Popular Survey Questions with Survey Examples and Sample Survey

What is the single most important factor determining the
success of a survey? You got it, it is the types of survey questions - the question types and
respondent answer types that form the cornerstones of all surveys!

Whether it an email survey, SMS survey, web intercept survey or
a mobile app survey, the single common denominator that determines how effectively you
are able to collect accurate and complete survey responses is your survey questions and
their types.

In this article, we will cover some good survey questions ,
question types and their corresponding answer types that will almost immediately give
you a clear understanding of how to construct and choose good survey questions for
exponentially increased insights from your responses.

If you are seeking information only about product users, you
may want to ask this type of question to "screen out" those who haven't purchased your
products or services. Researchers use "screening" questions to ensure that only
those people they are interested in participate in the survey.

You may also want to use dichotomous questions to separate
respondents or branch
into groups of those who "have purchased" and those who "have not yet
purchased" your products or services. Once separated, different questions
can be asked of each of these groups.

You may want to ask the "have purchased" group how satisfied
they are
with your products and services, and you may want to ask the "have not
purchased" group what the primary reasons are for not purchasing. In
essence, your survey questions branch to become two different sets of
questions.

The multiple-choice survey questions
consists of three or more exhaustive, mutually exclusive categories. Multiple choice
questions can ask for single or multiple answers.
In the following sample survey example, the respondent will select exactly
one answer from the 7 possible options, exactly 3 of the 7, or as many of the 7 options
(1, 2, 3, or up to 7 answers can be selected).

Survey Example:

For this type of question, it is important to consider
including an "other" category as there may be other avenues by
which the person first heard about your site that you might have
overlooked.

Rank order scaling question allow a
certain set of brands or products to be ranked based upon a specific
attribute or characteristic. Perhaps we know that Toyota, Honda,
Mazda, and Ford are most likely to be purchased. You may request that
the options be ranked based upon a particular attribute. Ties may
or may not be allowed. If you allow ties, several options will have the
same scores.

The Semantic
Differential
Scale question asks a person to rate a product, brand, or company based upon a
seven-point rating scale that has two bi-polar adjectives at each end. The
following is an example of a semantic differential scale
question.

Semantic Differential Scale Survey Example:

Notice that unlike the rating scale, the semantic differential
scale does not have a neutral or middle selection. A person must choose,
to a certain extent, one or the other adjective.

The staple scale question asks a person to
rate a
brand, product, or service according to a certain characteristic on a
scale from +5 to -5, indicating how well the characteristic describes the
product or service. Example:

A constant sum survey questions permits
collection of "ratio" data, meaning that the data is able to express the
relative value or importance of the options (option A is twice as
important as option B)

Constant Sum Survey Example:

This type of question is used when you are relatively sure of
the
reasons for purchase, or you want input on a limited number of reasons you
feel are important. Questions must sum to 100 points and point totals are
checked by javascript.

The Open
Ended survey question seeks to
explore the qualitative, in-depth aspects of a particular topic or issue.
It gives a person the chance to respond in detail. Although open-ended
questions are important, they are time-consuming and should not be
over-used.

Example:(If the
respondent indicates they did not find what they were looking for...)

If you want to add
an "Other" answer to a multiple choice question, you would use branching
instructions to come to an open ended question to find out What Other....

Demographic survey questions are an
integral part of any survey. They are used to identify
characteristics such as age, gender, income, race, geographic place of
residence, number of children, and so forth. For example demographic
questions will help you to classify the difference between product users
and non-users. Perhaps most of your customers come from the Northeast, are
between the ages of 50 and 65, and have incomes between $50,000 and
$75,000.

Demographic data helps you paint a more accurate picture of the group
of persons you are trying to understand. And by better understanding the
type of people who use or are likely to use your product, you can
allocate promotional resources to reach these people, in a more cost
effective manner.

Example:

Psycho-graphic or life style questions are also
included in the template files. These questions provide an in-depth
psychological profile and look at activities, interests and opinions of
respondents.

Matrix tables questions are arranged in
tabular format with questions listed on the left of the table while the answer options
are at the top of the table. They are actually 2 dimensional variants of the multiple
choice questions. Multipoint scales, Multiselect, Spreadsheets and Side-by-Side matrix
are the 4 choices given to the user under the matrix table questions. Multipoint scales
allow respondents to select only one option per parameter while multiselect allows them
to select multiple options per parameter. Spreadsheet converts text into organized
tables that are easy for the respondents to fill out.

In case you have to organize a survey
where
you want to know about multiple aspects like importance and satisfaction level of the
various services offered to users, you can use side-by-side matrix. It gives you the
option to define multiple rating options simultaneously due to which it gets easy for
you to make changes in whatever needs improvement and also to maintain what’s good in
your services.

These questions are just for display
purpose to add value to the survey. Presentation text questions are usually used as a
separator between two different sections of the survey. You can also add headings and
subheadings to the various sections of the survey to make it aesthetically pleasing.

The Visual Analog Scale allows you to show your survey
questions in a more appealing manner to respondents. For example, you can ask your respondents to give
ratings to the services you’ve provided them. Text sliders and numeric sliders are
convenient for the respondents to provide feedback. Other options include share to
social media platforms, thumbs up and down and smiley-rating. Smiley rating can be
pleasant to the eyes and can help you to leave positive impact on the customers.

The use of images always boosts user
experience. Even when we come across articles or blogs with attractive images, we’re
tempted to read the entire article. Put to use this theory when you need your clients to
fill out a survey. Select One or Select Many Image Questions gives the respondents an
opportunity to select one or more images from a provided list. Another option, Rate
Images is a matrix question the allows users to rate the images on a common scale.

To gather or approve data against standard
databases like zip codes, Reference / Validated Data Questions are used. The other
option is of the Dynamic Lookup Tables which are used to depict data according to the
ranking. Segmentation of options in second menu can be done on the basis of the
respondent's choice in the first menu.

A Net Promoter Score question is a scoring
model for measuring brand shareability and customer satisfaction. It asks respondents to
rate whether they’ll recommend your company to their network on a scale of 0 to 10,
which is divided into sections of Promoters (9-10), Passives(7-8) and Detractors (0-6).

The collected responses of each section
are calculated and the net value of the promoters is shown. The NPS as it’s called,
helps company owners to know where are they going wrong for detractors to give low
ratings or why are promoters giving high ratings so that you can keep working hard on
those points.

This type of survey questions include
Conjoint Analysis and Maximum Difference Scaling.

Conjoint Analysis is one of the most
accepted quantitative methods in market research. It’s used when you need to know client
preferences like knowing preferred product features, to analyse effect of price changes
in the product sales or to know how well the market will accept a new product.

Maximum Difference Scaling is an effective
way to establish the relative ranking for up to 30 elements. They might be:

It’s a question everyone must wonder - what are considered to
be good survey questions? Is it the type of questions or the language of the survey
questions that make the biggest difference in increasing survey response rates and
getting you the best insights?

Keep your Questions Fair
: The most prime point to keep in mind while designing your survey questions is
to not be too boastful about your own services and products. Use as few exaggerated
adjectives as you can with your services that can make the customers think that you
think too highly of your own company, which isn’t the impression you want your
customers to have.
Dodge questions like: “What do you feel about the extremely warm welcome our staff
gave at your arrival?” Respondents will prefer being asked questions like, “How did
you like your welcome at our hotel?”

Simple Survey Questions =
Better Responses : Come up with survey questions that are easy to understand and
answer. Expecting respondents to repeatedly answer essay-like questions will do no
good for the survey. Instead, ask question that are not complicated to understand
and can be answered without investing too much time.

Avoid Unwanted Questions
: You may feel the need to get as much information as you can from a single
survey but this temptation can create damage. In case you keep asking every single
detail, you’ll end up asking survey questions that may seem off track. The user can
get suspicious about your intentions apart from getting confused and irritated.

Skip Assumptive Question
: Neither do people keep situations in mind that haven’t happened in their lives
nor do they appreciate made-up situational survey questions. Avoid cooking up “what
if” conditions which will not necessarily get authentic answers from respondents as
they may or may not have faced the situation. It will be much effective if you post
more realistic situations for them.

Ask Customer Survey Questions
with “How” : A single select question like “Did you like our gym” will get you
either “yes” or “no”. Instead of the yes or no kind, if you ask “How did you find
the services at our gym?” and come up with responses like, “extremely professional,”
“moderately professional,” and “not at all professional.” This question will fetch
you detailed data giving you a peek into what exactly did the respondents like about
your services. Taking corrective measures becomes easier for the management.

Don’t Ask More than One
Question at Once : The last thing you want your survey to do is confuse
respondents. Asking two or more correlated things in one question will baffle your
customers. Also, multiple interlinked things in one question may indicate that
they’re unimportant. In case you have a complicated topic in hand, you can divide it
into multiple survey questions so that you can get effective answers and great
insights.

Additional sensitivities to keep in mind for creating
good survey questions:

If you have to ask sensitive
questions about religion or political parties, place them next to the questions
contextually related to them. This will make it easier for the respondents to at
least try answering.

The introductory questions that
you ask should be simple, pleasant and interesting.

Including a question mark
towards the end of every question can prove to be an effective way to get
respondents to finish the survey.

For the respondents to get the
right impressions from your survey, make sure all the questions are grammatically
correct and error free.

The questions should have
understandable terms and concepts broadly known to all.

Please remember - It is the simplicity and direct approach of
your survey that will be considered the most influential aspects in getting you the best
survey responses through good survey questions.