How To Avoid These 7 Survey Pitfalls

What are the survey pitfalls you should look out for?

1. Insufficient introductory content
2. Intrusive demographic questions
3. Lengthy surveys
4. Confusing answer choices
5. Open-ended questions
6. Grammatical errors
7. Untested survey

 

Survey software and WordPress survey tools are the best venues to create as well as distribute forms easier and faster. Researchers can only obtain the benefits of tools and software if content and design planning are performed well. Typically, surveys are created to learn the insights and reviews of respondents regarding a product or service. The results are used to correct and improve the promotion and pricing for the benefit of the customers. To develop an appropriate survey for respondents and obtain significant and substantial results, avoid some of these pitfalls.

 

Insufficient Introductory Content

One of the most important parts of a survey is that you must be able to enlighten the respondent about the purpose of the research. Often times, surveys skip the introduction part to shorten the time needed to accomplish it. This is a practice that you should avoid.

More and more people online have become enticed and attracted to be part of a research community. Perhaps they would like to express their own feelings, suggest input, or just help a cause for the general good. With this, it is critical to allow the respondents to recognize the purpose of the survey they are presented with. You will obtain responses from people who care and who are more likely to complete the whole survey.

 

Intrusive Demographic Questions

After the introduction come the demographic questions. These include the respondent’s name, age, sex, education, income, and email. While some researchers do not require such information to be filled out, others demand it. Unless you need the respondent’s personal information for the data results, there is no need to include it in the survey questions. Often times, respondents find personal questions intrusive. Some might completely decline the survey while others might pursue it and give fewer honest responses. If you really need to ask for personal information to gather data, make sure you assure your respondents that you will keep their data private. In addition, place an “optional” label for those uncomfortable with giving away their personal information.

 

Lengthy Surveys

People have short attention spans. They do not like to spend so much time answering a survey, especially ones that they do not relate to. To maximize responses and attract more respondents, you must create a straightforward, short, and concise survey. Try wording your questions in a way that they become both relevant to your respondents and helpful to your research. Keep the duration limited to 5 minutes. If you are going to exceed, make sure you give a little incentive or reward to entice the respondent to complete the survey.

 

Confusing Answer Choices

Too many options or choices may confuse a respondent. This is substantially accurate for single-answer questions. Post-survey data analysis can be extremely complicated and becomes tedious work. Straightforward questions can turn out cluttered if the options are not concise. Respondents may become puzzled and find it difficult to choose the best answer over the many options. More importantly, the language, lingo, or terminology that you use must be suitable to your respondents.

 

Open-Ended Questions

Surveys with plenty of open-ended questions are most likely to yield vague and brief responses, or maybe even no responses at all. Listing possible questions for open-ended responses should be part of the content planning. You must be able to incorporate open-ended questions strategically and appropriately.

 

Grammatical Errors

Anything that you place into your survey must be well-written and readable. Too many flowery or technical words may give off the wrong tone to respondents. Grammatical errors will cause you to appear unprofessional and unreliable. The last thing a respondent wants is to participate and spend time answering a survey of poor quality.

 

Untested Survey

It is understandable that surveys take a long time to finish. Conducting the actual thing also takes plenty of effort. Some researchers choose to bypass the final test of the survey due to deadlines and other factors. This leads to all types of errors and may even require you to redo your plans. Avoid committing the same mistake and conduct the testing beforehand. This way you will be able to point out corrections, carry out improvements, and make sure not a single error is seen in your survey.

 

Key Takeaway

Designing surveys remains a complex task. With the goal of including every relevant question, researchers sometimes forget other factors. These factors include grammatical errors that may be confusing and lengthy questions that may be boring. All of which could affect the entire survey experience of respondents. Choose the survey software and WordPress survey tool to support you in creating the best surveys and conducting post-data analysis.