How to Create a Response Survey

Creating effective response surveys for your customers, staff, clients or visitors can help in product development. The right survey questions provide you with the feedback needed to create a superior product or service. The challenge is to develop questions in the most appropriate grouping and order to elicit a response. The order and type of questions selected for a response survey are as important as the selection of survey respondents. The wrong question will get you the wrong information.

Things You'll Need

• Pen and paper or computer with word-processing software

Instructions

1. Establish an objective. This will help you focus your questions on what it is you need to know.

2. Choose questions carefully. The most challenging aspect of creating a response survey is choosing questions that get a relevant response. Pay attention to format, know your audience and be specific.

3. Create the survey. Based on your objectives and questions, create the survey. Make questions flow logically. See References and Resources below for a template and compilation of survey response questions.

4. Determine your target audience. Survey deployment can be either random or specific to your demographic.

5. Screen respondents before taking the survey. Ask respondents to provide general information about their background. Follow legal guidelines about what questions can and can't be asked, even if your survey is random.

6. Provide an estimated time of completion. Give your survey to a practice respondent. Record how long it takes him or her to complete the survey. If you can, tell respondents how you plan to use the information they share with you.

References

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Maximizing Survey Responses
• Answers Without Questions: A Note On Response Style in Questionnaires

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Data Guru: A Compilation of Survey Response Options