What makes a good survey question? That, to us, is the answer to the “What Makes a Good Survey Question?” infographic.
For a long time, we have felt that “why?” questions are the most intriguing and those that require the most amount of thought to answer. For example, asking “Why do you vote?” requires some rationalization and justification for the act of voting. If you merely ask “Will you vote?” or “For whom will you vote?” then it often elicits just a knee-jerk reaction. More generally, open-ended questions are good. These are questions that require more than just a “Yes” or “No” response. In this regard, “How” questions are also very good. An example would be “How do you feel about…?”
Of course, neither of these approaches help with the survey answers. If you were to ask a million people such questions then there would be a million different answers. Of course, you can categorize such answers but that often involves a lot of subjectivity which skews the results and does not make them as useful or helpful as it should.
To the rescue comes the infographic which does provide the characteristics of good survey questions. At the same time, the questions elicit a few questions or concerns of themselves. For example, the need to be specific seems to contradict the need to be simple. Also, while the need to be exhaustive is desired, it is not very helpful. We have dealt with many corporate surveys that are exhaustive but which do not allow a choice to elaborate on specific concerns.
Likes: A very brief but nonetheless informative piece of information.
Dislikes: The “Balanced” section was not written, could’ve included some more information.
Getting quality data from your survey panel starts with asking the right questions. We have been getting flooded with emails about what makes a good survey question. We thought we would make our response interesting with a cool infographic created by Qualtrics through Survey Software.
