Online Survey Questions – A Few Helpful Guidelines!

When you are searching for answers to vital questions from customers, the only way you’re going to get them is by asking the right questions. It calls for a lot of intuitive thinking, hard work and brain storming  sessions with others. The following discussion addresses some of the common issues that can occur when making up questions for a survey.

One of the first things to bear in mind when coming up with questions in an online questionnaire is to stay away from guiding words and questions. When you make minor changes in the wording of the questions, it can generate significant differences in the outcomes. Such words as “might, should” and “could” sound the same, but can actually alter the meaning of the question to a great extent. Having strong wording that signifies action or control can generate better results. An example is the word “forbid” used in this sentence: Do you feel that congress should forbid insurance providers from increasing premiums? Some wording is completely biased, such as: You wouldn’t desire to go to Molly’s Bar for the company’s Christmas event would you?

Another issue with survey inquiries is when there are misplaced questions. It is essential that questions be placed in the proper order so that they appear to follow logic. This prevents questions from being misinterpreted. This also allows questions to be interpreted in their proper context. As a rule of thumb, it’s advisable to use the funnel approach. You should use general and broad questions near the beginning of your survey as a warm-up. Follow this up by using more distinct questions and then go back to questions that are typically simple, such as questions based on demographics.

When getting into the multiple choice questions, make certain to avoid non-exclusive feedback categories. Your feedback categories for multiple choice questioning should be mutually distinct in order to allow obvious choices to be made. If you use the non-exclusive type of questioning, the survey participant will get discouraged and the interpretation will be challenging at best when trying to analyze the responses.

Be sure not to use unfamiliar or complicated wording in your survey questions. Avoid using a question such as: Do you like computers? This line of questioning is vague, as it could be talking about the love of the internet, love of computer games, the joy of working with computers and so on. You need to remain specific in what you want to find out.

Never pose questions on a survey that bring forced answers. People taking part in the survey may not be capable of answering them or they just may not want to answer. For most people, privacy is an important aspect of life. If you make inquiries about an individual’s wages, family, profession, personal hygiene and the like, they may find this to be too intrusive and decide not to answer.

There are many other question types to avoid as well. One more example is non-thorough listing. When making questions with reference to lists, be sure you have every option covered. If you are not certain, then you should carry out a pretest that uses the “Other” option where you instruct them to “please specify” their answer. When you’ve completed this, be sure to update the questionnaire and reaffirm that you are addressing all the objectives of the survey.