More Is Not Always Better in Surveys

Having trouble getting responses to your survey?

In a MarketingProfs.com article, Dean Wiltse tells us seven rules for achieving higher online survey response rates. One of the rules is:

Rule #4: More is not always better

Many organizations believe the more questions they ask, the more measurable the results will be. However, the reality is the exact opposite. The more questions asked, the less focused and thoughtful survey responses are and the more survey takers rush to exit.

Instead of asking every possible question under the sun, survey designers should keep the survey focused and to the point.

Survey administrators should bear in mind that to get a solid response rate the number of questions should not exceed 30.

I'm even more radical. I recommend limiting the number of questions to 12 in most cases.

Comments

Joy said…

Good points Roger. I even suggest getting it down to 5 questions if you can.

Sadly, we've done some surveys that give us completely useless results. We could have cut 1/2 the questions and gotten just as much out of them. There is more on this here - (http://www.seilevel.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=617)

Tue Dec 11, 11:47:00 AM 2007

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