Survey Company

Question order is an important part of questionnaire design. Whether it's a paper feedback form on customer satisfaction or an online survey to gather employee feedback, how you order your questions could impact your survey findings. When you create surveys, dont simply list the questions in the order they pop into your head. The ideal survey has a natural flow and the question order makes sense.

Thankfully, most web based survey management software gives surveyors the freedom to rearrange survey questions to achieve the best question order. Unlike when you're creating a survey in an office suite - like Microsoft or Open Office - where the survey creator needs to copy, paste and delete to rearrange questions, online survey tools allows you to move questions with a click of a button.

If you're new at creating questionnaires, here is a commonly used, and accepted, method for ordering questions:

1. Qualifying questions
2. Open ended questions
3. General/Overview questions
4. Specific questions
5. Demographic questions
6. Additional comments question

It's important to start off general and move towards more specific questions. Otherwise, when someone is answering a general question, after answering specific questions, their honest general feelings are likely to get skewed either towards their feelings about the last set of questions or overall. I like to think of this scenario:
For me this scenario really brings home the importance of question order. When you sit down to design your next online survey project spend some time thinking about the flow of your survey. I think you'll find it's a lot easier to order survey questions logically than it may seem reading about how to do it. However, if you still find it difficult to create a survey with logical question flow, Cvent offers online survey services through our Professional Services Group that can help you with survey question design.

A colleague of mine was recently filling out a post event survey online for a tradeshow we attended. She turned and asked me, "why is this survey so long?" There could be lots of answers to this question: they're asking too many non-essential questions or they're not utilizing online survey tools efficiently or they didn't set clear survey goals. In her case, it was the surveyor's lack of utilizing technology to enhance the respondent experience. There was no logic being used. Instead, she had to read every question to find out if she needed to answer it, after answering "No" to a previous question.

What a waste of her time.

Online surveys like the one she took make me wonder time and time again, do organizations even care about the respondent experience? Do they care about the customer's satisfaction with the engagement? I think a lot of organizations think of a survey as a tool for them to find something out and forget that the survey experience is a touch point.

Technology has come a long way. Web survey companies have designed tools to help organizations conduct customer surveys, put lots of time and money into developing these tools to improve the respondent experience, boost response rates and enhance survey reporting. But time and time again, surveyors fail to use one of the most important features: Logic.

I'll admit, for some people, survey logic may sound like a difficult feature to implement. Let me assure you, with a good online survey tool, using logic is just as simple as adding or editing a question. Skip and branch logic are probably the most common types of logic found in an online questionnaire. When used, and used correctly, branch and skip logic keeps the survey relevant and engaging (the more engaging the survey is, the less likely respondents will abandon it).

Need a quick review of skip and branch logic? Consider this example survey for a moment:


Skip logic allows respondents to skip forward in the survey based on their response to a question. In the example above, if someone did purchase something from the store, they would skip the Net Promoter question.

Branch logic allows the surveyor to send respondents down different paths depending on how they respond to a question. In our example survey, branch logic could be employed to separate everyone who had visited the store from those who did not. If they visited the store they would answer the next five questions, if they hadn't they would be rerouted to the last question before the demographic questions. At the end of each branch path, the respondents can be funneled back into the same survey path and have the chance to respond to the demographic questions.

Things to keep in mind when designing a survey with logic:

• Always flow downstream. Skip and branch logic don't send respondents backwards in the survey, only forward. I once heard someone describe a survey like a river: it only flows downstream but there are channels that leave the main path, sometimes returning to the main river further down.

• Closed questions only. As you can imagine, it would be difficult to create rules for skip and branch logic for an open ended question. If you want to be able to insert logic after a question, make sure it's not an open ended question.

• Page breaks are important. Like with anything else, surveyors have preferences about how to group questions and insert page breaks. Skip and branch logic will over ride these preferences.

• Consider the progress bar. We've recommended the use of a progress bar in the past as a way to reduce abandonment. However, if you're using logic to reduce the number of question from 100 to 20, a savvy respondent might suddenly notice they're almost done, go back, change an answer and see what happens. This could easily mess up your data. If you're offering an incentive and using screener questions, a progress bar could be a real disadvantage. If you want to use a progress bar, be sure to disable the previous button.

• Test, test, test. Like with any other survey, it's important to test it to a sample sub-group. But when using any kind of logic, always make sure to test each possible path to ensure the survey flows the way you intended before sending the survey to any respondents.

Remember, if you ever find yourself writing "If you responded 'XYZ' to the previous question," stop immediately, take a deep breath, think about the tools you have in front of you, then start again. Successfully implementing skip and branch logic can quickly pair down a long online survey to fewer than 30 questions because respondents only see questions relevant to their responses.

Already working on a survey project but need help? Cvent's Professional Services Group would be happy to consult with you to develop an engaging and relevant respondent experience. Contact us to learn more.

If you run web surveys and use email marketing to solicit responses, you may encounter deliverability issues. The common myth surrounding "Undeliverable" is that ISPs and organizations block messaging at the server level. We're not suggesting ISPs and organizations aren’t the cause for some of your undeliverables, but they can’t shoulder all the blame.

There are some things marketers should be doing to boost deliverability, especially when your customer research, training evaluation or employee satisfaction surveys rely on it. Here are a couple quick tips to improve email deliverability:

• Clean your lists. Following best practices to increase open rates and survey responses through email marketing doesn't matter if you ignore bounce backs. Using a web based survey company such as Cvent helps keep contact lists clean by automatically cleansing your database. It marks undeliverables so that those contacts never receive another email. Beyond that, you should have a monitored email address for bounce backs.

• Monitor results in real time. As a best practice, we suggest testing any survey before launching it to your entire list. This should include message testing to a segment of the list you plan to use. If you have the wrong messaging go out to your contacts, you're going to be hurt by spam complaints. Monitoring results in real time helps you identify and fix small problems before they ruin the integrity of your entire set of contacts.

With many survey companies offering web based survey tools, it's easier than ever to gather customer feedback. But are you going about it in the right way?

Often times organizations who solicit customer feedback with web surveys fail to gather true, honest opinions by using questionnaires that back respondents into a corner or don't afford them the opportunity to voice their opinion. A common mistake with a lot of customer satisfaction surveys is asking too many irrelevant questions. For example, did you really need to know the last time a customer visited your website if they are discussing a purchase from the store?

Check out a few tips for creating a customer satisfaction survey when you want to know if a customer or client would recommend your organization:

• Start off by asking respondents if they would recommend your organization, product or service based on their most recent experience; make "Yes," "No," and "I don't know" possible answers;

• Use advanced logic to find out more about why they picked the previous answer, providing either a pre-determined list of reasons or a comment box;

• Ask the respondent to describe how he or she would recommend (or recommend against) your organization, product or service; this will help you understand a lot about your offering and where customers see value;

• Finally, ask how you could improve. Respondents have a different frame of reference than you do—their ideas may be so-so, or they may be the most innovative you've ever heard.

Of course, you may need to use additional logic to ask other appropriate questions, but the main idea is to keep it short and always allow respondents to answer “I don’t know.” If you force them to pick an answer, you skew your own data and ultimately learn very little. Use a short, relevant question approach to gain valuable information without frustrating respondents with long surveys and questions for which they have no opinion.

In a struggling economy, high customer retention is critical to your organization's success. A surefire way to improve and maintain your customer retention is to offer great customer service. After all, keeping customers satisfied with your support services increases loyalty and makes them want to stick around.

Web based surveys are an easy, efficient way to gauge customer satisfaction. Surveys can easily be implemented by sending a quick email survey invitation to customers after each customer service call you receive. You know you're reaching customers who had a need for customer service, so a follow-up survey invitation is a great way to capture their thoughts immediately after receiving assistance.

Customer service satisfaction surveys sound like a fit for your business? Here's the catch: some survey companies only allow respondents to submit questionnaires one time. That means customers reaching out to customer support more than once—whether for related or unrelated issues—can only give their input once. You'll never know if their satisfaction level stays the same or changes, and why.

Recognizing this problem, Cvent's online survey tool allows for multiple responses from the same respondent. You can easily specify if survey respondents can take the survey just once, an unlimited number of times, or a specified number of times.



If your customers don't have a good experience with your customer care department, you can expect to see a drop off in contract renewals and a diminished reputation in your industry. Offering exception customer service is an excellent way to add value to your offering.

Contact Cvent today to find out how you can benefit from our online survey experience with an all-encompassing toolset of survey templates, question libraries, the assistance of a Professional Services Group and more.

Online surveys might seem like a no brainer for marketing departments, and indeed they are a must-have tool. However, the benefits of web surveys are not limited to those working in the marketing and/or sales arena. A human resources department can just as easily gain valuable information from online surveys, as evidenced by a recent survey by Hewitt Associates.

The survey of 150 mid- to large-sized employers explored how companies are responding to the current economic situation in terms of retirement benefits for workers. For example, 51 percent offer automatic enrollment retirement features, but only 25 percent are somewhat or very likely to add it for new hires. Still, only 5 percent of survey respondents are expected to take a more drastic measure of cutting their company match in 2009.

To balance out such cutbacks, the survey found that companies are offering lower-cost tools that will help employees make smart investments. About 77 percent of respondents offer target-date funds, while 49 percent offer automatic rebalancing, which helps employees regularly balance their portfolios with target allocations.

Also interesting to note, employers are cutting financial education programs (dropping from 72 percent last year to 60 percent in 2009). In order to make up for this loss, companies are turning to less expensive means of outreach: 75 percent is using Intranet sites, 60 percent is using email blasts and 49 percent is using webinars.

Overall, Hewitt uncovered a number of details regarding the adoption of retirement programs in the struggling economy, all thanks to its survey. Clearly, the use of online survey tools can provide the information you need to see how your human resources department compares to other companies, how HR policies are changing due the economy, what new policies are being adopted and much more.

Reach the response. We like to think it’s what we do best here at Cvent. That is our company slogan, after all.

In a recent post on getting a significant response, we mentioned the importance of response rates when conducting an online survey. In short, without sufficient response, it is impossible to rely upon survey data to provide accurate information.

Here are some easy ways you can boost response rates for your next online survey:
1. Keep Your Survey Short and Simple

You’ll hear this best practice a hundred times, but it’s one of the most important. Nobody wants to answer a 100-question survey about your company. You can get the feedback you’re looking for with just a few questions. Ask yourself after writing your survey draft, "Do I really need to ask this?" It’s better knowing something than nothing at all, and you risk the latter when you start asking for too much.

2. Use Incentives Wisely

Offering an incentive is a great way to elicit higher response rates, but such a plan needs to be carried out with caution. Depending on the specifics of the survey (who is being surveyed, what is being asked, how much time it requires, etc.), different type of incentive strategies can be useful. Determine what the optimal balance between incentive cost and response rate is. This may take a second or third survey attempt, but finding out can be very valuable to your organization. Remember that incentives are an expense too.

3. Personalize Your Survey Invitations

This is email marketing 101 at work: if you’re using email invitations (as most businesses do) to drive survey traffic, you have to ensure that the messaging is personalized in every way possible. This includes the email sender name, the subject line and the message content. Over 60 percent of email recipients determine whether or not to open a new message based on sender name alone. Getting noticed in the crowd of marketing emails and spam requires you to pique your respondent’s interest with relevant information. Remember, if they don't even read your email, they certainly won’t respond to your survey.

4. Personalize Your Survey Content

Don’t bait and switch your respondents with a fabulous personalized invitation, only to follow up with a generic one-size-fits-all survey. You won’t have a response until they choose to accept the invitation, and complete the survey. Keep their interest by using skip or branch logic to route respondents down a path of questions that only applies to them. Also, maintain that same level of personalization using pipe logic to display custom question text that makes your respondents feel like their opinion is important.

5. Segment Your Audience

To effectively personalize your messages and your survey, you need to segment your respondent database into groups. This will allow you to reach an exceptionally remarkable level of personalization without much effort at all. A robust customer database allows you to segment your contacts into multiple groups; these groups can be a determinant for whether or not a question is displayed. Target the appropriate segments with the right messaging and the right questions to maximize response rates.

6. Make It Appealing

A visually appealing design, in both your survey and your invitation, can help elicit higher rates of response. People will be more likely to respond to a survey and offer personal information if a survey looks credible. Making sure your emails and your surveys match the look and feel of your corporate brand is essential to establishing this trust.

7. Use Automated Reminders

Even the best emails get lost sometimes. People who have every intention of completing your survey may simply set it aside during a busy day, then forget to ever come back to it. Using automated email reminders will offer your audience another chance to respond to your invitation; this follow-up may even catch them at a better time.

8. Make It Easy

The information you already have about your respondent can be leveraged in more ways than one. Not only can it provide data for personalizing content, but it can also be used to pre-populate various survey fields, such as contact registration forms. Survey recipients are surprisingly adverse to filling out their contact information; pre-population of data saves respondents time and has been proven to significantly increase survey participation rates.

If your employees aren’t happy, you can bet that it won’t be long before your clients won’t be happy. Prevent the negative effects of a disgruntled workforce with an employee satisfaction survey designed to get honest and accurate feedback. Ensure success for your company with a survey that:

• Is anonymous. Give your employees the privilege of speaking their minds without consequences. A survey that maintains employee privacy and encourages honest feedback is one that a company can truly use as a resource.

• Asks for suggestions. Whether you want descriptive solutions to specific problems or just want to get a date for the next office social event, an online survey that gives an open invitation for change is worth every question. Be sure to include open-ended questions that give employees a chance to elaborate on their ideas and suggestions.

• Offers a benefit. If the chance to speak their mind isn’t enough of a reason for your workers to complete an employee satisfaction survey, consider adding an incentive for completion. Work locations with a satisfactory completion rate can reward their workers with a special event, small prizes (like gift cards), or an entry into a giveaway for a larger award.

Employee satisfaction surveys can increase loyalty within your organization and enhance morale among both individuals and teams. Consider using online surveys to help achieve your long-term business goals today.