To ensure your research project is a success and help you collect high quality, meaningful data, consider these best practice tips before creating a questionnaire.
Tag Archives: Online surveys
Offline survey tools: An online survey experience offline
An offline survey tool should provide all the capability of an online survey without the need for a reliable internet connection, making it easier to conduct accurate research on mobile devices out in the field.
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Health and Safety Data Collection Tools
June is National Safety Month, which aims to highlight and reduce preventable deaths and injuries. We’ve taken a look at how surveys can be used as a data collection tool to accurately and efficiently gather data and keep records for risk assessments, safety audits, and staff training.
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Best practice for handling sensitive data
In light of Mental Health Awareness month, which is observed every May, we’ve put together an overview of some best practices when it comes to handling sensitive data gathered in patient surveys, staff surveys, and other health related questionnaires.
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14 Things to Love About Online Surveys
Spread some survey love with our list of 14 things to love about online surveys
Online surveys are a flexible and efficient way to collect feedback and data from your respondents, which can be quickly analyzed and turned into shareable reports with actionable insights.
We’ve put together 14 key features of conducting an online survey.
1. Branding
With an online survey you have complete control over the branding. It’s quick and easy to add your logo and colors, and create a branded URL to share your online survey, so that your respondents can easily identify the survey with your organization.
2. Interactive questions
There’s a variety of different interactive questions that you can use in an online survey to make it more engaging, and gather better responses. Drag and drop questions allow respondents to visually categorize or rank items; interactive images can be a good alternative to check boxes; and sliders will allow you to include more options on a scale without using more space. Continue reading
GDPR compliant surveys: Storing personal data
It’s all too easy to create a survey, collect responses, produce reports, and then move on to the next survey. But under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there’s a spotlight on how long personal data can be kept for.
GDPR and personal data
The GDPR mandates that data should be deleted or anonymized once it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected. This means that when you complete a research project, you should assess how long you need to keep the personal data relating to it, and anonymize or delete that data at the end of that period.
GDPR compliant data retention considerations
To help you comply with the GDPR rules when you are undertaking a survey project, we’ve outlined these data retention considerations:
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Including an Opt Out link in email survey invitations
As well as major changes to the way in which data is handled, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has also given individuals greater control over their personal data, how it’s used, and the interactions they have with organizations.
One of the ways in which you can ensure your surveys reflect these changes is by including an Opt Out link in every survey invitation email that you send to potential respondents.
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25 Tips to Increase Online Survey Response Rates
Want to increase your survey response rates? Follow this helpful advice.
The success of your survey depends greatly on a good response rate. The higher the response rate, the more representative of the total population. Ideally, a higher than anticipated response rate will bring more assurance and reliability to the survey results. A higher response rate also allows more robust statistical calculations to be performed. In contrast, a response rate that falls short of anticipation may bring into question the dependability of the survey data. Receiving a low response rate from your survey will skew the results due to response bias, as certain types of respondents are more likely to respond to surveys than others, so certain views may triumph.
Want to increase your response rates? Here are 25 tips you can use to increase your survey response rates.
- Keep your survey short, covering only the topics you need to satisfy the objectives of your research. Don’t overload the survey with unnecessary questions. Keep the goal of your survey in mind when creating your questions.
- Send an email notification notifying participants that they will be receiving your survey, and to be on the lookout for its arrival. Explain how you value their feedback and appreciate their time to complete the survey.
- Explain to respondents what the purpose of the research is and how their valuable feedback will be used.
- Be considerate of respondents’ time. Let them know how long the survey will take to complete.
- Speaking of time, show a progress bar. Respondents want to know how much longer the survey will take.
- Use a powerful subject line in the email invitation.
- Change the ‘From’ name in the email invitation to an actual person. Allow respondents to respond to that person with questions.
- Double check that all links are working correctly in the email invitation.
- Send 1 or 2 quick email reminders to those that have not completed the survey.
- Optimize your surveys for all devices – from desktop PCs to mobile devices with various screen sizes.
- Check on the usability of your survey. Is it easy to access and complete?
- Check on the question wording. Is each question easy to comprehend?
- Use survey logic such as randomization to show more relevant questions or relevant options within questions.
- Use piping logic to feed any answer from a previous question into any subsequent question or text area.
- Don’t ask questions that you already have answers to. If you must ask them, take the database of answers from the previously gathered information and set-up a database link to pre-populate the information into the survey questions.
- Don’t use random jargon or abbreviations that respondents don’t understand.
- Consider using more interactive and engaging question styles like rating scales and sliders.
- Provide an open-ended question so respondents can share open comments.
- But, don’t ask too many open-ended questions. They take longer to complete.
- Check the format and flow of the survey. Does the sequence of questions make sense?
- Increase the frequency of your surveys. Survey repetition gets your participants to recognize your brand.
- Decrease the number of one-off surveys and focus on surveys that collect data that is inline with your goals. Too many surveys may deter your participants.
- Offer an incentive. Incentive examples include a coupon or discount, an entry for a prize drawing, or copies of the final research report.
- Brand your survey. Participants want to see that the survey is coming from a reputable brand.
- Consider conducting your survey anonymously. Participants appreciate anonymity especially when sensitive data is being transferred.
What else would you add to this list? Leave a comment below.
Using the Principles of Universal Design for Surveys
Snap Surveys guest blogger Gary Austin of Austin Research explores using the principles of Universal Design for surveys
An American architect, product designer, and educator named Ron Mace originally coined the term “universal design”. It describes the concept of designing products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible for everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life.
A widespread example of universal design is the dropped kerb (i.e. vehicle access crossings or crossovers). Dropped kerbs were designed for wheelchair users, but are used by all kinds of people including those with shopping trolleys (shopping carts, for you U.S. folks) or kids on bikes or scooters. The original design process focused on a disregarded group of people, but something better was created for everyone. Continue reading
Press Release: Snap Survey Software Now Available Through MRDC Software in Asia Pacific
Snap Survey Software is now available to the Asia Pacific market through MRDC Software
Bristol, U.K. and Portsmouth, NH, U.S. – Snap Surveys, creator of Snap Survey Software, has announced an agreement with MRDC Software as an approved reselling agent of Snap Survey Software in the Asia Pacific market.
Over the past 35 years, Snap Surveys’ products, solutions, and services have established them as a leading brand in the survey software market across Europe and North America for organizations wishing to conduct advanced survey research via online surveys that are adaptable to any screen size; paper surveys with optional scanning capabilities; and mobile surveys, including on handheld mobile devices, tablets, and on freestanding kiosks. The software comes complete with built-in advanced analysis capability and reporting options for easy distribution. Continue reading