The Messaging Times

Google illustrates that how you ask your questions determines what answers you will get. Asking the right questions is critical in conducting online customer or employee surveys.

Good survey questions are…

1. purposeful: so the answers will tell you something that you want to know (and ideally something that you can implement)
2. measurable: so you will be able to clearly analyze the responses and come to specific conclusions
3. clearly worded and unambiguous: so the questions can’t be misinterpreted by respondents
4. as short as possible: so respondents won’t get confused or fatigued
5. relevant to respondents: according to their knowledge, backgrounds and experiences
6. not leading: to avoid influencing a respondents answers
7. focused and single barreled: to yield one measurable response which can be measured independently of others
8. free from jargon: so that each question is understood by those who don’t know the acronyms and industry speak
9. tightly structured: so they elicit non-general responses related to a specific behavior, attitude or experience

Our new GroupSurveys Free account allows you to create an unlimited number of surveys, ask an unlimited number of questions and collect an unlimited number of responses.

Cost to you = $0.00

Create your own online survey account in 30 seconds and practice asking the right questions yourself!

MarketingProfs has a tidy article that provides twelve tips for creating effective surveys. Sometimes, it is the small things that make a difference, like keeping your survey short enough to prevent respondent fatigue. Marketing Profs says:

“…It shouldn’t take a respondent more than 10 minutes to complete a questionnaire. Make it five or even two minutes or less, if you can manage. Also, keep survey respondents in the loop along the way by telling them up front how long the survey might take, including a progress bar and, maybe, even naming the survey something relative to how long it will take. Time is a top complaint among people who have taken surveys, so address the objection immediately and move past it.”…continue reading

* access to this article might require that you complete a short registration form.

Not too long ago, I wrote two articles which provided an additional 15 tips on designing effective online surveys.

Online Surveys: Getting Feedback in 5 Easy Steps

“…What do you want to know from your customers? What actions are pending on the results of the survey? If you put a survey together with unfocused objectives, you will more than likely end up with a survey with unclear results. Define what questions your survey intends to answer. Do you want to measure your markets content delivery preference? Do you want to know what your employees satisfaction levels are? Defining your purpose is essential before determining your survey sample. Before you know who to ask, you have to understand what you are asking.”…continue reading

10 Tips for Writing Effective Employee and Customer Attitude Surveys

“…Make the intent, objective and possible outcomes of your survey clear to your sample by writing a relevant title and short introductory paragraph. Include the importance of the survey and how long it should take to complete. Before anyone completes a survey, they need to understand why the survey is relevant to them, what the investment is and how it might benefit them if they complete it. Might taking part in the survey influence prices of a product they use? Might it result in new features that they want? A persuasive introduction explaining the importance and potential benefits of the survey will help increase the number of employees or customers who take the time to complete it.”…continue reading

To put all of these tips into action, set up an account with our own GroupSurveys and create your own survey. It’s the best way to find out what your employees or customers are thinking. Don’t believe me? Ask them yourself.

Our GroupSurveys team has been busy building some nice new features for the popular online survey application. The new features include:

1. a new template builder that helps you to customize the look and feel of your online survey without any HTML experience. [More Info]
2. the ability to include extra text, HTML code or images to your surveys. [More Info]
3. the ability to set limits on your survey, such as the maximum number of responses you want to collect or a cut-off date for the survey. [More Info]

They’ve even taken some time to provide some example questions that you might ask in a customer service survey in case you’re not sure what to ask your audience.

These features were developed in response to customer feedback. If you have any recommendations or suggestions for other features, please send them to support@group-surveys.com

You can sign up for a free GroupSurveys account and get started creating your own surveys today.

IT IS ESSENTIAL to understand what your employees, customers and prospects want before you give it to them. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and theirs. We spend too much time assuming and too little time listening. Today, there is no excuse. Creating and distributing online surveys is easier than ever before.

Read: Online Surveys: Getting Feedback in 5 Easy Steps

PollDaddy, the ultimate poll and survey app on the web today has been acquired by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.)

“…Now whenever you do a post you’ll be a few clicks away from having your own poll, and you can have as many as you like! We’re also going to be working on a lot more styles and customization of the polls, so you’ll be able to match it exactly to the look and feel of your blog.

Most of the Automattic team is in Breckenridge, Colorado, right now for our twice-yearly get together (including PollDaddy and Intense Debate folks!). Over the next week or two you should see some cool projects we’re working on start to come out. In the meantime, here’s a picture of us dealing with altitude sickness…” continue reading

Congratulations to Dave, Eoin, Jonathan and the people at WordPress for adding some awesome tools and (more importantly) people to their team.