Ed Halteman: Value Added Surveys

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 do I get better information from my survey, for making my decisions?
• How do I get more people to respond to my survey?
• I have thousands of responses but how do I present the results?
• Is my survey too long?

Sound familiar? SurveyGizmo has made it easy for thousands to build their own surveys and naturally they want to get the most out of their efforts.

Here are some tips for adding value to your surveys.

No survey is too long or too short. Respondents have the time for what’s important to them and have no patience if their time is being wasted. Respondents can tell how well thought out your survey is, whether they are providing useful information and whether your survey is “talking” to them. The bottom line is: know your audience and engage them.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Take your own survey. Don’t just read it, actually take it as if you are one of those receiving it. This will give you your first clue for how “user friendly” your survey is.

The time to figure out what your data is telling you is before you send out your survey. This may sound funny but it is a valuable exercise. Go through your survey questions. Then imagine (or make up) what your responses are going to look like. Try different scenarios and ask what this imaginary data is telling you while you still have the chance to modify your questions if needed.

Test drive your decisions before you send out your survey. You start your survey with some decision that you want to make (if not, you need to rethink why you are doing the survey). Once you design your questions, go back and check to make sure you will get the information you need for making your decision.

Design your questions with your reports in mind. The time to think about how you are going to report your results is when you are designing your questions. This will give you a chance to see whether the information will be easy to present. If the presentation of the results is going to be difficult the information is not likely to be useful.

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