Surveys 101, Part 3 : Common survey mistakes and how to avoid them

mycommunitynet
Feb 11, 2015
2 min read

In parts 1 and 2 of our Survey 101 guide, we covered how to plan your survey and pick the right types of question to use. You're now ready to go create survey magic at MyCommunity.net. Before you do, we want to let you in on a few survey hints and tips we've learned in our time at MyCommunity. These are the common mistakes of survey writing and how not to make them. Take notes!

Mandatory Questions

Making a question ‘mandatory’ means a respondent cannot proceed with your survey until they've provided an answer. This is useful on occasions where you need to gather vital information, but only use the mandatory setting when you have a good reason for doing so as it can prevent a respondent from completing your survey. There are ways to prevent this happening. Be sure to provide enough answer options to suit all respondents; for mandatory multiple choice questions, it's always a good idea to add an ‘other’ option. Clarity

Make sure your respondents know how to answer your survey by making your question wording as clear as possible. When using negative terms in questions, it’s usually best to embolden or capitalise them to ensure that people answer appropriately – for example: “Which of these options have you NOT experienced before?” Stay relevant This one’s obvious; make sure your questions are examining only the topic you’re interested in (this is called ‘internal validity’). If your survey summary mentions three options for a potential development, include all three options in your survey questions, as forcing respondents to choose from only two may prevent them completing your survey. Using the preview tool makes it easy to check your survey summary and questions with colleagues and friends before publishing your project. Short and sweet Respondents are more likely to complete surveys that require minimal time and effort. Without compromising your survey aims, make sure that every question you ask is important and relevant to your project. For maximum effect, keep the amount of questions under fifteen and think about how long each type of question will take to complete. A comment box will take longer to fill out than a single choice selection, for example. Now you're ready to roll. To get creating your first online consultation campaign, head to MyCommunity.net. For more support including a step-by-step guide to building your survey, head to our support pages.