top ten survey best practices

8/6/2019 Top Ten Survey Best Practices

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Top Ten Survey Best

Practices

Webinar

Sponsored by SurveyGizmoEd Halteman and Christian Vanek

September 27, 2007


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Christian VanekChristian is a founding partner ofSurveyGizmo and the lead software

engineer. He comes from an 11-year consulting background focusing

on marketing and content management tools. Christian is based out of

Cambridge, MA.

See SurveyGizmo.com to sign up for a Survey Gizmo account.

Webinar Survey Experts

Dr. Ed HaltemanEd has a master's degree in applied mathematics, and a Ph.D. in

statistics, and he has specialized in survey design for over 10 years. Edcurrently heads Survey Design and Analysis founded in January 2003

and is available for comprehensive survey design services. Contact

them for help getting more out of your next survey.

For more information go to SurveyDNA.com or call 303-818-3679.


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The Agenda!

Webinar: Top-Ten Best Practices

Welcome

The Process of Building Surveys Top-Ten Best Practices

Questions and Answers


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Overview of Survey Process

Design (1)

Creation (7)

Collection (1)

Analysis/Reporting (1)


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Top-Ten Best Survey Practices

Best Practice #1:

Start with your objectives, not questions


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Top-Ten Best Survey PracticesBest Practice #1: Start with your objectives, not questions

Examples Kwik Phone Telephone Company services small to medium-sized

businesses.

Objective #1: To monitor customer satisfaction so that identify improvement

opportunities quickly to maintain our customer base.

Objective #2: To decide where to focus our limited improvement resources.

XObjective #3: To improve customer satisfaction.

Think Actions/Decisions


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Top-Ten Best Survey PracticesBest Practice #1: Start with your objectives, not questions

Questions

Overall how satisfied are you with Kwik Phone?Very satisfied, Satisfied, Neutral, Dissatisfied, Very dissatisfied, Uncertain

Verysatisfied

Satisfied Neutral Dissatisfied Verydissatisfied

Dont

know / NA

Timeliness in fulfilling

requests

Follow through on

requests/issues

Accessibility ofKwik

Phone staff

Kwik Phone equipment

performance

Kwik Phone Invoicing


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Best Practice #2:

Introduce Your Survey & How Long it Will Take


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Best Practice #3:

Include Not Applicable and Dont Know(especially on required questions)


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Top-Ten Best Survey PracticesBest Practice #3: Include Not Applicable and Dont Know

How often do you get asked a question where you answer, I dont know or

Im not sure? Yet, on surveys many just dont think to include them.

The Reason? They are focused on theirperspective (I want an answer)

and not that of the respondent!

What about the argument, Dont know is a cop out I want to force them to

think about it and give me an opinion!

Forcing respondents contaminates your good data.

It creates lack of closure which keeps respondents distracted on

subsequent questions.

Method: For all questions ask yourself, Will this be applicable to everyone?

How would I answer it? Could dont know be a possible answer?


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Best Practice #4:

Use clear and concise questions

and options


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VS.


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Top-Ten Best Survey PracticesBest Practice #5: Nice-to-knows Dont Count

How often do you hear?

It would be nice to know what are customers think about such and

such. . . . or Id like to know . . . This usually comes up during question generation but can happen w/

objectives as well. Id like to know what customers think of our new

product (feature) ideas.

The Easy Fix for Nice-to knows

Ask What actions/decisions will it drive?

Example

Objective level: What action will it drive? None, ourproduct is already

in development! [Invoicing is someone elses responsibility a NTK!]

Question level: How satisfied are you with Kwik Phone invoicing?


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Best Practice #6:

Use branching and show/hide to shorten your

surveys appearance.


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Best Practice #7:

Test your Survey


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Top-Ten Best Survey PracticesBest Practice #8: After testing, do a conceptual analysis

So youve followed 1-7 best practices and you have a great survey

ready to go. STOP! Lets go one step further.

Imagine youve executed the survey and you got date back.

Think of what the data might look like.

Actually make up some numbers, take them for a spin.

Now what will I do if these were my results?

Will it allow me to meet my objective (s)?

Do I need all of this information? Or are some just NTK?

Just thinking about this will stirup ideas about how ready your survey

is.


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Best Practice #9:

Use your survey results as an incentive.


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Best Practice #10: Sample whenever your targetaudience is greater than 500*

*roughly

Benefits of sampling

Better accuracy

Shows respect for respondents time

Builds good will with customers

Saves time and money

Consider

National Polling Remember you never get everyone to respond.

What action/decision are you trying to make

Exceptions

Accuracy needs for breakouts

Customer touchpoint


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Summary Top Ten Best Practices

1. Start with your objectives, not questions

2. Introduce Your Survey & How Long it Will Take

3. Include Not Applicable and Dont Know

4. Use clear and concise questions and options5. Nice-to-knows Dont Count

6. Use branching and show/hide to shorten your surveys

appearance.

7. Test your survey.

8. After testing, do a conceptual analysis

9. Use your survey results as an incentive.

10. Sample whenever your target audience is greater than 500*

top ten survey best practices

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