Darrin Helsel’s article the Consequences of Poorly Designed Surveys serves as an excellent primer for marketers planning to implement survey research. Poorly designed surveys can result in unreliable or even useless data, or in Helsel’s words, “junk in, junk out”—one reason he recommends eschewing DIY survey development in favor of working with a market researcher. Market researchers, he argues, rely on best practices to develop survey questionnaires that ensure the validity of the collected data. What are those best practices? Helsel discusses the following five:
- Don’t confuse respondents
- Know what you’re measuring
- Ground questions in a clearly defined and recent time period
- Ask questions your respondents can answer
- Seek opportunities not to bias your respondents
We would add that it’s not enough to know what you want to measure—you need to be willing to ask the questions, maybe even some tough ones, that will allow you to measure it. For example, it’s natural to want to avoid asking questions that might be perceived as negative, but sometimes those are the answers you need to move forward. You can’t counter a negative perception without knowing what it is.
