A survey is a method of collecting information using relevant questions from a sample of people with the aim of understanding a larger group. They include online and paper questionnaires as well as in person or over the phone.
The benefits of a survey
Benefits include:
- the potential reach a large group of people in a short space of time
- often quick and easy for people to complete
- can be easy to analyse the results
- comparisons over time – you can repeat the same survey in the future to see how things change over time
Top tips – to consider before you start
- Avoid too many questions – short, simple to understand surveys are the ones that get the most responses. Surveys should be easy to complete so that they encourage people to complete, but have enough questions that you get the information you need for the aim of your survey and project. Your survey should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete. Fewer people will complete a long survey unless there is a strong incentive to do so – such as a financial reward.
- A clear purpose – choose the most relevant questions – avoid collecting information you won’t analyse. Ask focused questions that will encourage answers that clearly support your aims. Each question should encourage answers that provide relevant insight for your service or project area.
- A mix of quantitative and qualitative – use a mix of questions to keep your participants engaged, but try to use quantitative questions when you can, which are easier to analyse. Try not to use too many qualitative questions – they take much longer for participants to complete and take longer to analyse.
- Identify an online platform you can use – there are free tools like Survey Monkey, Google Forms and Microsoft survey tools – make sure the tool you are using is GDPR compliant.
- Privacy statement – remember to include a privacy statement, with information about how the respondent’s personal data is protected.
- Technical issues and alternative formats – invite your audience to ask for information in a way that works for them and offer alternative formats to people who request them. Include information about how to access or request the survey in different formats, such as Easy Read or a different language. If your survey is online, include information about how a respondent can tell you if they have a technical issue preventing them from completing the survey.
Designing your survey
What makes a good question
- Be clear and unambiguous. There should be little room for interpretation in what the question is asking.
- Check that questions are easy to understand by testing them before sending the survey out more widely.
- For quantitative questions, it’s important that the choices you give to respondents are specific. Doing this will make the feedback more meaningful and easier to analyse. Example: If you are asking about how often a respondent does something, say ‘daily’ or ‘more than once a week’, rather than ‘regularly’.
- Make sure that you always include a ‘Prefer not to answer’ or ‘Other, please specify’ option in case the respondent doesn’t feel you’ve provided an answer that represents how they feel.
- For multiple choice – always try and limit the number of options to choose from in a list – the more options participants have to choose from the more likely it is they disengage.
Quantitative questions – usually require the participant to choose from a set of answers that you have provided. These types of questions normally provide numerical data that is relatively easy to analyse. Quantitative data is anything that can be counted or measured.
Qualitative questions – aim to understand participants’ opinions, behaviours, or motivations, and are often open-ended questions that allow respondents to explain their thoughts in their own words. Qualitative data is descriptive insight and is based on interpretation of words and the language used. Qualitative feedback may offer you more insight, but generally take longer to analyse because each response must be reviewed and themed individually in order to understand the aggregate of themes and trends in your survey.
Structure and flow of a survey
- Consider if you can structure your survey into different sections to make it easier to follow and complete.
- You may also want to encourage respondents to skip anything that may not be relevant to them.
- Some online survey platforms allow respondents to skip whole sections or questions based on their previous answers – this is called skip logic.
- Think about the flow of your questions and what order you put them in.
- You might want to start by understanding the person’s familiarity with the topic of the survey first – for example, how often they have used a particular service – before you ask about their experience or view of it.
Write an introduction – include a short, plain English introduction that explains:
- what the survey is about
- why you’re doing it
- what will happen with the results – be specific about how the results and insight will affect change
- how long it will take to complete
- the closing date
- links to other documents that are relevant to your survey, e.g. new service details or local strategy
Demographic monitoring – include questions (usually at the beginning or the end) that tell you about who is completing the survey. What do you need to know about the people who are responding. This is helpful so you can make sure your results are reflective of the group of people you wish to hear from. Both quantitative and qualitative questions can also be analysed against the demographics of the respondents, if these questions are also asked.
Consider:
- postcode / borough
- age
- gender
- religion
- sexual orientation
- disability
- ethnicity