How to Write a Survey for Your Business

Surveys are an essential part of doing business. Whether you are gathering customer feedback or evaluating employee performance, surveys are an effective tool for collecting data and aggregating information that can aid in making critical decisions for your company.

Unsure where to begin? Let’s explore the key criteria that leaders should consider when creating surveys.

What’s the purpose?

Why are you creating this survey? What is the goal?

Having a clear purpose and focus before writing your survey is the first step. Understand the following before beginning the survey creation process:

• What do you ultimately want to accomplish?
• Why do you need this information and what will you do with it?
• Who is your audience for this survey?
• How will you reach the audience or how will they fill it out?

The answers to these questions will form the basis for the format and content of your survey.

Types of Questions

Once you know your why, write a list of the information you need to capture. Next, you will need to determine the type and format of your questions.

Open-Ended Questions

An open-ended question cannot be answered with a static response. A respondent can answer the question or prompt with their own information or interpretation of what is being asked. Open-ended questions are ideal for collecting lengthier answers or understanding something in greater context, including testimonials, explanations, or reflections. It can be more difficult to compare results across respondents, so open-ended questions are typically better fits for qualitative purposes.

Close-Ended Questions

A close-ended question provides specifically structured responses from which a respondent can select from a limited number of choices. This format is typically best for quantitative data collection because it is easier to compare and aggregate answers once collected. There are many types of close-ended questions like: rating scales, Likert scales, polls, multiple choice, or Net Promoter Scores. Closed-ended questions are ideal for measuring satisfaction, understanding areas of improvement, or rankings.

No matter what types of questions you chose, make sure you follow these three BAN writing principles:

1. Be direct and concise
2. Ask 1 thing at a time
3. No leading questions

You may also need to consider logic in the order of your questions. For example, if someone replies in a particular way, she may be able to jump ahead or skip questions if it does not apply to her.

Be Mindful of Your Audience

Creating your survey with your audience in mind — catering to who will actually be responding to your survey and how they will complete it, will help you craft an effective data collection tool.

Personal Data

Whether or not to collect any personal data of a survey respondent is an important choice that should be made intentionally and carefully. What kind of personal data is important? Why is it important?

Personal data can range from someone’s name and email, all the way to demographic data. Be aware of the information you are collecting, how you are storing such data, and privacy rules and concerns.

If collecting particular personal information is important, consider collecting it up front at the beginning of your survey so you can make sure it is completed. In my work, we use a survey tool that allows us to collect partial data; this is beneficial for knowing who has started but has not completed an application for a program.

If incentives are being offered to encourage survey completion — i.e. gift cards, raffles or free services — make sure to require the appropriate information that might be needed for the offer to be delivered.

Time

According to SurveyMonkey, the number and type of questions asked affects how long it takes someone to complete a survey. The likelihood of survey drop-off increases with more open-ended questions. A 10-question survey has an average completion rate of 89%, while a 40-question survey drops to 79% (source). Be mindful of the amount of time it will take for someone to complete your survey.

Survey Tools

Beyond actually writing the content of your survey, there are many tools and resources to support you in creating the form and collecting responses. From free to paid versions of survey platforms, circle back to your purpose and know what is essential for your survey to be a success. How many people need access to the survey? Will it be completed in person or virtually? How do you need to access the response information and for how long? What format of questions do you need? Do you require file uploads or logic?

Here are examples of software that I have personally used and are a great jumping off point to explore:

• Google Forms
• SurveyMonkey
• GetFeedback
• Alchemer
• Qualtrics
• Typeform

Once your survey is written and complete, get feedback on it! Ask someone else — a friend, employee, partner — to review your survey before you publish it or send it out. Get a second or third opinion on the format, questions, and length. Put your survey through a dress rehearsal before it’s put to use.

And remember that practice makes perfect. The more you write and create surveys, evaluations or questionnaires, the more effective they will become.

Have questions? Ask below!