Conducting online surveys is a big part of collecting honest feedback. Online survey software solutions can be a cost-effective way to design and administer surveys, and collect and analyze results through one central software program. While an online survey software solution is not going to be the right fit for every research need, online surveys are a great tool to gather informal data quickly and efficiently. A paper survey, however, is likely to get a much-higher response rate at an in-person event, and provide more accurate data among populations that are not as comfortable with computer technology, or have limited or no access to computers. 

There are a number of available online survey software solutions. What can these sophisticated programs do? Any good online survey software tool will allow you to easily create your survey questions and format the design using an online or desktop interface. From there, you can send respondents a link to complete the online survey. More sophisticated online survey software programs, however, have more advanced functionality that can be very handy when you’re planning a more complex series of survey questions. In this case, the following features may be useful: 

Flexible survey design capabilities. An online survey that has prominent branding for a survey software tool rather than your own organization can be objectionable to respondents and may drive them away from completing the survey, decreasing your response rate. Using an online survey software solution that enables you to update the design in terms of colors, font, font sizing, columns, headers, graphics, and multi-media files can help you match your online survey to your organizational branding. Some advanced survey software solutions offer templates to help get you started. Additionally, the survey software solution should offer a good selection of question types including: single-response, multiple response, grid, time, date, free text (open-ended), and slider controls, as well as offer multi-language capabilities. 

Multi-mode survey design capabilities.  Advanced survey software solutions output the same survey in different formats, i.e. paper, online, mobile (including smartphones, iPad, iPhone, Andriod), kiosk, and telephone. The structure of the survey remains the same for each mode, but the appearance and the published output will be different for each mode. For example, kiosk surveys will require larger buttons and online surveys may contain routing instructions invisible to the respondent. 

Routing or Skip logic. If you plan to design more complex online surveys, it’s often useful to let respondents skip a question or a whole section of questions that don’t apply to them. Routing allows respondents to ‘skip’ to the parts of a questionnaire directly relevant to them based on their answers, giving them a more friendly and engaging survey experience. Example: If a respondent answers “no” to question 5, the routing will skip the respondent to the next most relevant question, question 10.

Piping or Text Substitution. Piping or text substitution allows you to pull answers from one part of a survey into another. Piping reflects answers given by the respondent and changes the questions that follow depending on the context. For example, the answer to one question can be fed into the text of a subsequent question. Piping allows you to tailor questionnaires more closely to your respondent and provide a better overall survey experience. It is also useful for CATI, CAPI, and on-screen survey interviewing. 

Which of the following countries you said you visited in the last 2 years was your favorite? Please choose one.

• USA
• France
• England
• Australia 

Are you likely to visit England again on vacation within the next 12 months?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know 

Randomization and rotation of questions. The order of a set of questions, or the set of answer options to a question, can often affect how respondents answer. The capability to automatically randomize the order of online survey questions or answer options will help avoid this issue.

Data collection and response management. Advanced online survey software solutions provide a greater platform for data collection and response management, including: applying quotas to control the number of respondents completing the questionnaire; use patterns to validate open responses; auto schedule email invitations and reminders; allow respondents to log-in to a survey; save partial response data; collect paradata (time, duration, etc.); track multiple iterations of a survey (for multi-mode or multi-language survey versions); and more.

Data analysis. One of the primary differentiators between low-cost and more high-priced online survey software solutions is their ability to analyze survey data and interpret results. Low-cost solutions provide simple reports summarizing the answers to each question, and in some cases, allow you to download reports into Excel or another software program for further data analysis. Advanced online survey software allow greater capabilities to conduct data analysis within the complete system, including cross-tabulation to see the data relationships between different sets of questions; customizable table and chart layout; filtering, weighting, and scoring; complex statistical analysis, including multivariate statistical methods such as Factor and Cluster Analysis. 

While it’s easy to throw together a set of questions, designing a survey that will capture the data you need in a precise way is complicated. There is no online survey software solution on the market that can do the survey design work for you. To design a survey to ensure you collect effective, high quality data, you’ll likely benefit from consulting with an expert who has experience with survey design. Many online survey software providers have in-houses experts available to help you with your survey design needs.

The best way to convince participants to spend 2, 5, 10, or even upwards of 15 to 20 minutes of their time to complete your online survey is to create an Introduction page describing the purpose of the survey; why you are soliciting their feedback; and explain participant privacy. 

There are 5 key messages you want to convey to participants through your Introduction page. 

1. Why – Explain why you are administering the survey.
2. Time – Clearly state how long the survey will take to complete.
3. Privacy – Present who will have access to the survey data; if the survey data will remain anonymous; and whether the respondents’ privacy will be protected.
4. Incentives – If offered, clearly describe incentives. Offering incentives may increase response rates.
5. Confirm – Make it clear that the participant must click the “Continue,” “Accept,” or “Submit” button in order to confirm and participate in the online survey. If a participant chooses not to complete your online survey, instruct them on what to do next. 

A well-planned Introduction page can help you increase your survey response rates. When creating an online survey Introduction page, think of this page as an invitation cordially inviting respondents to participate. You must be convincing and genuine enough for a respondent to give you their time, undivided attention, and valuable feedback.

You’re invited to attend our informative demonstration session titled Snap Surveys’ Feedback Solutions: Evaluations & Assessments. Learn how Snap Surveys’ Feedback Management Solutions provide a flexible and customizable platform for the creation and management of evaluation and assessment instruments with actionable reporting. We’ll demonstrate how to use Snap Surveys’ automated templates with built-in “Smart Reporting” - modify reports to suit your needs and create your own. We’ll also demonstrate how to drive continuous improvement with the use of both internal and external quality indicators for benchmarking and historical comparisons.

Demonstration Details:

• Title: Snap Surveys’ Feedback Solutions: Evaluations & Assessments
• When: Monday, June 4, 2012
• Time: 2:15 PM – 2:55PM
• Where: AIR Forum 2012, New Orleans, LA

About the AIR Forum: The AIR Forum is the largest gathering of higher education professionals working in institutional research, assessment, planning and related post-secondary education fields. The four-day AIR Forum includes more than 400 presentations from all sectors of higher education, as well as and an exhibit hall featuring the latest tools and resources to support data use for decision making. This event gives attendees the opportunity to network with peers, explore new products & services available, attend workshops and plenary sessions by leading experts in the field.

The staff of Snap Surveys looks forward to seeing you at the AIR Forum 2012!

Over the summer, we’ll be running a series of free webinar workshops. The workshops will cover topics such as:

• Designing engaging online surveys & mobile surveys
• Analysis clarified and ‘how to’ in Snap Survey Software
• Satisfaction surveys – what are we really trying to measure?

We hope this series of webinars will be useful and stimulating! A full agenda will be available later this month.

» Register now and we’ll email you details

Training Webinar: Getting more from Snap Webhost

Snap Surveys Training Consultant Marc Ellison will take viewers through how to analyze real time online survey data in Snap WebHost, while including some of the benefits Snap WebHost offers when collecting online survey data.

The webinar will cover:

• Setting up quotas where Snap WebHost recognizes when a quota has been met
• Developing email alerts
• Recovering partial survey responses
• Uploading pre-defined tables, charts, and lists
• Giving clients access to ‘live’ analysis

Join us on Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Time: 3:00 PM BST | 10:00 AM EST US

Cost: £50.00 / $75.00

UK Customers » Find out more and book your place 

US Customers » Email us for more information and to register

Snap Mobile Anywhere

» View this worksheet 

To get started, you will need:

• a Snap WebHost account, Snap’s online survey management and analysis system.
• offline interviewing enabled on your account. You will need a Snap Mobile Anywhere license for each device.
• Snap Mobile Anywhere installed on your iPad.

The iPad / iPhone / iPod touch Snap Mobile Anywhere app is available for free from the Apple App store » Dowload the App now!

It just takes 3 easy steps:

1. Publish the offline edition of your survey.
2. Upload the published zip file to Snap WebHost.
3. Log into your account on your iPad.

» View this worksheet 

Here is the complete list of the 9 Tips for Writing Quality Survey Questions.

Series Introduction

Tip #1: Keep your survey project plan objectives in mind

Tip #2: Keep your survey questions simple and free from ambiguity

Tip #3: Take into consideration question types

Tip #4: Carefully review response options

Tip #5: Keep in mind how you will use the survey results

Tip #6: Do not lead respondents toward survey answers

Tip #7: Include all valid survey response options

Tip #8: Don’t ask redundant questions

Tip #9: Plan the order and flow of survey questions

Visit the Snap Survey Software Blog daily to read the latest news, tips, and features about survey software, survey research, studies, and industry trends.

An important aspect of survey writing is knowing in what order to ask your questions. Random placement of survey questions may have a negative effect on the quality of survey data you collect.

If your survey needs to be completed by a particular target audience, ensure that qualifier questions (also referred to as screener questions) are placed at the beginning of the survey. Do not make respondents, who do not qualify to complete your survey, do any more work than they need to. Don’t upset your respondents, especially if they are customers. It is possible that you may need to contact unqualified respondents in the future to partake in future surveys.

If you are planning to develop a longer survey – one that is greater than 5 minutes - place the most important or most difficult questions to answer at the beginning of the survey. Respondents tend to lose interest rather quickly, especially with a survey that exceeds 5 minutes. Keep in mind, data quality and survey completion diminishes greatly the longer the survey.

As mentioned in tip # 4, it is important for survey questions to be free from bias response options. A respondent’s answer may be influenced by where the response option appears in the question ordering. The same concept is true for question ordering – a respondent’s answer may be influenced by where in the survey the question is asked. If you are looking for honest, straightforward feedback in open-ended questions, it is recommended to place those questions toward the beginning of the survey before new topics are covered that could potentially influence the respondents’ answers.

To keep respondents interested and their thoughts focused, group similar questions with like topics. It is easier for respondents to focus on one topic and then move on to the next. Grouping questions with topics that are similar may draw forth more information in open-ended questions and may help respondents differentiate between topics in rating scale questions.

Visit the Snap Survey Software Blog daily to read the complete blog series, 9 Tips for Writing Quality Survey Questions

If the goal of your survey is to annoy as many respondents as possible, then ask redundant questions. Of course, I am being cynical. No one wants to purposely annoy respondents who are taking the time out of their busy day to complete your survey.

If survey respondents detect redundancy in a survey, they may become annoyed and many will lose interest in completing the survey or simply speed through the survey without giving the answers to the questions much thought. Even worse, a respondent could become so frustrated that they intentionally submit incorrect answers.

Often times, the survey developer does not thoroughly review survey questions for redundancy, or the survey developer may not realize they are asking a redundant question. Distinguishing between concepts from question to question is necessary, but if the distinction is very subtle, respondents may recognize it as being unnecessarily redundant.

Here are two survey question examples with very subtle distinctions.

Please rate the value that financial reports add to your relationship with management teams.

Please rate the importance of financial reports for management teams.

Although the wording may be different, the two questions are essentially the same.

Visit the Snap Survey Software Blog daily to read the complete blog series, 9 Tips for Writing Quality Survey Questions

Do you see a problem with this survey question?

What is your favorite fruit?

• Strawberries
• Apples
• Blueberries
• Peaches

There are several issues with the response options to this question. What if respondents favor fruit like watermelon, raspberries, pineapple, etc.? There are so many kinds of fruits, yet this question does not allow respondents to recognize this. A simple “other” response option could have been used. Aside from the “other” response option, this question does not allow a respondent to select “none of the above.” Additionally, some questions should include response options “don’t know” and “not applicable.”

For every question, there should be valid response options for every respondent. If a respondent cannot find a valid response to a survey question, they may become frustrated and either provide inaccurate data or abandon the survey all together. Omitting all possible valid responses can become especially problematic if an answer to a question – often in an online survey or telephone interview survey – is necessary in order for a respondent to proceed to the next question in a survey.

Furthermore, ensure that your single-response survey questions should not be multiple-response questions. Here is an example of a survey question that should allow respondents to choose multiple responses.

What time of the day do you check your email?

• Morning
• Midday
• Evening
• I check email once per week or less
• I do not use email

Respondents may check emails multiple times throughout the day. If this is the case, they will need to be able to select multiple responses. If you are just looking for a single answer, consider rewording the question to a single-response questions such as, At what time of the day do you first check your email? Additionally, when used in multiple-response questions, the response option “I do not use email” should be exclusive – all other response options invalid if the respondent selects “I do not use email.”

Visit the Snap Survey Software Blog daily to read the complete blog series, 9 Tips for Writing Quality Survey Questions