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You may be wondering the routes that are open to you and the most effective ways to discover what your staff or customers think or feel about your organization. If you want the right answers, then it’s imperative to ask the questions that matter. This is where intelligently designing your opinion survey via survey software comes in. You want to ask questions that prompt insightful answers and detailed feedback rather than simple yes or no answers. Additionally, the following five best practices will further help you to create an effective staff or customer opinion survey.
1) Be upfront about time. There’s probably nothing more off-putting about answering a survey that seems endless. People just don't have the time or the inclination to go through page after page of questions. For this reason, it’s an idea to roll out the survey to a few of your employees. Time them and be upfront about time investment when you’re finally rolling out the survey to your wider target group.
2) Pinpoint your goals. To ask effective questions, you need to first know your goals. It’s crucial to clearly set out your questions so you get the answers you need. Know where you’re going with the survey and the results you want to achieve. This then arms you with the data you need to produce a report that fits your goals.
3) Employ a progress bar. Surveys can become pretty tedious. This is why you should use a progress bar so your respondents can get an idea of how far they are through the process. This way, fewer people will abandon your survey before the end. Progress bars also have a way of increasing respondent engagement as it provides a visual of a goal and progress towards that goal.
4) Allow people to be anonymous. People are most likely to be frank when they know they’re anonymous. At a minimum, you need to let respondents know their replies are completely confidential. Never ask for any personally identifiable information unless it’s totally necessary.
5) Do a test run. As well as doing a test run to ascertain the amount of time it takes to fill in the survey via online survey software, it’s good practice to pre-test it on a small group. Remember to ask for feedback on the following areas:
* Clarity of questions asked
* Any sensitive questions were asked
* Flow of questions
* Further ideas for improvement
* Opinion on the time it took to complete the online survey
You can learn so much from your opinion survey. Respect the commitment your customers or staff are giving your survey tool by ensuring it’s professionally planned and executed.
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