Calling all SURVEY EXPERTS!

#1

What are some of your go to strategies and best practices when it comes to:

  • Writing a Survey
  • Gathering Survey Results

Ready…Set… GO!

#2

Based on my experience, these are my survey best practices:

  1. Start with the end results you hope to receive and work backwards/“reverse engineer” to make sure you have questions (and question type/style properly formatted) which will give you those results.
  2. Consider whether or not YOU would answer the survey based on the content and layout. Respondent fatigue is real, so only ask what, and as much, as you truly need. Separate the “must have” questions from the “nice to have” questions.
  3. Don’t ask questions for data that you probably already have via the list you’re using. That makes you look uninformed and wastes valuable survey real estate.
  4. Consider an incentive, if possible. Incentives need to have a high perceived value, appropriate for the time-ask, with as close to universal appeal as possible (i.e., don’t provide a gift card to for a national survey to a regional business). Any incentive can increase response rates as much as 3x over surveys with no incentive. Make it a good incentive and the response rates only improve from there.
  5. Proof and test your survey! Then have others proof and test your survey (it’s always a challenge to proof/test your own work because you’re too close to it). A survey with typos, formatting errors and/or a poor design will lead to survey quits and possibly bad data.
  6. Research what your respondent base size should be to provide you with reliable results - are you after results that are conclusive or indicative? Know your target and know your audience.
  7. When crafting the survey invitation, make sure you tell the respondent what’s in it for THEM? People are busy - why should they help you? What’s in it for them? How much time will it take to complete? Be honest! If you’re deceitful, peeople will either not answer or will sabotage your results. Also, what is your audience also being asked to do? Consider how often you contact them and how that impacts the timing of your survey invitation and possible reminder invite.
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#3

When writing a survey, we keep in mind what the end goal is. Its typically to figure out what our customers are liking, aren’t liking, and what they want to see. When gathering the results, we look at every single response, so we know where we need to keep the focus.

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#4

First you have to determine your target audience, who are your going to survey. Next, you decide what information you would like to know from this audience. I suggest you allow for the people you are surveying to be anonymous as an option. I find you tend to get more details when the writer thinks their identity is shielded.

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#5

Definitely keeping it short and integrating with your CRM!