Questionnaire for data collection in research methodology
- 2. What Is a Questionnaire? A questionnaire is a research tool featuring a series of questions used to collect useful information from respondents. These instruments include either written or oral questions and comprise an interview-style format. Questionnaires may be qualitative or quantitative and can be conducted online, by phone, on paper or face-to-face, and questions don’t necessarily have to be administered with a researcher present. Questionnaires feature either open or closed questions and sometimes employ a mixture of both. Open-ended questions enable respondents to answer in their own words in as much or as little detail as they desire. Closed questions provide respondents with a series of predetermined responses they can choose from. The importance of questionnaires in research is immense, helping researchers gain relevant information quickly and effectively.
- 3. Why Are Questionnaires Effective in Research? Questionnaires are popular research methods because they offer a fast, efficient and inexpensive means of gathering large amounts of information from sizeable sample volumes. These tools are particularly effective for measuring subject behavior, preferences, intentions, attitudes and opinions. Their use of open and closed research questions enables researchers to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data, resulting in more comprehensive results. Pros and Cons of Using Questionnaires in Research Though the importance of questionnaires in research is clear, there are both pros and cons to using these instruments to gather information. Learn more about questionnaire advantages and disadvantages to determine if they’re suitable for your study.
- 4. Advantages of Questionnaires Some of the many benefits of using questionnaires as a research tool include: •Practicality: Questionnaires enable researchers to strategically manage their target audience, questions and format while gathering large data quantities on any subject. •Cost-efficiency: You don’t need to hire surveyors to deliver your survey questions — instead, you can place them on your website or email them to respondents at little to no cost. •Speed: You can gather survey results quickly and effortlessly using mobile tools, obtaining responses and insights in 24 hours or less. •Comparability: Researchers can use the same questionnaire yearly and compare and contrast research results to gain valuable insights and minimize translation errors. •Scalability: Questionnaires are highly scalable, allowing researchers to distribute them to demographics anywhere across the globe. •Standardization: You can standardize your questionnaire with as many questions as you want about any topic. •Respondent comfort: When taking a questionnaire, respondents are completely anonymous and not subject to stressful time constraints, helping them feel relaxed and encouraging them to provide truthful responses. •Easy analysis: Questionnaires often have built-in tools that automate analyses, making it fast and easy to interpret your results.
- 5. Disadvantages of Questionnaires Questionnaires also have their disadvantages, such as: •Answer dishonesty: Respondents may not always be completely truthful with their answers — some may have hidden agendas, while others may answer how they think society would deem most acceptable. •Question skipping: Make sure to require answers for all your survey questions. Otherwise, you may run the risk of respondents leaving questions unanswered. •Interpretation difficulties: If a question isn’t straightforward enough, respondents may struggle to interpret it accurately. That’s why it’s important to state questions clearly and concisely, with explanations when necessary. •Survey fatigue: Respondents may experience survey fatigue if they receive too many surveys or a questionnaire is too long. •Analysis challenges: Though closed questions are easy to analyze, open questions require a human to review and interpret them. Try limiting open-ended questions in your survey to gain more quantifiable data you can evaluate and utilize more quickly. •Unconscientious responses: If respondents don’t read your questions thoroughly or completely, they may offer inaccurate answers that can impact data validity. You can minimize this risk by making questions as short and simple as possible.
- 6. WHAT IS A GOOD QUESTIONNAIRE? A good questionnaire should be valid, reliable, clear, interesting and succinct. Valid:A valid questionnaire should ask what it intends to ask, i.e. the questions should be phrased in such a way that the respondent understands the objective of the question. To achieve this, the questionnaire should be reviewed by the “content expert” during the pilot test (e.g. if the target respondent is a diabetic patient, then a diabetic patient should comment whether he understands the questionnaire). Any uncertainties and queries should be clarified till the question is clearly understood. Reliable:A reliable questionnaire should yield the same answer if the same question is posed to the respondent repeatedly in a short span of time. This can be achieved by performing a “test-retest”, i.e. administer the same questionnaire to the respondent a second time and check for consistency of the answer. Any discrepancy in the answers could be due to lack of clarity of the questions and this should be reviewed and rephrased.
- 7. Interesting:An interesting questionnaire is more likely to be completed by the respondent and hence yields a better response rate. This requires the researcher to put some thoughts into asking questions that are relevant to the respondent and in a logical sequence. Succinct: A succinct questionnaire asks questions that aim to answer only the research objectives. Any questions beyond the scope of the research should be excluded. It is common for researchers to “cast the net wider” so that they will collect more data, regardless of whether these data are important or not. This usually happens when the researcher has not properly thought through the research objectives. It runs the risk of asking too many questions and the questionnaire runs into many pages.
- 8. Survey questions can use either a closed-ended or open-ended format to collect answers from individuals. And you can use them to gather feedback from a host of different audiences, including your customers, colleagues, prospects, friends, and family. Note: A closed-ended question includes a predefined list of answer options, while an open-ended question asks the respondent to provide an answer in their own words. Before you decide on the different types of survey questions to use, let’s review each of your options. The best types of survey questions include: Multiple choice questions Rating scale questions Likert scale questions Matrix questions Dropdown questions Open-ended questions Demographic questions Ranking questions Image choice questions Click map questions File upload questions Slider questions Benchmarkable questions
- 9. What are the different types of popular survey questions? Below are some of the most commonly used survey question types and how they can be used to create a great survey. To see what each type of survey question might look like, visit the sample survey questions page. Multiple choice questions Multiple choice questions are the most popular survey question type. They allow your respondents to select one or more options from a list of answers that you define. They’re intuitive, easy to use in different ways, help produce easy-to-analyze data, and provide mutually exclusive choices. Because the answer options are fixed, your respondents have an easier survey-taking experience. Perhaps, most important, you’ll get structured survey responses that produce clean data for analysis. Multiple choice questions come in many different formats. The most basic variation is the single-answer multiple choice question. Single answer questions use a radio button (circle buttons representing options in a list) format to allow respondents to click only one answer. They work well for binary questions, questions with ratings, or nominal scales. Here’s how a single-answer question can look: An example of a single-answer question Multiple-answer multiple choice questions are commonly shown with square checkboxes. They allow respondents to check off all the choices that apply to them. For example, "In which of the following ways do you use our product?"
- 10. A common drawback of multiple choice questions is that they force you to limit responses to a predetermined list of options. This can cause bias in your results. What if none of your answer options apply to your respondents? They might just choose a random answer, which could impact the accuracy of your results. You can solve this problem by adding an “other” answer option or comment field. It should be listed at the end of all your choices. When respondents see it, they know they have the option of answering your question in their own words instead of yours. Circle of blue dots encased in grey behind split blue and grey background Send your survey to a large or small group of people with our online Audience panel. Rating scales In rating scale questions (sometimes referred to as ordinal questions), the question displays a scale of answer options from any range (0 to 100, 1 to 10, etc.). The respondent selects the number that most accurately represents their response. Net Promoter Score® questions are a good example of rating scale questions. They use a scale to gauge how likely customers would be to recommend their product or service. How the Net Promoter Question looks With ranking questions and numerical rating scales it’s important to give the respondent context. For instance, imagine you asked the question, “how much do you like ice cream?” Without explaining the value of the numbers on your scale, a numerical rating scale might not make much sense.
- 11. Likert scales Chances are you’ve seen this question type before. Likert scale questions are the “do you agree or disagree” questions you often see in surveys, and are used to gauge respondents’ opinions and feelings. Likert scale questions give respondents a range of options—for example, starting at “not at all likely” scaling all the way up to “extremely likely”. That’s why they work well to understand specific feedback. For example, survey questions for employees often use a Likert scale to measure their opinions or attitudes on a range of topics. An example of a survey question for employees Matrix questions If you want to ask a few questions in a row that have the same response options, matrix questions are your best option. A series of Likert scale questions or a series of rating scale questions can work well as a matrix question. Matrix questions can simplify a lot of content, but it’s important to use them carefully. Very large matrices, like the one below, can be confusing and difficult to take on mobile devices. An example of a complicated matrix question Dropdown questions The dropdown question is an easy way to display a long list of multiple choice answers without overwhelming your respondents. With it, you can give them a scrollable list of answers to choose from. An example of a drop-down question Sometimes, showing all answer options at once can offer your respondents useful context about the question. Keep that in mind whenever you consider using more than one dropdown question in your survey.
- 12. Open-ended questions Open-ended survey questions require respondents to type their answer into a comment box and don’t provide specific pre- set answer options. Responses are then viewed individually or by text analysis tools. When it comes to analyzing data, open-ended questions aren’t the best option. It’s not easy to quantify written answers which is why text boxes are better for providing qualitative data. Allowing your respondents to offer feedback in their own words could help you uncover opportunities that you may have otherwise overlooked. However, if you’re looking for data to analyze, you may want to engage in some quantitative marketing research and utilize closed questions. Pro tip: Pair closed-ended questions with open-ended ones to better understand and address your quantitative data. For example, after the Net Promoter question, you can ask: The follow-up, open-ended prompt for the Net Promoter question Demographic questions Use demographic survey questions if you’re interested in gathering information about a respondent’s background or income level. When properly used, these types of questions in a questionnaire allow you to gain better insights on your target audience. Demographic questions are powerful tools to segment your audience based on who they are and what they do, allowing you to take an even deeper dive in on your data. Classic demographic questions ask for information like age, gender, and occupation. They can even ask for the respondent’s relationship status: An example of a more specific demographic question Once you get the hang of survey question types, you’ll quickly get the most out of your data. Learning which survey question type to use helps you focus on the most important information you need from respondents. Until then, you can use our survey creation tools to help you choose the best questions for your survey.
- 13. Ranking questions A ranking question asks respondents to order answer choices by way of preference. This allows you to not only understand how respondents feel about each answer option, but it also helps you understand each one’s relative popularity. It’s important to keep in mind that ranking questions can take more time to answer. So try not to use them if other question types can provide the data you need. Also, only use them when you’re confident that respondents are familiar with each answer option. Otherwise, they’ll be next to impossible to answer accurately and honestly. For instance, in the question below, respondents need to be familiar with each show before they can compare them. A ranking question for TV shows Image choice questions Our image choice question type allows you to use images as answer options. This works great when you want respondents to evaluate the visual qualities of something, such as an ad or a logo. It can also provide a breath of fresh air for respondents, as it gives them a break from reading. An example of an image-choice question Click map questions Wimage to your survey and ask survey takers to click a certain spot on the image. For example, you could ask what item on a shelf is most appealing, or which part of your website is most user friendly. product-shot-blog File upload questions Need respondents to upload their resume? A headshot? Their ID? You can collect whatever you need as a PDF, PNG, or Doc file. And once your responses come back, you can easily download the files. How the file upload question can look Slider questions Give respondents a chance to evaluate something on a numerical scale with our slider question type. They’re interactive, which can make them fun to answer, and they allow you to quantify respondent sentiment at both an individual and aggregate level. An example of a slider question Benchmarkable questions Benchmarkable questions aren’t necessarily presented in a specific format, but they’re special in that they allow you to compare yourself to other survey creators who asked the same question. Benchmarkable questions range widely, and they can be used for different audiences (employees, customers, etc.). To find one for your survey, you can either use our question bank or one of our survey templates. Any question that has a small bar chart icon at the top means it’s benchmarkable. ant to get real-time, gut reaction feedback on an image? Use a click map question! Add an
- 14. Questionnaire design is one of the hardest and yet one of the most important parts of the market research process. Given the same objectives, two researchers would probably never design the same questionnaire. The following seven steps will help you when designing a questionnaire. 7 steps of questionnaire design Step 1: Decide what information is required The starting point is for the researcher to refer to the proposal and brief and make a listing of all the objectives and what information is required in order that they are achieved. Step 2: Make a rough listing of the questions A list is now made of all the questions that could go into the questionnaire. The aim at this stage is to be as comprehensive as possible in the listing and not to worry about the phrasing of the questions. That comes next. Step 3: Refine the question phrasing The questions must now be developed close to the point where they make sense and will generate the right answers. Tips on how to write good questions are provided in chapter 8 – An Introduction to Questionnaire Design – in the free to download e-book A Practical Guide To Market Research by Paul Hague. Step 4: Develop the response format Every question needs a response. This could be a pre-coded list of answers or it could be open ended to collect verbatim comments. Consideration of the responses is just as important as getting the questions right. In fact, considering the answers will help get the questions right. Step 5: Put the questionnaires into an appropriate sequence The ordering of the questions is important as it brings logic and flow to the interview. Normally the respondent is eased into the task with relatively straightforward questions while the more difficult or sensitive ones are left until they are warmed up. Questions on brand awareness are asked first unprompted and then they are prompted. Step 6: Finalise the layout of the questionnaire The questionnaire now needs to be fully formatted with clear instructions to the interviewer, including a powerful introduction, routings and probes. There needs to be enough space to write in answers and the response codes need to be well separated from each other so there is no danger of circling the wrong one. Step 7: Pretest and revise The final step is to test the questionnaire. It usually isn’t necessary to carry out more than 10 to 20 interviews in a pilot because the aim is to make sure that it works, and not to obtain pilot results. In theory the questionnaire should be piloted using the interviewing method that will be used in the field (over the phone if telephone interviews are to be used; self completed if it will be a self completion questionnaire). Time and money can preclude a proper pilot so at the very least it should be tested on one or two colleagues for sense, flow and clarity of instructions. The whole purpose of the test is to find out if changes are needed so that final revisions can be made. When carrying out the pilot it is best to run through the
- 15. CONCLUSIONS A good questionnaire should be valid, reliable, clear, succinct and interesting. It is important to design the questionnaire based on a conceptual framework, scrutinize each question for relevance and clarity, and think of the analysis you are going to perform at the end of the day. A final touch-up will make a difference in the response rate and always pilot-test the questionnaire to perfect the questionnaire. Now you are ready to collect the data!