How do you get started with survey research? What kind of questions should you ask? How do you analyze the data? These are some of the questions I’d love to hear from you.
I’ve been conducting surveys for over 20 years. In my experience, the best way to start is by asking yourself why you want to conduct a survey. The answers to these questions will guide you in choosing the right type of survey (e.g., quantitative or qualitative) and the right method (e.g., face-to-face interviews, phone calls, etc.).
When designing a survey, consider the following points:
1. Choose the right sample size.
2. Make sure you have enough time to complete the survey.
3. Consider the respondent’s privacy.
4. Decide whether to use incentives.
5. Be aware that people may not answer honestly.
6. Keep your survey short.
7. Think about how you can make it easy for respondents to give their honest opinions.
8. Ensure that you collect all relevant information.
9. Analyze your results carefully.
10. Share your findings.
Surveys are one of the most effective ways to gather useful feedback from customers, employees, students, members, patients, donors, and so on. They help businesses gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences, improve services, increase employee motivation, understand student learning styles, and more.
The first step in planning any survey project is to determine what you want to learn from the results. Once you’ve established this goal, think about who needs to know about the results, and then choose an appropriate methodology. You might decide to conduct a field study, a web survey, or a combination of both.
The next decision you need to make concerns the format of the survey itself. Do you want to design a paper questionnaire, a web-based questionnaire, or something else? There are pros and cons associated with each option. A paper questionnaire has the advantage of being inexpensive and quick to administer, but it also limits the ability to track responses and identify nonrespondents. On the other hand, online questionnaires allow you to easily monitor response rates, eliminate interviewer bias, and save money by reducing the number of interviewers needed.
Next, decide whether you’ll be using a structured questionnaire or an open-ended one. Structured questionnaires are generally preferred because they’re easier for respondents to complete and reduce the risk of misinterpreting the meaning of the questions. Open-ended ones, on the other hand, encourage free expression and often lead to better quality responses.
Once you’ve decided on the type of questionnaire you want to create, you need to select which method(s) of administration you plan to use. This includes deciding whether to send the questionnaire via email or mail, selecting the mode of delivery, and determining where participants should go after completing the survey.
Once you’ve selected a method of delivery, you need to decide whether to offer incentives to respondents. If you do, you must decide if these should be monetary or nonmonetary rewards. Monetary incentives include cash payments and gift cards; nonmonetary ones include food, drinks, and entertainment. The choice depends on the value of the incentive and its potential effect on participation rates.
Finally, think about how you will analyze the data collected. Will you simply summarize the responses, count them, or perform statistical analyses? These decisions depend on the nature of the data you have and the way you intend to use the information.
There are many different types of surveys available today. Some are generic (i.e., designed to measure characteristics such as attitudes and beliefs), while others are specific (i.e., measuring knowledge, skills, and behaviors). It’s important to consider your objectives when choosing a particular survey. For example, if you want to compare two groups of people on their attitudes toward a certain issue, you’d probably want to use a generic survey. But if you wanted to find out why some people don’t participate in volunteer activities, you would likely want to use a specific survey.
Demographic Survey
A demographic survey can provide valuable insight into the makeup of a population, including age, gender, race, ethnicity, education level, occupation, income, religion, political affiliation, marital status, health insurance coverage, and more. Although the list above may seem like a long one, there are actually only 12 basic demographic questions that almost every survey contains.
Here’s a summary of the most common demographics questions used in surveys:
1. Age: How old are you?
2. Gender: Are you male or female?
3. Race/Ethnicity: What is your race?
4. Education Level: How much formal schooling did you receive?
5. Occupation: What is your current job title?
6. Income: How much do you earn per year?
7. Religion: Which religious denomination do you belong to?
8. Marital Status: What is your marital status?
9. Health Insurance Coverage: Does anyone in your household currently have health insurance coverage?
10. Political Affiliation: Do you identify yourself with any political party?
11. Relationship to Head of Household: Who is the head of your household?
12. Relationship to Spouse: Is this your spouse’s first marriage?
Survey Methodology
The methodology section of a survey describes the design and execution of the study. Here, you describe the research protocol, including the sample size, sampling strategy, recruitment methods, data collection procedures, analysis plan, and other details. You also explain how participants were recruited, what the inclusion criteria were, and how they were compensated for their time.
The following sections detail each type of survey question.
Question Types
A question can fall into several categories based on its purpose. The most common question types include closed-ended, open-ended, multiple choice, and ranking questions.
Closed-Ended Question
A closed-ended question has an answer that must be selected from a set of preselected options. Examples include “How old are you?” and “What is your favorite color?” Open-ended questions allow respondents to write in their own answers. An example of an open-ended question might be, “Please tell us about your life experiences.”
Open-Ended Question
An open-ended question allows respondents to give free-form answers. This means that the respondent doesn’t need to select from a predetermined set of possible responses, but instead provides his or her own response.
Multiple Choice Question
A multiple choice question requires respondents to choose among a number of predefined choices. Multiple choice questions are often used to test factual recall by asking respondents to name all the countries that border the United States. They may also be used to assess understanding of grammar rules, vocabulary usage, or spelling skills.
Ranking Question
Ranking questions require participants to rank items according to importance, preference, or quality. For example, a ranking question could ask respondents to rank their top three favorite sports teams.
Response Options
Another key element of a survey questionnaire is the response options available. Response options are usually presented as a list of choices that correspond to the different ways in which people can respond to the question being asked.
For instance, if you want to know how many hours people spend watching television each week, you might present four response options: none; less than 30 minutes; between 30 minutes and 1 hour; and more than 1 hour.
In addition, some surveys use skip patterns. Skip patterns let respondents proceed directly to the next question without answering the previous one. Some skip patterns provide extra information so that respondents don’t miss out on important information. For example, skip patterns may provide demographic information such as gender, age, marital status, income level, education level, occupation, or ethnicity. If a skip pattern appears at the end of the survey, it will typically appear after every 10th question.
Other Survey Elements
There are several additional elements of a survey questionnaire that you should consider when designing your own survey. These include the order in which questions appear, the number of times a particular question is asked, and whether the same question is always asked throughout the survey.
Ordering Questions
You can arrange the order of the questions in two ways. First, you can place all the questions together (called block ordering). Second, you can use a random order for the questions (random ordering). Random ordering lets you vary the order of the questions randomly, while block ordering presents them in the same order from beginning to end.
Number of Times Questions Are Asked
You can repeat questions up to a certain number of times within a single survey. The maximum number of times a question can be repeated depends on the type of question being asked. For example, you can ask a yes/no question only once, but you can ask it 2–3 times. Another way to think about this is that you can have a minimum of 0 times and a maximum of 3 times.
Repeatability refers to how well a given question performs when it is repeated. This means that a good repeatability score indicates that the results of a specific question are fairly consistent across surveys.
Considerations When Choosing Your Own Survey Questionnaire
When choosing what kind of survey to design, there are several factors to keep in mind. The first thing you need to decide is the purpose of the survey. Is the survey meant to gather quantitative data? Or is it intended to collect qualitative responses? You also need to determine who will complete the survey. Will it be completed by an individual person or group of individuals? And finally, you must decide what types of questions to ask. There are hundreds of different kinds of questions you can ask. In fact, some of these questions are quite simple, while others are extremely complex.
The best way to get started with creating your own survey is by using a template. A template is simply a set of questions that has been pre-designed for a particular purpose. Templates come in various sizes, depending on the scope of the project. They range from small templates that contain just a few questions to large ones that contain dozens of questions.
Templates are great because they save time. Instead of having to create a new survey from scratch, you can start off with a template that already contains most of the questions you need. Just add your own questions to tailor the template to your needs.
If you want to learn more about the basics of survey research, check out our free guide: How to Conduct Effective Online Surveys. It provides detailed instructions on everything from planning a survey to analyzing the results.
SurveyMonkey is a leading online survey tool that makes it easy to create beautiful surveys and polls. With its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily customize your survey with responsive designs and mobile-friendly features. Plus, you can send your surveys directly via email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS text messages, LinkedIn invitations, RSS feeds, or even Twitter direct message.
Conclusion
Creating your own survey is not as difficult as many people make it out to be. If you follow the steps outlined above, you’ll be able to quickly develop your own survey template. Then all you need to do is fill it out!
What are your thoughts on developing your own survey? Do you have any tips for other users looking to start their own? Let us know in the comments section below.
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