Survey Questions: Less is More

Let your survey participants know that you value their time and are not out there to put them to sleep with your long and boring surveys.

The following tips on drafting perfect questionnaires by our survey experts may come in handy:

1. A good survey question is short, clear, and asks for a single piece of information.

1. Establish a bond with your survey participants before asking private questions such as age or income. The best way to do this is to place personal questions toward the end of a survey.

1. Avoid asking leading questions; they force participants to assume facts they are unaware of.

1. Avoid questions that force participants to recall events that took place a long time ago. If their memory does not serve right, your data may suffer.

1. Ask hypothetical questions only when absolutely necessary. They force respondents to imagine scenarios they maybe clueless about.

1. Avoid asking respondents an explanation for negative feedback in follow-up surveys. This may compel the respondents to provide positive feedback in the future just to avoid another such situation.

1. Too many answer options can confuse survey participants. Try not to give more than 10 options per question.