use the most suitable types of question in your survey

 

There are lots of types of survey questions: open-ended, closed-ended, ranking, Likert, multiple-choice, and more. Deciding which type of question to ask will partly depend on whether you’re looking for qualitative or quantitative data.

 

You’ll need to consider how most people will respond. Will they most likely be on a laptop or a mobile? If it’s a mobile, you may want to include more multiple-choice questions than open-ended questions, which require more typing and can be trickier on a phone.

 

 

Keep survey questions short and simple

 

As with any well-written communications, be clear, concise, and use everyday language. That doesn’t mean oversimplifying your questions, but avoiding jargon and instead using language that your audience will understand at a first read.

 

The best surveys are short and concise. Kantar talk about ‘survey fatigue’ and have found that a survey over 25 minutes loses more than three times as many respondents as a survey that takes less than five minutes. Making sure your questions are crystal clear will help respondents to work smoothly through their answers, without getting frustrated or bored.

 

 

One thing at a time in the survey

 

It sounds obvious, but each question should be just one question. For example, if you’re looking for feedback on an event, don’t ask:

 

“What did you think of the information you received before and after the event?”

 

The respondent might have had very different experiences of each. Instead, split it out into two questions:

 

“What did you think of the information you received before the event?”

“What did you think of the information you received after the event?”

 

Avoid any confusion in your questions, as even the slightest frustration can put people off completing the survey.

 

 

Avoid biased survey questions

 

Be careful how you phrase questions. To get the most useful responses they need to be neutral without make any assumptions about the person completing the survey.

 

That could be avoiding:

 

“When you enter the race again next year, which location will you choose?”

 

This question assumes that the person would want to take part in the event again. The question could be rephrased as:

 

“If you enter the race again next year, which location are you most likely to choose?”

 

 

Give a complete range of multiple choice answers in your survey

 

In multiple choice answers, there’s a similar trap to avoid. The answers you give need to cover the full range of experiences. So, if you asked the question below with the following answers, you’re assuming that the respondent found the support line in some way helpful: 

 

“Was the person you spoke to on our support line…

• Extremely helpful
• Very helpful
• Slightly helpful 

The answers also need to include:

• Unhelpful
• Very unhelpful

 

Clearly explain what you want them to do

 

If you’ve included a ranking question (where the respondent puts a series of options in a preferred order), ensure you’ve clearly explained how the ranking works. For example:

 

“Please rank these features from most useful to least useful, with the most useful at the top.”

 

 

Test out the survey questions before you send them out 

 

Ask a colleague to look over the questions to make sure it’s obvious what you’re asking. It can be helpful to get feedback from someone who doesn’t know much about the subject, as they’ll be able to pick up on any jargon or language that isn’t widely understood.