How to design a survey

All types of organizations use survey forms to receive useful feedback and information . A survey is a form that contains questions for clients, voters or members of another target audience. A representative of the organization gives the form to a group of people who answer the questions and send the form. Then the organization counts the answers, studies them and uses the results to make decisions. Common uses of surveys are to obtain customer opinions, evaluate the products of an organization or services, or assess the mood of voters before the election. But designing a good survey is not as easy as it seems you have to prepare it and follow a few steps.

one

Meet with the people involved to determine the main purpose of the survey. Then, decide the information you expect to receive. Use this information to create the questions that will appear in the survey.

two

Determine your target group, for example current or potential customers. Keep respondents in mind when creating the questions.

3

Detail the survey instructions before the list of questions. Explain the purpose of the survey and estimate the amount of time it will take to complete.

4

Prepare questions that will provide valuable information, and make sure that each question is consistent with the focus of the survey. List the questions in a logical order so they are clear and easy to understand.

5

Choose a simple response system. Many studies use a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means "extremely dissatisfied", and 5 means "extremely satisfied". Another simple, commonly used system is to offer multiple choice answers.

6

Add demographic questions such as age, income category, gender, marital status and ethnic origin. The answers to these questions tell the organization who their clients or supporters are, and what types of people they will be targeting in the future.

7

Leave space for comments on topics of interest that participants could not address in the survey.

8

Close the survey . At the end, include the deadline for submitting forms and instructions on how to present them. Acknowledge respondents by taking the time to complete the survey.