Your boss just popped her head over your cubicle and has said: "We need to know what our customers think about our changes. And this time, we aren't going to send out a paper-based survey -- I want it done online!"
Desiginng a questionnaire is all about setting up questions to get the answers you need to do your analysis. In our experience, the simplier your survey the better. The longer and more complex your survey, the less likely you'll have a full set of response from each person. I remember once receiving a survey that took 20 minutes to complete -- I didn't get that far into it before the phone rang, and I was off to other things.
So, before you start building your survey, I recommend you do some initial planning. The following are some tips to guide you on your way...
Your boss just popped her head over your cubicle and has said: "We need to know what our customers think about our changes. And this time, we aren't going to send out a paper-based survey -- I want it done online!"
Finally, the day you've been waiting for! Unlike the past four online surveys you've had to do, you won't be worried about the data entry work associated with moving responses from your paper-based survey into Excel.
You'll be able to send email invites to only those people you want to respond to the survey, making sure that you aren't having the same person respond 15 times to win the prize you always offer as an incentive.
And thank heaven! You will be able to generate reports to analyze your data -- and since you just hired a coop student with experience in SPSS, you're really going to be able to generate all sorts of analytical reports!
So, you've found a survey software solution in Canada (let's say Hosted in Canada Surveys). You set up your account, and the first survey is waiting to be built.
Designing a Survey
Desiginng a questionnaire is all about setting up questions to get the answers you need to do your analysis. In our experience, the simplier your survey the better. The longer and more complex your survey, the less likely you'll have a full set of response from each person. I remember once receiving a survey that took 20 minutes to complete -- I didn't get that far into it before the phone rang, and I was off to other things.
Keep your surveys short and focus on the key data you require. Even though with Hosted in Canada Surveys you can have responders save results, and return later, most people forget. Even with email reminders built into our survey solution, people still will lose interest if your survey is too long.
Analyzing Survey Results
Once you've executed your survey and collected results, you'll want to analyze the data. You can do much of this online using our tool, and you can even do this while the survey is active so you can see results change as your number of responses increased. You can also export the data to computer programs like Excel, and to SPSS for more in-depth analysis.
