Now that more and more non-researchers are populating the research departments at many corporations, I often find myself explaining the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, since many think they can be used interchangeably.
 Qualitative research is by definition exploratory, and it is used when we don’t know what to expect, to define the problem or [...]

Over the next few months I will go through a couple of case studies on the process we use to design a survey. As you know I am a firm believer that the key to effective surveys lies in the design. No amount of analysis can make up for asking the wrong questions or asking [...]

To include or not to include a neutral mid-point in balanced survey rating questions. That is the question that many ask when faced with the task of writing a survey. It is not a trivial question and data quality could be affected by how it is answered.
Often I get asked whether a neutral point should [...]

In the fall I gave a teleconference on the Key to Effective Surveys. I thought I would share the questions that people asked at the end of the teleconference. These may be some of the same questions you have when thinking about designing your own survey. – Ed
The Key to Effective Surveys: Proper [...]

It’s statistically significant! Wow! But is it significant?
Or even better, is it meaningful?
I’ve been doing survey design and market research for 25 years and I’m still amazed when I’m asked: “How many responses do I need to make my study ‘statistically significant’?” Hearing those words “statistically significant” in a market research context always confuses [...]

Be sure to add a comment below about your own experience with incentives, and be entered to win some fresh Kona coffee!
In my last post (Increasing Response Rates: Part I), I talked about increasing your survey response rates. I suggested that you:

Tell your respondents you will share the results with them.
Identify allies who will urge [...]

I was asked the following question recently, “From a statistical standpoint, how do you see three ‘No’s’ votes out of a possible 23 board members. Can you find out specifically what the error would be?”
This brings up a common misconception when thinking about statistics and interpreting your data.
THE SITUATION ABOVE HAS NOTHING TO [...]

UPDATE: After reading this, don’t forget to check out Part II: Using Incentives
Many of us continually fight the battle of low-response rates.
My first professional experience with surveying occurred more than 30 years ago. I simply wanted to get the opinions of particular professionals at eleven different colleges in my state and I developed a two [...]

The power of SurveyGizmo can make reaching out to your customers more accessible and even make the survey process easier for your customer. So what could possibly be wrong with sending a customer satisfaction survey? . . . Plenty!
We’ve all participated in customer satisfaction surveys. Some may have been okay, most probably not. It [...]

An advantage of online surveys is that respondents frequently offer more and longer comments than they do on paper-and-pencil surveys. And comments are where we may find our most significant sales opportunities or our most useful program improvement ideas.
But analyzing comments can intimidate us. We think that to analyze comments we have to read all [...]

“Attitude is everything” has significance for more than just football or other sports! Cultivating a sampling attitude can help you “win” improvements to your survey process.
We have already seen the power of sampling in predicting election results in my prior post on election sampling and intuition tells us that sampling should save time and money. [...]

Election season is the time for lots of polls, which makes it a good time to highlight what they can teach us about our surveys! Basically a poll is just a type of survey and so the principles that make polling powerful apply to surveys.
Can the results of polls be trusted? I just read an [...]

As you may have noticed, we have added Bill Johnston to our survey expert team. Right now he is compiling a list of topics he wants to cover in the coming months and would really appreciate your input. Please fill out the following survey so we can make sure to address the topics that [...]

A type of survey in which there is much interest this month is the political poll. Questions I hear a lot are, “Can the polls be trusted?” and “How can they get away with polling so few people?”
We can increase our understanding of polls by answering two questions:

How can polls be accurate with such seemingly [...]

It’s been awhile and 2008 has been a busy year. It has also been a year where people have been looking to get more out of their surveys. I have had a steady stream of people coming to me with questions like:

I have all this data, but I’m not sure what it is telling me?
How [...]

A question I have been asked from time-to-time is, “How many choices should I give respondents when I’m asking them how much they agree or disagree with something?” As in . . .

Which is correct? Does it matter?
Yes, it matters.
Use an odd-numbered scale and, if you expect your results to be fully distributed from the [...]

I’m back with some accepted best practices that I promised from my article Surveys for Fun or Profit? You may have already seen the Top Ten Survey Best Practices list that Christian Vanek and I delivered at a free SurveyGizmo Webinar at the end of September. If not, I encourage you to check it out. [...]

At Survey Design and Analysis I am the resident survey expert and statistician. Okay I admit it, “I am a statistician..” Statistics is a big part of Market Research but I’m not sure that is well understood.
What exactly is a statistician and why is it important in Market Research? Quality Improvement guru, Bill Sherkenbach [...]

Why do people do surveys?
I don’t like the use of extrinsic incentives (bribes) for doing surveys. Wrong motivation, wrong expectations, wrong outcome!
Experiment in the Woods
I recently hired a dozen workers. I divided them at random into two groups of six. I took them out to the woods and took group A to a clearing with [...]