The Art of Crafting Survey Questions: Tips to Get the Answers You Need

Crafting the right survey questions require careful consideration of your research goals, target audience, and data analysis needs. It is a must have skill if we are looking at serious data from our audience. In this blog post, we will explore the art of crafting survey questions that provide the answers you need.  Whether you are conducting market research or customer feedback surveys, these tips and tricks will help you get the most out of your data collection efforts.

What is a Survey Question?

A survey question is a tool for capturing insights from individuals in research. It is a question that is supposed to elicit a response from the target audience. It should bring valuable insights for marketers. A survey question is to gauge the needs and preferences of customers while enabling the facility to capture their complaints and closing feedback loop.

Importance of effective survey questions

An effective survey questionnaire will capture the right insights, via the correct mediums and bring a high response rate. The purpose of an effective question is to comprehend what the customer thinks of a certain product or service. It also depends on the distribution channel. A question can only be called effective when people from different demographics can comprehend it and answer it candidly. Curating the right feedback question will consider different factors such as length, medium of sharing (Whatsapp surveys or Facebook messenger), target population and situational context. The effectiveness also depends on the logic and rank order in a market research survey.

Types of Survey Questions

When it comes to survey question types, there are several options available that can help you collect the right information. By incorporating different types of survey question templates you can improve user experience and increase response rates. Here is an overview of some of the common survey question examples and types.

Open-Ended Options

Open-ended questions bring candid responses and offer an option to respond to express freely. It is an important part of the feedback system. Open-ended questions are mixed with metrics such as net promoter score and CSAT scales. To write an effective open-ended survey question, keep your question focused and specific so that respondents can answer it accurately. Avoid leading or biased language as this can affect the quality of data collected. Use prompts or examples if necessary to guide their response but be careful not to influence their views.

Close-Ended Options

When you want to quickly collect quantitative data that’s easy to analyze, close-ended questions are a great option. These questions provide a limited set of answer options for respondents to choose from. However, remember that close-ended questions may not provide rich insight into the respondents’ opinions or experiences. It’s important to carefully craft your close-ended survey questions by choosing appropriate answer options and considering the type of question you’re asking. By doing this, you’ll gather precise data and valuable metrics from your target audience.

Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions allow you to provide a set of answer options that your audience can choose from. It’s important to not overwhelm your respondents with too many options by keeping it reasonable and concise. Be sure to include an “other” option for those who don’t fit into any other provided choices. Making sure each option is mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive will make it easier for your audience to select the best possible response.

Dichotomous Questions

One type of question is the dichotomous question that seeks only two possible responses – yes or no. These kinds of queries are particularly helpful when trying to gather data on binary issues such as gender or age. Additionally, dichotomous questions may be used to get a quick snapshot of public opinion on a particular topic. To avoid confusion among respondents and ensure clarity in your survey results, they should be clear and unambiguous. For instance, you might ask “Do you own a car?” or “Have you ever tried this product?”.

Rating Scale Format

Rating scale questions can help you measure customer satisfaction and identify areas where improvements can be made. You can use rating scale questions in different ways such as online surveys or email campaigns. When designing a rating scale question, choose an appropriate scale that has answer options which accurately reflect the topic being rated. It’s also crucial that the wording of the question is clear and jargon free. To get higher response rates for your survey, avoid using too many rating scale questions in one survey.

Likert Scale

Likert scale questions measure extremes of attitudes or opinions on a scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree). Good survey questions using Likert scales require clear and specific language that avoids confusion or misinterpretation. Avoid double-barreled questions that can lead to inaccurate responses. Consider different types of answer options for response rates and use scales with odd numbers only.

Nominal Questions

When you want to gather demographic information from potential customers nominal questions are the best way to go. They help you categorize responses into specific groups like age, gender, occupation so that you can tailor your product/service accordingly. Nominal questions are an important part of survey design. It should be used effectively along with other question types like open-ended question, closed-ended question, matrix questions among others. Best practices suggest using clear and concise language while creating nominal/demographic survey questions for a great user experience.

Demographic Questions

Demographic questions are crucial in any survey as they provide important information about your target audience. It seeks to identify the target audience for better insights. It is a good way to understand your target audience. Demographic questions can help organisations create a persona mapping and build a product or service that can fulfil their need gap. This includes questions on their age, ethnicity, income range, marital status, gender and locational identity to name a few.

Best Practices to Craft Better Survey Questions

Crafting good survey questions is crucial for getting insightful answers from your customers. To ensure you craft the best questions, there are different types of survey questions that you can use such as open-ended question, close-ended question, multiple-choice question, rating scale question, and likert scale question. Here are some pointers to assist marketers to build questionnaires for research purposes.

Choose industry handpicked templates

Templates can reduce the cognitive load while trying to figure it all out on your own. Templates are pre tested and have made multiple rounds. When a template already offers a high response rate, it makes sense to use it extensively with some customization as per industry. Merren offers pre-curated templates for different types of surveys. You can choose a form that suits your needs for various customer surveys. 

Mix the type of questions- Scales (NPS, CSAT) with open questions

Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data can give you perspectives on why a customer chooses to rate the way they do. Alongside their score, there is a scope for explanation. Opinion based answers help the customer service gauge the emotions of each of their respondents. NPS, CES and CSAT scales are industry standards for understanding customer satisfaction metrics. So provide the option to bring numbers but let people express themselves in their own words.

Avoiding double barreled format

Double-barreled questions combine multiple issues or concepts into a single question, making it difficult for respondents to provide accurate answers. Divide the answers into various different questions so that you can get inputs for each of the queries separately.

Choose the right matrix type of format

A matrix table can be utilized when you probe users on multiple characteristics of one or more items. It could be for a new product and how often they use it. One has to be careful with the matrix type construction to avoid confusing respondents.

There are two types of matrix that have a unique format – likert and bipolar. A matrix format will go along the lines in this example- “This product meets my needs: best-good- average-bad-worst”.

Offer ‘other’ with a multiple-choice format

A mix of a single answer and a multiple answer can bring more insights in survey questions. In a multiple choice format, you ask the respondents a question that will have multiple relevant answers they can choose. While not everyone may get relevant options, add an “other” option or add an open ended space for them to share their choice.

Be aware of sensitive questionnaires

Certain segments of products cannot explicitly seek feedback such as medical products, hygiene or products on sexual wellness. It is crucial to keep respondents anonymous if you want genuine survey responses. Assure respondents that the answers will be confidential and that the responses will be mapped for understanding their requirements better.

Consider survey length for accurate analytics

Another important factor is to keep the survey length short. Attention span of people is short and we need to capture their responses in the shortest time possible without losing the essence. This will also prevent cognitive fatigue, bring faster, more authentic responses and fresh data. With a clumsy arrangement of questions, your audience will feel the need to finish the form and skew the results. For better analytics, curating a well planned survey format is a necessary prerequisite.

Include survey incentives

Incentives and rewards are a good way to encourage your customers to share candid responses. By offering rewards such as coupons, cashback, freebies, you can increase the survey response rate. The incentive has to be appropriate as per the audience you choose to probe.

Conclusion

Crafting effective survey questions is an art that requires careful consideration and effort. It’s essential to understand the different types of survey questions and how to use them to generate useful data. Use open-ended, closed-ended, multiple-choice, dichotomous, rating scale, Likert scale, nominal, and demographic questions as per your research objectives.

Want to launch well-drafted survey questions for your target audience? Sign up for our 14 day free trial and let Merren do the technical heavy lifting for you. You can also let our AI Survey Builder create instant survey questions for your feedback protocol.