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Online surveys are an excellent medium to collect a lot of data in less time. Modern survey collection tools have made designing surveys straightforward and enabled researchers to ask hierarchical questions based on respondents’ answers. These in turn have helped researchers glean actionable insights.
However, there are some caveats which one should be aware of as survey software is only one part of the equation.
We take a look at what you should keep in mind while using survey collection tools:
Identify your target audience, anything else is a bonus
Today’s Survey collection tools make it easy to send out web surveys to your respondents, but the challenge lies in identifying the right focus group or audience which would give you accurate results.
You’ve also got to keep in mind whether or not your target audience is one which would be keen on answering surveys, and may or may not require incentives.
Be direct
As researchers, you tend to keep an eye on the bigger picture which often makes it easy to overlook your questions – their wording in particular. Vague questions are prone to getting inaccurate data and can often frustrate the respondent as well.
Short questions get better answers
While it is encouraged to experiment with different question types, you need to keep in mind that barring a few use cases, it’s generally better to keep your questions as short as possible. Convoluted questions usually lead to your surveys having higher drop-off rates and add little value – Modern survey collection tools feature skip logic which can change the flow of the survey based on your respondents’ answers thereby increasing engagement levels & survey completes.
Don’t let bias dictate your flow
Avoiding biased or leading questions can be tricky, as humans are inherently biased to a certain degree. One of the ways you can prevent bias from seeping into your survey is by using as few adjectives as possible in your questions. This way, you don’t lead your respondents to a conclusion that favors your bias. You can read more about avoiding survey bias here.
Make the respondents feel that their participation will make a difference
Test your survey
It sounds obvious, but once you’ve used survey collection tools to create your questionnaire, you should test it on as many web browsers, operating systems, display resolutions and mobile devices as possible. You do not want respondents leaving mid-way because of any glitches.
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