Keep it clear
Be clear and unambiguous. There should be little room for interpretation in what the question is asking.
Check that questions are easy to understand by testing them before sending the survey out more widely. You can do this by working with a service user reading group or supporting organisation.
Focus on specifics
For quantitative questions, it’s important that the choices you give to respondents are specific. Doing this will make the feedback more meaningful and easier to analyse.
Example: If you are asking about how often a respondent does something, say ‘daily’ or ‘more than once a week’, rather than ‘regularly’.
Make sure that you always include a ‘Prefer not to answer’ or ‘Other, please specify’ option in case the respondent doesn’t feel you’ve provided an answer that represents how they feel.
If you are using a scale (such as agree, disagree, strongly disagree) try to provide an even number of choices – participants can be drawn to a middle or neutral option.
Limit the number of options to choose from in a list.
Stay neutral
Make sure that responses can’t be influenced by the way you word a question.
Keep your survey neutral by avoiding:
- Leading questions – don’t make something sound negative or positive to encourage a specific response. Example: ‘90% of people find the ICS website engaging. How do you feel about this?’
- Assuming experience or knowledge – don’t assume that the respondent has a specific experience. Example: ‘Which of our ICS website features did you find most useful?’
- Coercive questions – don’t encourage participants towards a specific answer. Example: ‘You liked the ICS website, didn’t you?’
One at a time
Make sure that you are only asking one question at a time.
For example, a question like: ‘On our website, what do you think about having more colours, photos and diagrams?’ is actually three different questions.
This form of question may make it hard for you to understand the responses. Instead, have three separate questions, such as:
‘On our website, what do you think about having more:
- colours?
- photos?
- diagrams?’