This is my first time doing this. I am trying to see if I understand how to do surveys right. Could someone look at it complete it and let me know please. I want to teach others how to do surveys once I get good at it.
The survey looks fine and I think Bruce shared a great article. I have used surveys a lot over the past 6 or 7 years and the most important lessons I have learned are:
1. Determine the most important piece of information I need to get from it.
2. Determine the fewest amount of questions possible that I can ask to get to that information.
3. Don't ask people to take surveys unless you plan on doing something with the information.
4. Make the questions as quick and easy as possible for the survey taker to answer.
Wow what great tips you all both gave me. I enjoyed the article! I have another question, how long did it take each of you to complete it. As mention you want to make the survey to be effective and efficient for both parties. This is really helpful!
Thanks Melani and Bruce for reviewing the survey and taking the survey!
Oh I totally understand and thank you for responding so quickly. However this is not spam and you will not receive a virus. It is from a trusted site called survey monkey. Whenever you get a chance I totally understand. I am curious to see how much time it takes to complete it. This is great training for my interns!
I did not actually take the survey originally but I just started to do it this time and here are a few points that came up as I was taking it this time around:
1. I was unsure of what you were trying to accomplish. For example, for the first question I chose exercise, dining out and going to the movies. The next question was how long do you keep a membership? This question is not specific enough and based on the 3 things I marked in question 1, it has no relevance. How long do I keep a membership to what?
2. Question #4 is okay as I suspect you are trying to understand the reasons for why people do not get to do their favorite activities more often; however, why is this question important to you? Are you going to try and solve it?
3. Question #5 same as #4.
4. Taken together questions 4 & 5 and 6 really only make sense if a specific "fun" spot has been chosen. Dining out and movies are not necessarily fun spots as those locations vary all the time. So, I was not sure how to answer them. Plus, if someone did actually choose fun spots but then got to question 6 and chose one to focus on, how do you gain value from knowing the answer to that question? They may have chosen many options in question #1 but then in number 6 they had to choose a distance for just one and you have no idea what they picked and why. How does that help you?
5. Question #7 runs into the same problem as 6.
The primary issue here is this: What specific information are you trying to get from your survey takers. Narrow it down to one or two pieces of information and know what you plan to do with it. Surveys need to make sense for the survey taker or else you will get a lot of incompletions.
If you want to share your goals for this survey, I'd be happy to flush out some ideas with you for tweaking things just a bit to achieve the result you want.
Wow very detail. I have taken notes based on what you mention. This is great! I guess what I wanted the participants to do was think of their fun spot and take the survey based on that. I am glad you enjoyed it! I have learned a lot!
8 Replies
Hi Nichole and welcome to the Heroes community.
At first glance it looks fine - a survey is fine if it provides the amount of information you need from the audience you need
Here is a superb article on creating surveys that you may find useful.
Bruce
Hi Nichole and welcome!
The survey looks fine and I think Bruce shared a great article. I have used surveys a lot over the past 6 or 7 years and the most important lessons I have learned are:
1. Determine the most important piece of information I need to get from it.
2. Determine the fewest amount of questions possible that I can ask to get to that information.
3. Don't ask people to take surveys unless you plan on doing something with the information.
4. Make the questions as quick and easy as possible for the survey taker to answer.
Best of luck!
Wow what great tips you all both gave me. I enjoyed the article! I have another question, how long did it take each of you to complete it. As mention you want to make the survey to be effective and efficient for both parties. This is really helpful!
Thanks Melani and Bruce for reviewing the survey and taking the survey!
Apologies Nichole - I did not actually take the survey.
I am getting "spam swamped" at the moment, and did not want to risk anything.
Bruce
Oh I totally understand and thank you for responding so quickly. However this is not spam and you will not receive a virus. It is from a trusted site called survey monkey. Whenever you get a chance I totally understand. I am curious to see how much time it takes to complete it. This is great training for my interns!
Nichole,
I did not actually take the survey originally but I just started to do it this time and here are a few points that came up as I was taking it this time around:
1. I was unsure of what you were trying to accomplish. For example, for the first question I chose exercise, dining out and going to the movies. The next question was how long do you keep a membership? This question is not specific enough and based on the 3 things I marked in question 1, it has no relevance. How long do I keep a membership to what?
2. Question #4 is okay as I suspect you are trying to understand the reasons for why people do not get to do their favorite activities more often; however, why is this question important to you? Are you going to try and solve it?
3. Question #5 same as #4.
4. Taken together questions 4 & 5 and 6 really only make sense if a specific "fun" spot has been chosen. Dining out and movies are not necessarily fun spots as those locations vary all the time. So, I was not sure how to answer them. Plus, if someone did actually choose fun spots but then got to question 6 and chose one to focus on, how do you gain value from knowing the answer to that question? They may have chosen many options in question #1 but then in number 6 they had to choose a distance for just one and you have no idea what they picked and why. How does that help you?
5. Question #7 runs into the same problem as 6.
The primary issue here is this: What specific information are you trying to get from your survey takers. Narrow it down to one or two pieces of information and know what you plan to do with it. Surveys need to make sense for the survey taker or else you will get a lot of incompletions.
If you want to share your goals for this survey, I'd be happy to flush out some ideas with you for tweaking things just a bit to achieve the result you want.
Melani
Wow very detail. I have taken notes based on what you mention. This is great! I guess what I wanted the participants to do was think of their fun spot and take the survey based on that. I am glad you enjoyed it! I have learned a lot!
Thank you so much you just do not know how much this means!!!!
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