As you create your next survey to collect feedback from your customers or employees, it's important to remember one crucial piece of information: your respondents don't know everything. All too often, I've seen the mistake of questionnaires that assume respondents can answer every question on the form.

Surveys are not multiple choice exams; they are simply ways to measure how well your company is performing and identify areas for improvement. So a "guess" of an answer actually does more harm than good for your results. For example, if a company that manufactures headphones is sending out a product survey to recent buyers, the form might include a question like this:


Sample Product Survey Question
While it's good to evaluate this aspect of headphone use, all respondents may not have used their new headphones in this type of situation. Instead of risking your respondents simply choosing one of the two answers, the question should look like this:


Sample Product Survey Question
Rather than gather unreliable data, be sure to include a Don't know, N/A or Unable to answer option for question sets where respondents may not have an opinion.