intelligent measurement

Online Surveys and Best Practices

April 21, 2006 at 12:01 pm Leave a comment

As I’m setting up and running online surveys using the Benchpoint system (commercial plug), I am always interested to see examples of best practices in online surveying.  Sometimes we come across examples of worst practice also. Below I’ve copied in a screenshot of a survey I was asked to complete. It breaks a simple rule of surveying that dates back to phone and street surveying: personal / demographic information should normally be requested at the end of a survey. As it has been found that people are more comfortable answering such questions once they are familiar with the survey theme and if done in person, with the interviewer. I found the amount of personal information this survey asks even before you “start survey” is excessive and was the reason why I didn’t complete the survey. Hopefully general standards on online surveying are emerging to avoid this type of issue.

Glenn

Entry filed under: Evaluation tools (surveys, interviews..), General.