In our recent blog post, “The basics of survey creation,” we provided a general overview on how to create high-quality customer surveys that capture valuable insights.
Today, we continue with a second post that will help you get the best data from every survey. Even if you’ve designed your survey according to best practices and identified the right audience to participate, certain biases or a lack of sufficient responses can impact the quality of your data. To avoid these pitfalls, read on for five tips that will help ensure that all your hard work in setting up a customer survey is rewarded with robust and accurate data.
1. Set clear expectations.
When you’re asking for participation in a survey, it’s important to let your customers know exactly what will be required of them if they choose to participate. This includes information about how many questions will be asked and/or how long it will take to complete the survey. If you are offering an incentive—more on that below—make it clear exactly what the participant needs to do in order to receive the incentive. Customers often want to know how their responses will be used, so setting expectations around anonymity, data usage, and decisions to be made based on results help customers feel more comfortable providing honest responses.
By clearly setting the stage upfront, you’ll lower your chances of participants abandoning the survey partway through and leaving you with an incomplete dataset.
2. Consider the visual design.
There’s more to crafting a great survey than simply asking the right questions. You should also consider the visual design. Your survey should be clean, simple, easy to navigate, and aligned with your brand. Utilize page breaks, titles, and instructions to create a good flow. For example, adding too many questions to one page could be visually overwhelming and cause people to quit responding. Instead, only display one or a few questions at a time, and provide a progress bar so the customer can gauge how much time is left.
3. Reduce bias.
Any data scientist will tell you that there will always be biases in data. However, there are a few strategies that can help you reduce bias in surveys. First, keep your data confidential. While true anonymity is difficult (IP addresses can be tracked even if you aren’t collecting names, email addresses, or other personal data points), do everything you can to avoid collecting identifying information. This can help minimize social response bias where people feel compelled to respond with answers that seem more socially desirable, even if they’re not accurate. If you need to collect personal information to fulfill an incentive, do so at the end of the survey, be clear about why you are collecting the information, and make it optional.
You can also reduce bias by avoiding jargon, flowery language, and leading questions. Keep wording and descriptions clear and use words instead of numbers whenever possible. Being overly verbose can cause confusion and open the door to participants interpreting questions incorrectly. Keep your question wording neutral when asking for opinions to avoid subtle pressures for customers to respond positively. For example, ask “How would you rate the support you received?” instead of “Was our customer support excellent?”
Finally, include an “N/A” or “not sure” choice whenever possible. This gives customers a path forward when they’re unsure how to answer, without forcing them into a response that may be less than accurate.
4. Offer incentives.
You may want to consider offering incentives for participation. Frequently used incentives include gift cards, discounts, company swag, and charitable donations. Offering an incentive can minimize nonresponse bias and be especially helpful when targeting an audience you don’t have an existing relationship with or a group that is traditionally less likely to respond.
5. Include a thank-you page.
It may seem obvious, but including a thank-you page at the end of the survey is important. A well-designed thank-you page confirms you received their responses, provides contact info for any additional questions, offers any next steps, and sets expectations for incentive delivery, if applicable. But most importantly, it reinforces trust with your customers.
Ready to start planning your next survey?
Surveys are a powerful tool for customer research, especially when they’re crafted in such a way that they’re likely to deliver robust, accurate data. If you need help on any part of your survey creation, from goal-setting to identifying the right audience, to writing and designing surveys, to analyzing results, reach out to OneMagnify. We have a wealth of customer research expertise and are ready to help.
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