3 Fundamental Tips for a Well Designed Survey

Surveys are beneficial within research marketing, but the benefits are limited by how well the questionnaires are constructed and whether or not the questions are clearly understood by respondents. If you’re operating on a budget, there are even online tools that allow the creation of free online surveys, or customer satisfaction surveys. Whatever the types of survey questions your online questionnaire includes, here are some important tips for all research marketing surveys.

1. Clearly communicate the goals of your survey.

Sure, it can be confusing or overwhelming when you begin designing a survey questionnaire, but don’t give in to the temptation to just state the questions you have in mind and then blindly launch the survey. Take time to consider why you want to initiate the web survey in the first place. Is it a customer satisfaction survey? What sort of answers to your online questionnaire questions are you hoping to receive? What are you going to do with the acquired data? How exactly will this web survey help your company or your customers.

Be as specific as possible when developing and reviewing your survey goals. This thorough examination of your survey objectives may seem optional when designing an online questionnaire, but it will save you time and energy when formulating the survey’s questions. Without clearly defined objectives, questions can become convoluted and confusing, leading to answers

2. Design questions that are easy to read and easy to answer.

In order to keep respondents engaged and understanding, make survey questions short and simple. If questions are long and complex, you run the risk of your web survey’s participants misunderstanding the question and providing inaccurate feedback. Simple questions help participants to easily understand what information you’re after and answer comprehensively. Question formats should be easy to answer, so that respondents going through the survey aren’t inconvenienced or distracted. We see survey participants providing generic answers or clicking options blindly, just to get through an overly long web survey. For the most accurate results, questions have to be understood and as simply answered as possible.

Remember, along with keeping questions understandable, choose questionnaire questions with your goals in mind. This will ensure that each question received will give you the kind of feedback you desired to gather with your research marketing survey.

3. Use Simple Terms and Consistent Phrasing

Whatever terms, phrases and questions you use within the survey, make sure they are understood by your target audience. Keep in mind that just because you know a lot of the terms in your research marketing niche, there’s a good chance your survey’s respondents aren’t familiar with many of the terms. Be sure to avoid technical phrasing and whatever terms you choose, use them consistently throughout the online questionnaire to minimize any possible confusion.

Be as specific as you can when you make survey questions, as this will help evade any confusion regarding word choices. Vague words, like “rarely” or “sometimes”, can create uncertainty, since participants might have their own definitions as to what these words mean. Utilize unambiguous words and terms, like “less than twice a day” to keep answers precise and consistent.

Create Free Web Surveys with SurveyTool and Get Some Research Marketing Practice

If you’re still unclear on what type of survey questions you need or how to begin, try creating free online surveys online on SurveyTool. Our survey design software is intuitive and easy to pick right up, even if it’s your first time. If you feel like you don’t know where to begin, check out our survey templates – we have over 40 different types of industries represented amongst our online questionnaires and you’re bound to find inspiration. Designing free online surveys with SurveyTool will help you become familiar with survey creation so when your business needs some research marketing done, you’ll be ready to start!

Survey Templates for Professors

Professors have a lot on their plates; they have to grade papers, come up with assignments, make tests, and create lectures, not to mention the actual teaching that they have to do. With all of those tasks on their plate, writing a survey at the end of the semester may take time that they don’t have. Fortunately, our survey templates help professors save time.

The end-of-the-year questionnaire is very important to professors. The questionnaire will help a professor learn their strengths and also improve upon any weaknesses. We provide a variety of survey templates, so no matter what a professor teaches, they can find the survey that meets their needs. They will rarely need to make any major adjustments, so the time saved is tremendous.

With survey templates, a professor can choose a pre-written survey that suits their needs and not worry about crafting questions from scratch. If they need a slightly more specific set of questions, on the other hand, they can tweak them to fit each specific class. Working from the same basic template, professors could customize a slightly different survey for every course, so that most of the work is already done, minus the short time it takes to add a few words to certain questions. With online survey software, teachers don’t even have to bring in stacks of papers to fill out. They can have their students take the surveys before they head into class.

If you’re a professor or teacher at any level, take advantage of the information our survey templates can garner from your students.

 

Survey Finds Teachers Don’t Have Enough Time to Work With Students

Remember when people were worried about the children and the future instead of gas prices? Teachers in Kentucky say they don’t have enough time to teach their students:

Most Kentucky teachers and principals feel safe in their schools, but many don’t have sufficient time to work with students. Those are two of the major findings from a statewide survey administered in March.

Just over 42,000 Kentucky public school teachers and principals responded to the TELL—which stands for Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning—survey. State Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross says the questionnaire touched on a variety of topics related to work and teaching conditions. 83 percent of respondents said they intend to continue teaching at their current school but only 63 percent of teachers said they had sufficient instructional time to meet the needs of all students.

“In Kentucky state law requires that an instructional school day contain a minimum of six hours. And really six hours in not a lot of time,” says Gross.