The Good, The Bad, and the Alright Survey
- Jacqueline Sardinas
- Oct 29, 2021
- 3 min read
Perhaps you have come across a survey online. You may have received it because you bought something at your favorite store at the mall or maybe went to a music festival, and you got a thank-you survey with some questions about how your experience was this year. Whatever you got your study for, we have all come across one digitally or physically. =
Marketing research focuses on what their clients want to change for their brands and company and what the people want. Without the customer’s voice, there isn’t a foundation that holds a company together. However, this still doesn’t explain it was precise does a good survey. Actually, how are you even aware you haven’t done a lousy survey?
Look no further! Today, we will jump in on making your surveys the creme de la creme of your marketing research.
What Type of Survey Taker Are You? We’ve all experienced having a survey shoved in our face out in public or when you finish your transactions with your cashier at your grocery store. The odds that you completed unless you had an incentive are very slim. (It’s okay, we have all done it) You can consider yourself one of the three types of non-responsive survey takers called:
Refusal type where you avoid taking any kind of survey
Break off type where you do the favor of taking the survey but kind of
a) forget to complete
b) questions are irrelevant to you, and you just close your survey webpage.
The partial type is where you cherry-pick a survey because you wanted to answer whatever you wanted to answer or what you understood.
Whichever you feel you resonate with may have nothing to do with you but the actual survey itself. Most of the time, it’s related to real market researchers asking the wrong questions that probably have nothing with what they need to look for, or maybe the questions they are asking are confusing. You just don’t care to answer.
We can consider these a survey DON’T. It’s redundant, non-informative, and straight out tedious, especially if the survey itself is long and boring and there is no incentive towards taking it (except on those rare occasions that you do get a prize). So instead, consider these types next time you survey by:
Sending courtesy emails to your refusal type to remind them to take the survey
Send a reminder message to finish the survey to the break-off type
Put engaging and straightforward questions for the partial class.
This way, you can keep these results for your future research and have actual accurate information digestible for your research.
To-Do or NOT To Do
Now that you know what you want to avoid having fewer people not take your survey, we can move forward with a few dos and don’ts for your survey building!
Don’t:
Ask leading questions where you are asking opinions in the questions you are asking. You want your respondents to answer their experiences honestly.
Put two questions at the same time. You want to be as straightforward as possible for your respondent to answer your questions.
Avoid using extra jargon! Not everyone is fluent in Marketing or Business terms, and you can intimidate someone with the language they aren’t familiar with when taking surveys. Especially if it’s long and there aren’t any incentives towards completing this survey.
Do’s:
Make it easy to answer questions at the beginning. That way, if your respondent gives out halfway, you can at least get the information you already have.
MAKE A LIST OF YOUR GOALS! Then, work with your research team on what questions you HAVE to ask to get the data you need.
Keep your answers sweet and straightforward. You want your respondent to have an immediate response, not think about what the answers could mean, resulting in them skipping it.
Survey Guru There you have it! Surveys aren’t too tricky once you have the correct path you are striving for in your research. Your end goal should always be to collect the data that will help you change your brand and company, and a good survey will help you achieve that.
If you think you have a “bad” survey, revisit the goals you assigned at the beginning of your research. For example, how many respondents are you deciding to collect your data? Will the question you have built give you the sufficient information you need? What type of survey will you develop to get the most accurate information? Is it too long or short? These are some questions that should get the ball rolling to help you build your perfect survey!
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