Questionnaires
Definition
A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that aims to collect information from a respondent. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of close-ended questions and open-ended questions.
Characteristics of the research
Uniformity: Questionnaires
are very useful to collect demographic information, personal opinions, facts,
or attitudes from respondents. One of the most significant attributes of a
research form is uniform design and standardization. Every respondent sees the
same questions. This helps in data collection and statistical analysis of this
data. For example, the retail store evaluation questionnaire template contains
questions for evaluating retail store experiences. Questions relate to purchase
value, range of options for product selections, and quality of merchandise.
These questions are uniform for all customers.
Exploratory: It should be
exploratory to collect qualitative data. There is no restriction on questions
that can be in your questionnaire. For example, you use a data collection
questionnaire and send it to the female of the household to understand her
spending and saving habits relative to the household income. Open-ended
questions give you more insight and allow the respondents to explain their
practices. A very structured question list could limit the data collection.
Question Sequence: It typically follows a structured flow of questions to
increase the number of responses. This sequence of questions is screening
questions, warm-up questions, transition questions, skip questions, challenging
questions, and classification questions. For example, our motivation and buying
experience questionnaire template covers initial demographic questions and then
asks for time spent in sections of the store and the rationale behind
purchases.
Main uses of the method
- Researchers use questionnaires principally to gather a
wide range of information from a large population.
- They are designed so that the participant must read the
questions that they are being asked and must then answer them based on the
response style.
Advantages of
Questionnaires
- Questionnaires are inexpensive
First of all,
questionnaires are one of the most affordable ways to gather quantitative data.
Especially
self-administered questionnaires, where you don’t have to hire surveyors to
perform face-to-face interviews, are a cost-efficient way to quickly collect
massive amounts of information from a large number of people in a relatively
short period of time.
A questionnaire can be
placed on your website or emailed to your customers. These methods have little
to no cost, though strong targeting is necessary if you want to have the
highest possible response rate and receive the most accurate results.
Still, no matter what
type of questionnaires you pick, it will be more affordable than outsourcing to
a market research company.
- Questionnaires are practical
Apart from being
inexpensive, questionnaires are also a practical way to gather data. They can
be targeted to groups of your choosing and managed in various ways. You can
pick and choose the questions asked as well as the format (open-ended or
multiple choice). They offer a way to gather vast amounts of data on any
subject. They can be used in a wide variety of ways, like customer feedback.
- Questionnaires offer a quick way to get
results
It’s quick and easy to
collect results with online and mobile tools. This means that you can gain
insights in as little as 24 hours (or less!), depending on the scale and reach
of your questionnaire.
You don’t need to wait
for another company to deliver the answers you need.
Dajo Associates needed
quality feedback fast. The South African consulting firm needed a way to make
informed decisions quickly. An online questionnaire allowed them to collect the
data they needed in the shortest time frame possible.
- Scalability
Questionnaires and
surveys allow you to gather information from a large audience.
Online, you can
literally distribute your questions to anyone, anywhere in the world (provided
they have an internet connection). All you have to do is send them a link to
your survey page. And you don’t even need to do this manually. This could be
done through an automated email in your customer onboarding or lead nurturing
campaigns.
This means that for a
relatively low cost, you can target a city or a country.
You can use multiple
data collection points, for example via multiple tablets in kiosk mode.
Geography no longer
stands in the way of market research either, thanks to the internet. But be
aware of cultural differences between people and countries when conducting
worldwide research. Thanks to Pointerpro’s multiple languages features, you can
easily create a single questionnaire available in multiple languages.
- Comparability
When data has been
quantified, it can be used to compare and contrast other research and may be
used to measure change. This makes monthly or yearly questionnaires more and
more valuable over time.
Improving
comparability implies that errors due to translation have to be minimized. In
terms of questionnaire translation for multi-national, multi-cultural, and
multi-regional surveys the aim is to achieve a level of comparability across
all local versions.
- Easy Analysis and visualization
Most survey- and
questionnaire providers are quantitative in nature and allow easy analysis of
results. With built-in tools, it’s easy to analyze your results without a
background in statistics or scientific research.
You might think that
questionnaires are not fun and getting respondents to actually complete them
can be tricky. However, you can use interactive forms that will give you visual
data insights to draw experienced user stories organized in dynamic timelines.
- Questionnaires offer actionable data
The more data you
gather, the clearer the painting becomes. All this information gives marketers
the capability to create new strategies and to follow trends in your audience.
Analyzing data and building reports can be used to generate predictions and even
create benchmarks for follow-up questions or questionnaires.
- Respondent anonymity
Online and email
surveys allow respondents to maintain their anonymity.
Mail-in questionnaires
also allow for complete invisibility, which maximizes comfort for those answering.
Even phone interviews are not face-to-face, thereby making it a more private
communication. This concealment puts respondents at ease and encourages them to
answer truthfully; however, there is still a human touch to these phone
interviews.
Digital questionnaires
give the best sense of anonymity and privacy. This type of questionnaire is
great for all sorts of businesses and subject matter and results in the most
honest answers.
You can be sure your
results will be much more accurate when you have the opportunity to complete
them anonymously.
- Questionnaires don’t have time constraints
When using mail-in,
online, or email questionnaires, there’s no time limit and there is no one on
the other end waiting for an answer. Respondents can take their time to
complete the questionnaire at their own leisure.
As a bonus, they will
often answer more truthfully, as research has shown that having a researcher
present can lead to less honest and more socially desirable answers.
- Questionnaires can cover every aspect of a
topic
One of the biggest
advantages is being able to ask as many questions as you like. Of course, it
benefits the marketer to keep each individual questionnaire short, since respondents
may find a long questionnaire frustrating. We suggest a limit of 10 questions
for online surveys.
However, since they
are efficient, cost-effective in nature, and have an easy mode of delivery,
there is no harm in creating multiple questionnaires, each covering a subtopic
of the main subject, that builds upon one another.
Disadvantages of Questionnaires
·
Dishonest answers
While there are many positives to questionnaires, dishonesty can be an
issue.
Respondents may not be 100% truthful with their answers.
This can happen for a variety of reasons, including social desirability
bias and attempting to protect privacy. Stop dishonesty in its tracks by
assuring respondents that their privacy is valued and that the process prevents
personal identification.
·
Unanswered questions
When using questionnaires, there is a chance that some questions will be
ignored or left unanswered.
If questions are not required, there is always that risk they won’t be
answered. Online questionnaires offer a simple solution to this issue: make
answering the question required.
Otherwise, make your survey short and your questions uncomplicated and
you will avoid question skipping and get better completion rates.
·
Differences in
understanding and interpretation
The trouble with not presenting questions to users face-to-face is that
each may have different interpretations of your questions.
Without someone to explain the questionnaire fully and ensure each
individual has the same understanding, results can be subjective.
Respondents may have trouble grasping the meaning of some questions that
may seem clear to the creator.
This miscommunication can lead to skewed results. The best way to combat
this situation is to create simple questions that are easy to answer.
·
Hard to convey feelings and emotions
A survey or questionnaire cannot fully capture the emotional responses
or feelings of respondents. Without administering the questionnaire
face-to-face, there is no way to observe facial expressions, reactions, or body
language.
Without these subtleties, useful data can go unnoticed.
Don’t get stuck trying to interpret emotion in data, instead go for a
Likert scale, the response scale that often uses a rating scale from “slightly
agree” to “strongly disagree.” This allows for strength and assertion in
responses rather than multiple choice.
·
Some questions are difficult to analyze
Questionnaires produce a lot of data. Multiple-choice questions can be
tabulated and graphed, but open-ended questions are different.
Open-ended questions allow for individualized answers which cannot be
quantified and must be reviewed by a human.
Too many open-ended questions can produce a flood of data, that can take
forever to analyze. Fix this pitfall by choosing your question types carefully.
If you have ten questions, you probably don’t want more than one to be
open-ended since these have no way to be quantified.
That’s why it’s important to select the right type of question as a
questionnaire is only as effective as its questions.
The survey questions need to be evaluated quickly and they need to
produce data that can be acted upon.
If you make questions too difficult or confusing to answer, you may end
up with meaningless data.
Choosing the wrong type of question can also lead to incomplete results
or data that is hard to interpret.
The main question types are open-ended, closed-ended, and
semi-closed-ended questions. Within these types, there is an abundance of ways
to present your query from ratings to yes/no questions.
Learn how to select the right types of survey questions for your needs
in our essential guide
·
Respondents may have a hidden agenda
As with any sort of research, respondent bias can be an issue.
Participants in your survey may have an interest in your product, idea,
or service. Others may be influenced to participate based on the subject of
your questionnaire. These proclivities can lead to inaccuracies in your data,
generated from an imbalance of respondents who see your topic in an overly
positive or negative light.
Filter out a hidden agenda with a pre-screening. Come up with a few
indirect questions that will remove those results wreckers.
·
Lack of
personalization
Any piece of marketing material is at risk of seeming impersonal unless
time and care are taken to personalize it. If you’re unable to add touches of
personalization, some potential respondents may be put off and ignore it.
This can be particularly difficult when the questionnaire or survey is
taken voluntarily on a website, regardless of purchase or email.
Fix this by always sending emails containing respondents’ names. Use
dynamic content on websites, and strive to use names, personal data, and
personalized content in all communication.
·
Unconscientious responses
Every administrator hopes for conscientious responses, but there’s no
way to know if the respondent has really understood the question or read it
thoroughly before answering.
At times, answers will be chosen before fully reading the question or
the potential answers. Sometimes respondents will skip through questions, or
split-second choices may be made, affecting the validity of your data.
This drawback is tough to defeat, but if you make your survey short and
your questions simple you’re likely to get the most accurate responses.
·
Accessibility issues
No matter what form of delivery is used, lack of accessibility is a
threat. Surveys may be unsuitable for users with a visual or hearing
impairment, or other impediments such as illiteracy. This should be considered
when choosing to do research in this manner.
Always choose a questionnaire platform that has accessibility options
built-in.
·
Questionnaire
or survey fatigue
We’ve all received survey invitations and the trend of companies using
customer feedback surveys is up. This means that some level of survey fatigue
is setting in with respondents.
In general, we can identify two types of survey fatigue:
Survey Response Fatigue: This occurs before the survey begins.
Overwhelmed by the growing number of surveys, respondents will be less inclined
to take part in your survey. As a result, you’ll suffer from a low response
rate.
Survey Taking Fatigue: This type of respondent fatigue happens during
the survey. It’s the result of surveys that are perceived as too long and
include questions irrelevant to the respondent. An indicator of survey-taking
fatigue can be found in a low completion rate.
How much survey fatigue affects your questionnaire depends on you. If
you make it easy for respondents to answer and you actually do something with
the information then fatigue will be lower.
Advantages of
Questionnaires
- Questionnaires are inexpensive
First of all,
questionnaires are one of the most affordable ways to gather quantitative data.
Especially
self-administered questionnaires, where you don’t have to hire surveyors to
perform face-to-face interviews, are a cost-efficient way to quickly collect
massive amounts of information from a large number of people in a relatively
short period of time.
A questionnaire can be
placed on your website or emailed to your customers. These methods have little
to no cost, though strong targeting is necessary if you want to have the
highest possible response rate and receive the most accurate results.
Still, no matter what
type of questionnaires you pick, it will be more affordable than outsourcing to
a market research company.
- Questionnaires are practical
Apart from being
inexpensive, questionnaires are also a practical way to gather data. They can
be targeted to groups of your choosing and managed in various ways. You can
pick and choose the questions asked as well as the format (open-ended or
multiple choice). They offer a way to gather vast amounts of data on any
subject. They can be used in a wide variety of ways, like customer feedback.
- Questionnaires offer a quick way to get
results
It’s quick and easy to
collect results with online and mobile tools. This means that you can gain
insights in as little as 24 hours (or less!), depending on the scale and reach
of your questionnaire.
You don’t need to wait
for another company to deliver the answers you need.
Dajo Associates needed
quality feedback fast. The South African consulting firm needed a way to make
informed decisions quickly. An online questionnaire allowed them to collect the
data they needed in the shortest time frame possible.
- Scalability
Questionnaires and
surveys allow you to gather information from a large audience.
Online, you can
literally distribute your questions to anyone, anywhere in the world (provided
they have an internet connection). All you have to do is send them a link to
your survey page. And you don’t even need to do this manually. This could be
done through an automated email in your customer onboarding or lead nurturing
campaigns.
This means that for a
relatively low cost, you can target a city or a country.
You can use multiple
data collection points, for example via multiple tablets in kiosk mode.
Geography no longer
stands in the way of market research either, thanks to the internet. But be
aware of cultural differences between people and countries when conducting
worldwide research. Thanks to Pointerpro’s multiple languages features, you can
easily create a single questionnaire available in multiple languages.
- Comparability
When data has been
quantified, it can be used to compare and contrast other research and may be
used to measure change. This makes monthly or yearly questionnaires more and
more valuable over time.
Improving
comparability implies that errors due to translation have to be minimized. In
terms of questionnaire translation for multi-national, multi-cultural, and
multi-regional surveys the aim is to achieve a level of comparability across
all local versions.
- Easy Analysis and visualization
Most survey- and
questionnaire providers are quantitative in nature and allow easy analysis of
results. With built-in tools, it’s easy to analyze your results without a
background in statistics or scientific research.
You might think that
questionnaires are not fun and getting respondents to actually complete them
can be tricky. However, you can use interactive forms that will give you visual
data insights to draw experienced user stories organized in dynamic timelines.
- Questionnaires offer actionable data
The more data you
gather, the clearer the painting becomes. All this information gives marketers
the capability to create new strategies and to follow trends in your audience.
Analyzing data and building reports can be used to generate predictions and even
create benchmarks for follow-up questions or questionnaires.
- Respondent anonymity
Online and email
surveys allow respondents to maintain their anonymity.
Mail-in questionnaires
also allow for complete invisibility, which maximizes comfort for those answering.
Even phone interviews are not face-to-face, thereby making it a more private
communication. This concealment puts respondents at ease and encourages them to
answer truthfully; however, there is still a human touch to these phone
interviews.
Digital questionnaires
give the best sense of anonymity and privacy. This type of questionnaire is
great for all sorts of businesses and subject matter and results in the most
honest answers.
You can be sure your
results will be much more accurate when you have the opportunity to complete
them anonymously.
- Questionnaires don’t have time constraints
When using mail-in,
online, or email questionnaires, there’s no time limit and there is no one on
the other end waiting for an answer. Respondents can take their time to
complete the questionnaire at their own leisure.
As a bonus, they will
often answer more truthfully, as research has shown that having a researcher
present can lead to less honest and more socially desirable answers.
- Questionnaires can cover every aspect of a
topic
One of the biggest
advantages is being able to ask as many questions as you like. Of course, it
benefits the marketer to keep each individual questionnaire short, since respondents
may find a long questionnaire frustrating. We suggest a limit of 10 questions
for online surveys.
However, since they
are efficient, cost-effective in nature, and have an easy mode of delivery,
there is no harm in creating multiple questionnaires, each covering a subtopic
of the main subject, that builds upon one another.
Disadvantages of Questionnaires
·
Dishonest answers
While there are many positives to questionnaires, dishonesty can be an
issue.
Respondents may not be 100% truthful with their answers.
This can happen for a variety of reasons, including social desirability
bias and attempting to protect privacy. Stop dishonesty in its tracks by
assuring respondents that their privacy is valued and that the process prevents
personal identification.
·
Unanswered questions
When using questionnaires, there is a chance that some questions will be
ignored or left unanswered.
If questions are not required, there is always that risk they won’t be
answered. Online questionnaires offer a simple solution to this issue: make
answering the question required.
Otherwise, make your survey short and your questions uncomplicated and you will avoid question skipping and get better completion rates.
·
Differences in
understanding and interpretation
The trouble with not presenting questions to users face-to-face is that
each may have different interpretations of your questions.
Without someone to explain the questionnaire fully and ensure each
individual has the same understanding, results can be subjective.
Respondents may have trouble grasping the meaning of some questions that
may seem clear to the creator.
This miscommunication can lead to skewed results. The best way to combat
this situation is to create simple questions that are easy to answer.
·
Hard to convey feelings and emotions
A survey or questionnaire cannot fully capture the emotional responses
or feelings of respondents. Without administering the questionnaire
face-to-face, there is no way to observe facial expressions, reactions, or body
language.
Without these subtleties, useful data can go unnoticed.
Don’t get stuck trying to interpret emotion in data, instead go for a
Likert scale, the response scale that often uses a rating scale from “slightly
agree” to “strongly disagree.” This allows for strength and assertion in
responses rather than multiple choice.
·
Some questions are difficult to analyze
Questionnaires produce a lot of data. Multiple-choice questions can be
tabulated and graphed, but open-ended questions are different.
Open-ended questions allow for individualized answers which cannot be
quantified and must be reviewed by a human.
Too many open-ended questions can produce a flood of data, that can take
forever to analyze. Fix this pitfall by choosing your question types carefully.
If you have ten questions, you probably don’t want more than one to be
open-ended since these have no way to be quantified.
That’s why it’s important to select the right type of question as a
questionnaire is only as effective as its questions.
The survey questions need to be evaluated quickly and they need to
produce data that can be acted upon.
If you make questions too difficult or confusing to answer, you may end
up with meaningless data.
Choosing the wrong type of question can also lead to incomplete results
or data that is hard to interpret.
The main question types are open-ended, closed-ended, and
semi-closed-ended questions. Within these types, there is an abundance of ways
to present your query from ratings to yes/no questions.
Learn how to select the right types of survey questions for your needs in our essential guide
·
Respondents may have a hidden agenda
As with any sort of research, respondent bias can be an issue.
Participants in your survey may have an interest in your product, idea,
or service. Others may be influenced to participate based on the subject of
your questionnaire. These proclivities can lead to inaccuracies in your data,
generated from an imbalance of respondents who see your topic in an overly
positive or negative light.
Filter out a hidden agenda with a pre-screening. Come up with a few indirect questions that will remove those results wreckers.
·
Lack of
personalization
Any piece of marketing material is at risk of seeming impersonal unless
time and care are taken to personalize it. If you’re unable to add touches of
personalization, some potential respondents may be put off and ignore it.
This can be particularly difficult when the questionnaire or survey is
taken voluntarily on a website, regardless of purchase or email.
Fix this by always sending emails containing respondents’ names. Use
dynamic content on websites, and strive to use names, personal data, and
personalized content in all communication.
·
Unconscientious responses
Every administrator hopes for conscientious responses, but there’s no
way to know if the respondent has really understood the question or read it
thoroughly before answering.
At times, answers will be chosen before fully reading the question or
the potential answers. Sometimes respondents will skip through questions, or
split-second choices may be made, affecting the validity of your data.
This drawback is tough to defeat, but if you make your survey short and
your questions simple you’re likely to get the most accurate responses.
·
Accessibility issues
No matter what form of delivery is used, lack of accessibility is a
threat. Surveys may be unsuitable for users with a visual or hearing
impairment, or other impediments such as illiteracy. This should be considered
when choosing to do research in this manner.
Always choose a questionnaire platform that has accessibility options
built-in.
·
Questionnaire
or survey fatigue
We’ve all received survey invitations and the trend of companies using
customer feedback surveys is up. This means that some level of survey fatigue
is setting in with respondents.
In general, we can identify two types of survey fatigue:
Survey Response Fatigue: This occurs before the survey begins.
Overwhelmed by the growing number of surveys, respondents will be less inclined
to take part in your survey. As a result, you’ll suffer from a low response
rate.
Survey Taking Fatigue: This type of respondent fatigue happens during
the survey. It’s the result of surveys that are perceived as too long and
include questions irrelevant to the respondent. An indicator of survey-taking
fatigue can be found in a low completion rate.
How much survey fatigue affects your questionnaire depends on you. If
you make it easy for respondents to answer and you actually do something with
the information then fatigue will be lower.
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