Question Everything

 Questionnaire should be: ◦ Valid – Questions should measure what was meant to be measured ◦ Reliable – Should give you the same results repeatedly

 Open-ended: Ask respondents to create their own response to a questions. ◦ “How would you change this product?” ◦ “Additional comments:” ◦ Difficult to categorize and measure  Forced Choice: Respondents choose answers from possibilities given on survey. ◦ Yes/No ◦ Multiple choice ◦ Rating scale ◦ Level of agreement ◦ Simplest to write and calculate

 Yes/No - Should only be asked on one issue. ◦ “Do you like my shoes?” –OK ◦ “Do you like my shoes and my purse?” –NOT OK  Multiple Choice – Needs to have only one answer and include all possible choices. ◦ To include all possible choices, sometimes “Other” is included as a response with a blank for the respondent to fill in.

 Rating Scale - Asks respondents to rate something. ◦ How would you rate the customer service?  Excellent Good Fair Below Average Poor ◦ How satisfied were you with this product’s durability?  Very Somewhat Not Very Not at All  Level of Agreement ◦ “I am very concerned about my grades”  Strongly Agree  Somewhat Agree  Neutral  Disagree  Strongly Disagree

 Write all questions clearly and as briefly as possible  Use the same ranking scales for similar questions  Don’t use leading questions ◦ “Do you prefer Brand A or the higher quality Brand B?”  Avoid bias (don’t show preference)  Don’t force a respondent to guess at an answer

 Place demographic questions at the end of the survey  Make the survey visually appealing  Select participants in an unbiased way  Use an appropriate sample size