QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

Many people believe that writing a questionnaire is a snap. After all, just write some questions, give the folks some answer choices and then tabulate the results. Wrong. Questionnaire design is a science and an art that requires considerable training and expertise. It would be wise to warn our readers “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME”

A questionnaire is one of the best ways to gather information from a large number of people.  Reaching a large number of people makes it possible to allow a statistical analysis of the findings.

Questionnaire design is a multi-step process. We begin by determining and defining the objectives of your survey. This is a critical first step and without it much of the information you gather would be worthless.  In this step we explore the reasons you are conducting the survey and define the kinds of information you hope to get.  Along with you we carefully analyze your objectives and clarify their meaning.  For example, let’s say an objective is “To identify the aspects of customer service that patients appreciate.”

We would probe into your definition of “customer service” and “appreciate”.  Are we talking about how they are treated by the staff? The doctors? Availability of magazines to read or toys to occupy kids while they wait?”  We would also ask how useful this information would be. It’s nice to know people are satisfied but how are you planning to use the information?  Useless (but interesting) information wastes time.

Now that we understand the kind of information we need to gather and measure, we then determine who is going to receive the questionnaire. These are the people whom will be referred to as “respondents.”

The next step is to write the questionnaire.  Because we have done the first two steps, the topics of the questions are clear and the audience is known.  But, writing the questions requires real skill and experience. 

Many elements have to be carefully considered:

·         Do we use questions in which the respondent fills in an answer (open-ended) or where he or she selects from predetermined answers (closed format). Or should we use a combination? Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The writer must carefully weigh all choices and choose which would be best.  Most questionnaires are closed format because the responses are more easily translated into measurements, numbers and graphs.

·         Designers also must consider clarity of the questions and the answer choices, watch for “leading questions” (these questions point a respondent towards a particular answer), pay attention to phrasing and word usage (avoid jargon, slang for example), mine for anything that may be offensive or culturally inappropriate. Attention must also be paid to the order of the questions. Designers must also ensure that the questions and the instructions for respondents are understood.

To determine if your questionnaire will work well for you, we often do field testing. In this step we test the questionnaire on a small sample of your target respondent. This is where we can uncover anything that may stand in the way of getting the data you need. If problems are found we fix them before administering the questionnaire.

Finally the questionnaire is administered to your target audience and the results are interpreted. You receive a detailed narrative of the findings along with numbers, charts and graphs.

If you would like to find out more about Questionnaire Design, call us.