How to Write a Survey or Questionnaire

A questionnaire or written survey is a simple, productive tool to aid you in obtaining constructive feedback from both existing and potential customers.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Paper And Pencils

1. Decide what information you want to gather from the survey.

2. Keep the survey as short as possible, asking only those questions that will provide the information you need.

3. Use a casual, conversational style, making the questions easy for almost anyone to understand.

4. Structure the survey so that the questions follow a logical order and evolve from general to specific.

5. Use multiple-choice questions whenever possible. This helps the respondent to better understand the purpose of your question and will reduce the time it takes to complete the questionnaire.

6. Avoid leading questions that might generate false positive responses. For example, the question "How great was the service provided by our excellent waiters?" should be "How was the service provided by our waiters?"

7. Use the same rating scale throughout your survey for questions requiring the respondent to rate items. For example, if the scale is from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most positive, keep that same scale for all of the questions requiring a rating.

8. Test the survey on 10 to 15 people before you produce it for mass distribution. Conduct an interview with each of those respondents after he or she completes the survey to determine if your questions were easily understood and easy to answer.

Tips & Warnings

• Include a cover letter or introduction with the survey. Let the recipient know what you're trying to accomplish with the survey and how valued his or her response is.

• Entice recipients to respond by offering an incentive. Use the responses as an entry form for a prize drawing, or offer discounts and free coupons in return for completing the survey.

• Avoid using technical or industry-specific jargon in your questions.

• Provide easy-to-follow directions.