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It is tempting to include many similar question types with similar response options in your online survey design.  Matrix questions, for example, provide an efficient questionnaire design method to help you gather lots of data in a neat, brief survey form.  It is wise, however, to resist the urge to use too many uniform survey questions and response lists, namely because of two sources of bias that stem from doing so: habituation and acquiescence.

Habituation occurs when respondents begin providing the same answers to survey questions with the same response options.  They start to get in a habit and select the identical response choice for every question.

Acquiescence is related to habituation, and occurs when respondents passively agree with an interviewer or survey questions.  Agree-disagree scales are the most often-used response options in opinion surveys; it is important that you take steps to avoid the chance that respondents will passively agree with your statements in order to quickly complete the questionnaire or provide what they think may be the “right” answers.

To avoid these response biases, you can use online survey software that allows question randomization, break up your matrix questions with other types of questions and scales, and phrase some questions in a manner that makes respondents switch their thinking.  An example of the latter would be to ask a series of positive questions in your survey questionnaire, and then throw in a couple questions worded differently so as not to allow habituation or acquiescence.  Use care up-front in your online questionnaire design to be sure that you'll reduce error and bias in your results.

Rarely are we asked the question, What is a survey? Typically questions follow the path of, Why do I need a survey program? What am I going to get out of conducting online web surveys to collect customer feedback? Or How do I get started measuring employee satisfaction with online questionnaire templates?

However, sometimes it's good to define market research and what it means, and answer the rarely asked question, What is a survey?

Market Research Definition (mahr-kit-ree-surch)
The gathering and studying of data relating to consumer preferences, purchasing power, etc., especially prior to introducing a product on the market.

Survey Definition (ser-vey)
Collect quantitative information about items in a population. Surveys of human populations and institutions are common in political polling and government, health, social science and marketing research.

Chances are though, you're still wondering about those other questions. These posts may help you answer those ever burning questions about why you should create and design surveys.

Cvent offers a variety of Pre-Designed Survey Templates you can choose from for your first online web survey. These internet survey templates contain default questions, email, welcome and thank you text which you can utilize when designing a questionnaire. You can also choose from over 50 different graphical templates to suit the look and feel of your survey forms. Here’s a list of the different pre-created survey templates that you can use to build the base of your survey:


Besides this vast list of pre-designed questionnaires and graphical survey templates, Cvent also offers you a Question Library, which is filled with Customer Service, Demographics, Event, HR/Training, Marketing/Sales questions that you can utilize in your survey.

So! Go ahead and Sign up for an online web survey free trial account now and enjoy these á-la-carte features absolutely free.

The vast majority of survey research projects are studies at a single point in time of a specified population, such as employees, customers or the general public.  Fewer web survey designs track opinions over time.  This post outlines the different types of surveys carried out by researchers.

Point-in-time surveys are called cross-sectional studies.  They study a single population or sample size during a single specified time-frame, and give us a “snapshot” of opinion data.  Cross-sectional surveys comprise the largest number of projects that are undertaken. 

Longitudinal surveys, on the other hand, are those which study trends over time, and usually consist of cohorts or panel respondents.  These can be further classified into three distinct types of longitudinal designs (trend, cohort and panel).

Completing a study is just the first step in the market research process. A good researcher knows there is plenty of work left to be done analyzing survey data and taking action on survey results.

Stay in touch with the client and schedule presentations of the research. If you have a client contact assigned to the project, go over the preliminary survey data to see what key findings they feel are the most important to share. Create presentations around these key findings. You can also create separate market survey reports for different groups within the same company.

For example, if you have just completed a large product survey that includes feedback on customer satisfaction, the client may want a presentation simply on customer feedback for their customer service team.

A good researcher also has an eye for finding problems. If you notice an area for improvement in the course of your market research analysis, propose a solution to that problem for the client. Take this market research survey example, customers complain about being on hold too long when calling customer service. You could propose several ideas from hiring more staff to setting time goals for staff to talk to customers.

Even though the client may not agree with your solution ideas, ignoring problems you identify through the research is a bad idea. The client is paying you to compile and analyze research data, and they will likely appreciate all your efforts even if the information does not fit in with their current business plan.

I always recommend probability-based survey sampling techniques wherever possible.  Sometimes, however, companies and organizations want to get an initial feel for how consumers and customers will react to a new product or concept.  In addition, early in the process, you may not have the ability to comprehensively identify a target market or sampling frame, and there is no way to produce a representative sample of your population. 

In these instances, it may be useful to employ a snowball sampling technique as a pilot project, or to gain a rough, early grasp on what customers are feeling.  A snowball sample is one in which you use an initial group of respondents as recruiters for additional market research respondents.  In the survey, you ask your original respondents to list several people  they know that might be interested in completing a survey as well.   This is a case where an incentive might prove particularly useful, since you are asking your market research survey sample to provide contact information of their acquaintances.  Snowball sampling is also especially useful if you do not have a predefined list of people to survey, or if you are trying to identify key information-holders or opinion leaders.

Again, there is a significant caveat of snowball and other nonprobability-based business research methods for sampling techniques: they do not produce representative samples, and therefore cannot be used to generalize findings to the overall population.  But if you are just starting out, and do not mind that your market survey sample cannot produce generalizable findings, then a snowball sampling technique is a convenient survey data collection method to obtain larger amounts of preliminary data.

Yesterday, I pointed out you should think about how the colors you pick may affect survey respondents when designing survey templates. There are typically three groups of colors to consider: cool, warm and neutrals. Cool colors are typically thought of to be cooling colors. But what about their counter part?

Warm colors: Get up! Get going! That's the mantra of warm colors, they get us going. Warm colors create excitement, and sometimes, evoke anger by conveying emotions from simple optimism to strong violence. Much the same way that white and gray can carry cool attributes, blacks and browns carry warm attributes. Since I mentioned that cool colors tend to appear smaller, you may be expecting this next part: warm colors sometimes appear larger and closer. As a result, warm colors can over power a cool color when they are used in equal proportions.

	Red - The color red can evoke a range of emotions: passion and love versus violence and war. Both cupid and the devil are associated with the color red. It certainly does seem to have a conflicting identity. Red is the hottest of all the warm colors and as a result, is a good stimulant. Think about the places you see red and what it indicates: red tie in the boardroom denotes power, flashing red lights warn of danger, etc. Red tends to grab people's attention and gets them to take action. But don't put all your calls to actions in your next email survey invitation in red because it can quickly become overpowering and evoke the wrong emotions.
	Yellow - Ahh! Sunshine! One of the many things the color yellow brings to mind. Like the color red, yellow can have conflicting meanings: happiness and joy versus cowardice and deceit. As you might imagine, yellow is best used in conjunction with other colors and not as the primary color. However, it can work as a primary color depending on the overall design. While blue iris was Pantone's Color of the Year in 2008, Mimosa is their 2009 Color of the Year.
	Orange - As a blend of red and yellow, orange brings together some of the best qualities of both colors. Orange brings the energy, warmth and cheerfulness of the two colors while leaving out the aggression that red brings to mind. Like other warm colors, orange is stimulating and is a good way to get noticed without "screaming" at your survey respondents.
	Gold - Gold is a cousin to yellow and orange, both warm colors. Because gold is a precious metal, it's also a color that represents riches and extravagance. Much like it's cousin yellow, gold can be both bright and cheerful, as well as somber and traditional.
	Pink - Pink is the softer side of red. Park that aggression at the door. Pink is sugar and spice and everything nice. As a result, it's often associated with the "weaker sex" and too much pink has been shown to create physical weakness in people. Both red and pink tend to allude to love, but unlike red's fiery passion, pink tends to denote romance. When combined with black or gray, pink tends to take on a sophisticated.

Gathering feedback and designing surveys that get a good response rates are definite challenges along the business survey decision path. However, if you keep simple color rules in mind and don't overwhelm your respondents, it gets a little easier.

When many of us think product market research, we think along the lines of consumer interest or consumer satisfaction studies. But what about a study conducted specifically to find ways to improve a product?

Sometimes a client may want to find ways to improve an existing product or service. It is risky to launch a brand-new product, particularly in today’s economy when businesses are failing more frequently. It is often better to grow a successful product than try and start from scratch.

When you are conducting a study for this purpose, it is important to analyze from several angles. You need to gather current consumers for a consumer satisfaction survey, as well as non-consumers for a survey or focus group. To gather product feedback ask the consumers questions like:


Utilize the survey to gather their opinions on pricing, quality and more. The client can use this information about what they are already doing right as a baseline for improving their product.

The non-consumers are a little tricky. You need to find out why they don’t purchase or use the product. Maybe the price point is just a little too high. Depending on what type of product it is, perhaps the client might be able to offer a similar item at a lower price point to gain more customers.

Perception of non-consumers is just as important as that of consumers. Perhaps the reason they are put off is something the client can easily fix, thus gaining new and loyal customers.

Perhaps you have an extra special research project that really needs a good response turnout, or you’re simply looking for ways to boost your response rates. Well, maybe its time to try sweetening the pot a little?

Studies have shown that surveys where potential participants were offered monetary incentives of as little as $1 received higher response rates then ones that didn't’t offer any incentives at all. In fact, offering any incentive to your potential survey respondents as a way of saying “Thank You” even before they take your survey is a great way to get started on the road to higher survey returns. Good examples of survey incentives that work are gift cards, checks, gift certificates, and of course good ol' fashioned cash.

The amount isn't as important as the belief by the participant that the offered incentive will actually be provided. Credibility is key. So if you choose to offer incentives to your potential respondents after they have participated in the survey (say for example the option to be entered into a random drawing for a chance to win an iPod) remember to follow through on giving out the reward after you collect feedback from all the survey respondents!

This tip is particularly useful when trying to avoid survey bias. By offering incentives you're more likely to attract people who would not normally participate in your surveys. Learn more about minimizing survey bias from some of our other posts.

I found an interesting poll today about colors preferred by men and women, and it provoked some questions about what are the best colors to use when you create polls or design survey questionnaires. Here's the breakdown from the poll shared in a Lyris Whitepaper:


Why does it matter? Because colors are also a form of non-verbal communication. So whether you're creating an online questionnaire to collect feedback or using an email survey tool to craft email marketing messages for survey invitations, you should care how colors affect those reading your email or completing your customer survey forms.

Colors can cause physical reactions. For example, too much red has been show to increase blood pressure. As you design survey templates, keep in mind how color meanings can affect survey respondents.

Cool colors: Cool colors typically have a calming effect. Keep in mind that cool colors can appear smaller than warm colors and visually recede on the page.

	Blue - As you might have guessed, blue is calming. Almost everyone likes some shade of blue, whether it's a strong and steadfast blue or a light, friendly blue. In fact, in 2008 Pantone selected Blue Iris as the color of the year. As a result of the calming effect blue has, it can make time seem to pass more quickly and help you sleep. However, too much blue can cause the calming effect to go to the extreme and cause you to have the blues. Beyond just being calming, blue can convey richness and sometimes superiority (deep royal blue) or it can convey trust and truthfulness (combining light and dark blue). See how using blues could improve your response rate if it helps people trust you?
	Green - Like blue, green has some calming effects and can make time seem like it's moving quicker, but it also signifies growth, renewal, health and the environment. Like with blue, green has it's own extreme as well, green can mean jealousy or envy and inexperience. With a hint of warmth and coolness, green can create balance, harmony and stability.
	Purple - Over the ages, purple has come to be synonymous with royalty. Since purple comes from red (warm) and blue (cool) it has intriguing qualities of both. Typically deep and bright purples suggest riches, while lighter purples are more romantic and delicate. Keep in mind though, while purple can be noble and spiritual, too much purple can cause moodiness - the same as with too much blue.
	Turquoise - As a blend of blue and green, turquoise can have a soft, feminine qualities or a more sophisticated feel with the darker teals.

Look for parts two and three later this week for warm and neutral color meanings.

Sometimes we get so excited about creating a survey we want to jump right in and ask the really interesting questions. Those typically consist of finding out about who our clients are, where they're located, etc. (factual questions). In other words, our demographic questions.

But if we don’t take the time to think about placement of these really important factual items within our surveys, we may be inadvertently affecting the results we see. By placing your demographic survey questions (name, gender, race/ethnicity, age, etc.) close to the end of the survey feedback form as opposed to right at the beginning, you are increasing the chances that respondents will fill out these items, leading to richer data collection and more useful results. Respondents are more likely to feel invested in your survey, and will understand why you are asking those personal questions if those sensitive items are placed after survey questions that address the purpose of your survey.

Check out these blog posts to get started with your demographic survey questions.

If you’ve ever looked at results from a public opinion survey or political poll, you’ve no doubt seen the margin or error noted alongside the findings.  Usually the note will read something like margin of error = plus or minus x%, CL 95%.

So what the heck does that mean?

Well, the first part basically tells you how close the results from your selected sample are compared to what you'd find if you surveyed the entire population.  The expression of “plus or minus x%” tells you that the percentages of given responses might be a bit higher or lower “in reality” (i.e., if you surveyed absolutely everyone).

Generalizability to the larger population is also described by an associated measure called a confidence level (CL). This term describes how confident you can be that your results are not due to chance alone.  A confidence level is normally set at either 90%, 95% or 99% (95% has become standard).

Let’s use an example to understand how these two concepts work:

A random sample of Americans were asked whether they preferred cake or ice cream for dessert.  The results showed that 60% preferred ice cream over cake, and 40% preferred cake over ice cream.  This question had a margin of error of +/- 3% at a 95% confidence level. What this means is that you can be 95% confident that the percentage of all Americans who prefer ice cream would fall between 57% and 63% (60 plus or minus 3).  Another way to put it would be as follows: if you conducted 100 surveys of the entire population, at least 95 times you would find that the percentage who preferred cake ranged from 37% to 43%.

Does your customer survey have "survivor bias"? I'm betting it does. Why? Because when most survey designers create business questionnaires or client satisfaction surveys we only collect feedback from individuals who are still customers. What about lost business? Why aren't those customers who left asked to complete your client feedback form? You better believe they have feedback.

In her post at the Dimensional Research blog, Customer Satisfaction Surveys: Avoid "Survivor Bias", Diane Hagglund defines "Survivor Bias" as drawing conclusions only from data that is available or convenient and thus systematically biasing your results. AKA biasing your survey sample by only asking "happy" customers. They may not be over the moon about your product, but they're at least happy enough with your offering if they're still paying you.

I agree with Diane on this one, it's pretty ridiculous to allow this bias to creep into your customer market research. It's easily avoided considering you should have all the customer data you need to send them the same client survey template. Make sure you're measuring client satisfaction among customers who left you for a competitor as well as those who simply decided not to renew the service (and didn't go with anyone else).

When you begin writing customer survey questions to create client questionnaires or update your annual template for a client satisfaction survey make sure you think about your former customers. If you don't know who they are, this is a good time to find out. Thank goodness for internet research software and customer insight solutions to make the act of surveying clients a little easier.

As market researchers, we are all aware of the many ways data can be gathered for a study. There is the online survey, telephone survey, in-person interview, direct mail questionnaire, email survey, focus groups and more.

Telephone surveys often yield decent response rates but can be difficult to conduct. A lot of people simply don’t want to be bothered on the phone and spend time answering poll questions. But phone surveys are great because you can ask all the questions and get clarification on any answers that don’t quite have the information you are looking for. The opportunity for that is of course not present in an online, email or direct mail survey.

A telephone survey is not going to work for every study, however. There are some products that won’t match up well. For example, a survey about a medical product is likely not one that anyone will want to discuss over the phone with a stranger.

For a consumer survey with a lot of feedback answers using numbered responses, an email questionnaire might be best as it could grow tedious and leave too much margin for error.

If it works, you can also combine survey methods and gather data both ways. When creating the surveys be sure to incorporate the differences into the call script and email. If it is necessary to have pre-screening questions for the phone interview, make them as concise as possible. Combining data collection methods is helpful and can achieve a more well-rounded result, but be careful about choosing the best method for your purposes.

There are literally dozens of ways respondents can misread and even misconstrue survey questions.  Some potential errors may be easily identified, while other errors can go unnoticed all the way up until data collection begins.  The possibility of a large number of respondents skipping the same questions, or customers providing invalid feedback because of faulty survey questionnaire design and implementation, are just two of the many reasons you should test-run a survey before sending out the real thing.  Conducting a pretest is the single best way to identify phrases subject to misinterpretations (and question design flaws in general).

Pretests (also referred to as pilot tests) are used to test the validity and reliability of individual survey questions, the entire questionnaire, and/or response scales.  While carrying out a pretest adds a step to your task list, the benefits of sending out a valid instrument far outweigh the costs of a pretest (which for online surveys usually means only extra time, not dollars).

To conduct a pretest, you first need to select a smaller survey sample that is still fairly representative of your target population.  You then have this pretest sample complete their surveys, while providing feedback about your questions, any technical concerns and other elements you feel could introduce bias or error into the process and subsequent results.  These respondents will no longer be eligible for actual survey participation since they will have been exposed to the questions ahead of time, but the process is well worth it.  The final step in the pretest is to analyze your results and decide how you should revise the survey to make it better and easier to complete.

One big caveat: make sure you use people unfamiliar with your research.  If you use colleagues or acquaintances who are knowledgeable about any relevant topics or technical issues, they may overlook correctable errors such as leading and loaded questions, faulty transitions and overly technical terminology.

By taking the extra step of conducting a pretest, you can gain valuable information from a small subset of people.  This will allow you to make the necessary and appropriate revisions, and in turn produce valid, reliable survey questionnaires for your formal survey research project.

When working with a client who has already built a strong customer base, market researchers are often called upon to create surveys to aid with customer retention programs.

Customer retention surveys are a bit different than a new product or service launch survey because the survey respondent sample must consist of product users. There are several things you need to ask this group so your client can formulate the best customer retention strategies, including:


The recommendation sample customer questionnaire question is important. Often, this can be a company’s bread-and-butter when it comes to retaining customers and gaining new ones. If a good amount of current customers would recommend the product to a friend, that speaks volumes about the quality.

It is also wise to include some open-ended questions. Find out why people use the product, and would continue to do so. If they wouldn’t recommend the product, or use it again, it is important to know why. Your client can use the information to persuade customers on the fence, and keep current customers coming back.

Before creating a poll online for your client survey, sit down and gauge initial opinions and move forward from there. If there were original product launch studies done, it may be helpful to revisit those results as well, just for comparison purposes. Approach the questionnaire research with care and the resulting data analysis will provide information to create customer retention techniques and marketing strategies.

Using Cvent’s Web Survey tool, you can choose to send your survey emails manually or setup a specific date and time for the emails to go out.

Manual Send is ideal to send emails to specific invitees from the target list. As you get the option to select:

1. Respondents by choosing which Contact Group the email needs to be sent to
2. Respondents that have not received the email before.
3. Manually enter the search details to search for particular respondent(s)
4. You can click on the Search Button to search for all respondents that have been added to this targeted list
Auto Send on the other hand is ideal to send out mass emails to every contact in the target list on a specific date and time. This feature is perfect to send out reminder email survey invitations to respondents who have not yet completed the online questionnaire or send confirmation emails to completed respondents thanking them for their time and feedback.


Along with these options, there are various other features that you can choose from in the Cvent email survey tool:

1. What format do you want to use to send this email?
Choose from both HTML and plain text or only plain text. If both HTML and plain text are selected, an invitee will receive either the HTML message or plain text message, depending on their email settings.

2. Click Tracking
A way to track which links are being clicked in HTML emails. You can run reports to determine which survey invitation emails and links are getting the most traffic. Turning on Click Tracking enables tracking in your HTML emails.

3. CC Option
Sending to a CC email address is available in all survey email templates. When the CC email recipient takes the survey, the primary contact’s information and email address will be pre-populated within the survey.

To use all these features for your organizations benefit. Sign up for a Free Trial Account now!

Increasing survey response rates is a major goal of most survey builders and market researchers. There's an art and a science to increasing campaign response rates whether it's an email marketing campaign or an online market research study. I wanted to share some of my tips for how to increase survey response rates:

• Make the email survey invitation from names easy to recognize. You can do this by including an individual's name within the organization that's well known (such as the CEO or if it's a client survey, the name of their sales rep). You can also use the organization's name, or both. For example, I'm subscribed to a few MarketingProf's newsletters. When they send out emails they include the same person's name and their organizations name so it looks like this: Anne, MarketingProfs. I recognize it everytime, and since I enjoy their newsletter, I made sure to open the email.

• Keep subject line's compelling, but short. The subject line and the From Name are the two most critical pieces to get your email opened. Try to keep your subject lines to 35 characters or less. You don't need to put the entire email in the subject line, but you do need to include enough information to make the recipients open the survey email.

• Create an attractive survey invitation. Studies have shown that well done HTML email messages get better response rates than plain text emails. With HTML you have the opportunity to include images, change font sizes, bold text, etc. Take advantage of this chance. It's one more way to get people to click through to your survey!

• Send personalized survey invitations. Personalizing your emails, even something as simple as including the recipient's name in the greeting, will return a higher response than a generic message. It creates a personal touch, and makes the recipient feel like someone took the time to send them a personal message (even though your email survey tool did it for you).

• Introduce the survey. Let the participants know why they should participate in your survey. If they don't understand why their opinion is important to your survey findings, why would they want to take the time to fill it out?

• How long will the survey take? Not setting expectations in the beginning for survey length leads to low response rates and high abandonment rates. Not what you want to see. If you don't let people know how long it will take to fill out your online survey, they're going to assume you're hiding something about how long it is. Tell them it will take X minutes or the survey is only Y questions long. Definitely be honest, if you lie here, you're going to hurt your future chances of getting those respondents to complete your next online survey questionnaire.

• Remind your survey sample that their responses will be kept confidential. This is particularly important for surveys about uncomfortable topics. For example, you created a poll for a public opinion survey to see how your population feels about an emotional topic such as abortion. If you don't keep the information confidential, you probably will not get honest feedback. Same thing goes with employee questionnaires, they should always be kept confidential and anonymous. Not keeping responses confidential will definitely hurt your response rate, as well as the validity of the data.

• Offer an incentive. Offering incentives is a proven method for increasing survey response rates. But this method doesn't work if you don't let people know about it up front. Put it in your email, put it on the welcome page of the survey, then make sure to follow up. Again, if you drop the ball here, the chances of that survey respondent completing your online survey form in the future is drastically reduced.

• Always say Thank You! Remember when your mom always made you write thank you notes when you got presents or cards from people for holidays and birthdays? It was because people like to feel their effort is noticed and appreciated. Same idea here, it's nice to just get a short note thanking them for their time. After all, survey respondents are doing you a favor.

• Don't over email your contact list. This is very important. You shouldn't be inviting the same people to complete your online surveys every month. It's important to segment your list using whichever survey sampling method that works best for your surveys to avoid email list fatigue. Make sure that you're coordinating with other campaigns as well. Just because you know they're different initiatives you're emailing about, your contact's wont necessarily see it that way. If you begin sending emails too frequently, contacts are going to just delete your email and never open it, opt out or report you as a spammer.

Have a tip that I missed? I'd love to hear it!

Before you select a sample or design a single question, the first step in a survey research project is to establish your goals and objectives.  With proper planning, time and attention given to this step, all subsequent steps will flow more smoothly. 

Ask yourself--and answer, in writing--broad questions such as the ones below, and then you can drill down into more specific research questions and move on to procedural matters.

What information am I seeking to gather?  Why do I need it?  What is the “end game” regarding what I’m trying to learn?

Who (exactly) can I get this information from?  How can I contact them?  How many people do I need to contact, and do I have an exhaustive list?  Am I interested in any particular subgroups?

Has anyone else done a similar project in the past?  If so, what did they find out and how could what they did help with my current project?

What kind of data and results do I want my questions to produce?  Am I interested in public opinion, actual behaviors, satisfaction levels, employee feedback/workplace surveys, etc.?  How will I go about collecting and analyzing the data?

How will my results be reported?   What will the report format look like, and who will receive the results?  What kind of summary data do I need, and how can I design questions with response options that will provide me with actionable data?

Establishing clear, attainable objectives and goals is of the utmost importance when undertaking a research study.  Your results will likely only be as clear as your objectives, for better or worse!

I got an email today from Smarter Travel announcing the winners of their 2009 Readers' Choice Awards. Notice anything interesting?