Designing survey questionnaires
There is a popular belief that you should collect as much data as possible and worry about how to use the data later. In my experience, collecting too much data can backfire. Data must be collected with specific objectives in mind. Collecting feedback without a clear purpose tends to result in a lot of noise and makes it hard to get useful insights. This is especially important for collecting feedback through surveys when participation is often voluntary, and respondents must be persuaded to participate. The longer the survey, the less willing the respondents will be to complete it and the fewer responses you will collect. You just need to design your survey carefully so that you can get the most insight with minimal effort from your survey respondents.
A survey questionnaire usually comprises the following:
- Key Performance Indicator (KPI) questions
- Key driver questions
- Open-ended questions
Let's discuss each of these...