http://blog.surveytool.com/2011/11/04/guidelines-for-good-feedback-on-customer-surveys/10 Tips to Create a Good Survey!

What is a GOOD survey?

A survey is considered good if it is pleasant to the respondent and gets you the data that you need in the most unbiased way possible. Here are a few tips that can help you create a good survey.

10 TIPS TO CREATE A GOOD SURVEY:
TIP 1	Asks for one-dimension answers only. The purpose of a survey is to find out information. A question that asks for a response on more than one dimension will not provide the information you are seeking. For example, a researcher investigating a new clothing line asks “Do you like the texture and the design of the outfit?” If a respondent answers “no”, then the researcher will not know if the respondent dislikes the texture or the design, or both.
TIP 2	Write Short Questions Since respondents are taking the time to complete the survey, you should keep your questions brief to avoid taking advantage of their time. A sign of a good survey question is that it fits the needs of your research. If you don’t know what you’ll do with the data, throw the question out.
TIP 3	Explain The Purpose Of Your Survey You can keep the explanation of the survey brief, but discuss what you hope the survey will accomplish. This will get your respondents on your side, so that as a team you can work together towards your goal. Watch out for bias though. Over-hyping your goals may bias your respondents towards answers they wouldn’t otherwise choose.
TIP 4	Evoke the truth Questions must be non-threatening. When a respondent is concerned about the consequences of answering a question in a particular manner, there is a good possibility that the answer will not be truthful. Anonymous questionnaires that contain no identifying information are more likely to produce honest responses than those identifying the respondent.
TIP 5	Follows comfortably from the previous question Writing a questionnaire is similar to writing anything else. Transitions between questions should be smooth. Grouping questions that are similar will make the questionnaire easier to complete, and the respondent will feel more comfortable. Questionnaires that jump from one unrelated topic to another feel disjointed and are not pleasant to the respondent.
TIP 6	Does not presuppose a certain state of affairs Among the most subtle mistakes in questionnaire design are questions that make an unwarranted assumption. An example of this type of mistake is: Does your health insurance cover specialists as well? Here we are assuming the respondent has health insurance. Event though it might sound crazy, there is a possibility that they don’t! Asking pre-qualifying questions are always helpful, and Skip Logic can be used to guide different respondents to different questions.
TIP 7	Beware of ethnic and cultural differences Cultural differences can also affect how we administer surveys. There are questions that would be meaningless in some cultures, but are critical gauges of organizational health in others.
TIP 8	Does not use vaguely defined words This is one of the areas often overlooked by both beginners and experienced researchers. Quantifying adjectives (e.g., most, least, majority) are frequently used in questions. It is important to understand that these adjectives mean different things to different people. Make sure to provide enough detail by explaining each of those adjectives and provide a clear direction to the respondents.
TIP 9	Non-biased, non-leading Arrange your questions in an order that does not create bias. A great way to limit bias is to randomize the order in which the options appear. Beware of leading your respondents in one direction over another as it directly impacts the quality of the data collected and negates the purpose of achieving unbiased results.
TIP 10	Don’t Dig Back In Time You don’t want to boggle your audience. You should avoid asking questions that require your audience to think back years to answer a question. By avoiding that you will be able to keep the respondents intact and maintain interest in the survey.
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