Designing an effective survey requires thoughtful planning and consideration of the respondent’s experience. When surveys are clear, concise, and respectful of participants’ time, response rates and data quality improve significantly. Below are several best practices to help ensure your survey is both efficient and effective.
- Avoid compound questions.
Try to avoid asking multiple questions at once. Keep it simple. Ask short, precise, and clear questions—one at a time. Compound (or “double-barreled”) questions such as “How satisfied are you with our price and customer service?” can confuse respondents who may feel differently about each part. Keep the questions simple enough so the respondent doesn’t have to think hard to understand what is being asked. The respondent should know exactly how to answer the question due to its clarity.
- Provide an accurate estimate of time the survey will take to complete.
Keep your surveys short and sweet. Respondents don’t want to spend more than 15 minutes of their time completing a survey. Also, provide an accurate estimate to the respondents of how long it will take to complete the survey. Don’t mislead respondents into thinking the survey is shorter than it actually is. Setting realistic expectations builds trust and reduces the likelihood that participants will abandon the survey midway through.
- Repopulate the survey with known data.
Save your respondents some time and effort. If you already have demographic information on the respondents, populate those fields in your survey rather than asking them to re-enter it. Also, if there is repetitive information, repopulate that information later in the survey. This not only shortens completion time but also reduces frustration and improves the overall respondent experience.
- Keep surveys short with skip logic when needed.
Don’t make your survey too long. If certain questions only apply to some respondents, use skip logic to direct participants only to relevant questions. For example, if a respondent indicates they have not used a specific service, they should not be asked follow-up questions about that service. This will help to shorten the survey and make it more applicable and engaging for each individual respondent.
- Do not over-survey the same respondents.
When the same respondents are surveyed repeatedly, they experience survey fatigue. Fatigue can lead to lower response rates, rushed answers, or disengaged participation. Try to limit how many times you survey individuals within a given timeframe. If many of your colleagues are surveying as well, coordinate with them to ensure you all are not sending multiple surveys to the same respondents. Strategic scheduling and communication can significantly improve participation and data quality.
By following these best practices, you can create surveys that are respectful, efficient, and capable of generating high-quality insights. Thoughtful survey design benefits both your organization and your respondents.
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