There are things you should think about before starting your survey. If your survey has a clear purpose from the beginning then you will get more value out of the feedback you receive.
What do you want to find out from your survey?
Ask focused questions that will encourage answers that clearly support your aims.
The type of information you want your audience to give may influence the sort of questions you use in your survey. Each question should encourage answers that provide relevant information and insight for your project.
The questions you ask in your survey are usually either qualitative – open questions – or quantitative – closed questions.
Quantitative questions
Quantitative questions usually require the participant to choose from a set of answers that you have provided. These types of questions normally provide numerical data that is relatively easy to analyse.
If your main goal is to help prioritise some options, or decide if an idea is worth developing or is likely to be supported by the community, it may be best to ask more of these closed questions.
Qualitative questions
If your main goal is to understand participants’ opinions, behaviours, or motivations, you may want to ask more qualitative questions – open-ended questions that explore the why and how.
These questions invite the participant to explain their thoughts in their own words.
Qualitative feedback may offer you more insight, but generally takes longer to analyse because each response must be reviewed individually in order to understand the themes and trends.
Will the feedback impact services?
Before you start your survey you also need to have a clear plan for how the feedback you receive will be used.
The survey should have a clear purpose – for instance, can you use the feedback to improve the patient experience, pathways, operational delivery, or integrated working?
Avoid asking questions if the answers are just ‘nice to know’ but are not materially helpful – for instance, you have no way of using them to influence a project or service.