The basic purpose of a survey is to gather feedback that boosts your business. Most companies send out boring questionnaires because they don't know how surveys work. The result? Wasted time and zero useful insights.
Bad surveys cost money and miss opportunities. Companies look at numbers that tell them nothing about what customers want. Your team stares at spreadsheets full of rushed answers because people clicked random options just to finish. But survey best practices fix this mess. Smart surveys pull out honest feedback that shows exactly what needs work. From product issues to buying patterns, solid data collection techniques give you facts you can use right now.
This guide shows you proven survey best practices step by step. You'll learn to write questions that get real answers, catch mistakes before they wreck your results, and build surveys people want to take.
Why You Shouldn't Ignore Surveys
Let’s look at this scenario: You run an online store selling handmade jewelry. Sales look good, but returns keep piling up. Something's off, but what? This shows why survey best practices matter. A quick online survey after purchase shows customers love your designs but get confused by size descriptions. They pick wrong sizes because product pages miss key details. Without that survey, you might change designs or materials when all you needed was better size info.
Think of surveys like checking your business's temperature. Raw data shows symptoms - maybe your app's daily users dropped 25% last month. But just like a doctor needs to ask questions to make the right diagnosis, you need surveys to understand what's really happening.
Say you launch a food delivery app. Your stats might show people download it but never order twice. Looking at the numbers alone, you might blame your restaurant selection or delivery times. But a quick survey could reveal something totally different - maybe customers find your checkout process too complicated, or your minimum order size too high. Now instead of adding more restaurants or hiring extra drivers, you can fix the real problem holding back your growth.
Good surveys turn the unknown into clear next steps. They help you fix issues before they hurt your bottom line, and show respondents you take their feedback seriously.
Read - What is an Online Survey?
Key Survey Best Practices You Need to Know
These survey design guidelines and effective questionnaire strategies turn okay surveys into feedback gold mines. Let's dig into what works:
1. Set Clear Goals First
Your survey needs a target. A healthcare company trying to boost patient happiness asks different questions than a software team checking if people use new features. Pick one main goal, write it down, and stick to it. This focus keeps your questions on track and gets you data that drives action.
2. Keep Questions Short and Sweet
Your survey fights for attention against emails, messages, and endless notifications. People scan - they don't read every word. Short questions get better answers. A retail chain switched "Taking into account your most recent shopping experience, how would you rate the quality of service?" to "How was our service today?" Response rates shot up 30%.
3. Avoid Double Questions
One question, one answer. To demonstrate, a restaurant asked "How happy were you with our food and service?" mixes two things. What if the food was great but service sucked? Split it up. The restaurant learned 85% loved their food but only 40% liked the service speed. Now they knew exactly what needed fixing.
4. Write Like You Talk
Complex language kills survey responses. Your brain automatically switches to formal writing mode when creating surveys, but this hurts your results. Think about how you'd ask these questions face to face - you wouldn't use fancy words in a normal conversation.
Simple language does three key things: speeds up response time, cuts down on confusion, and shows respect for your respondents' time. Take a medical survey asking "Did you experience pyrexia?" Most people would pause, wondering what that means. Change it to "Did you have a fever?" and you get instant, accurate responses.
Watch out for industry jargon, technical terms, and academic language. Even if your audience knows these terms, simpler words work better. Replace "utilize" with "use," "implement" with "start," and "terminate" with "end." Each word should earn its place.
5. Match Questions to Your Needs
Pick question types that fit what you want to learn. Use:
- Rating scales for measuring satisfaction
- Multiple choice for clear options
- Text boxes for detailed feedback
- Yes/no for simple facts
The right question type makes all the difference between useful data and random noise. Choose your format based on the depth of insight you need, not just what looks good in your survey tool.
6. Drop Required Questions
Required questions feel like a smart move - after all, you want complete data sets. But here's what really happens: People hit that roadblock of a required question they can't (or don't want to) answer. Instead of closing your survey, they pick random options just to move forward. Now your data includes fake answers mixed with real ones.
Make most questions optional. This feels scary at first - what if people skip everything? They won't. When people answer, they'll give you real insights because they want to share that specific feedback. Save required fields for absolute must-haves, like which product version someone uses or their account type. Your response numbers might drop slightly, but your data quality will shoot up. Real answers from 100 people beat random clicks from 1,000 any day.
7. Start Simple, Build Up
Hook people fast with easy questions. A software company starts with "Do you use this feature?" before asking about specific functions. This builds momentum through their survey. Their completion rates stay above 80% even on long forms.
8. Mind the Context Effect
Smart question order can make or break your survey results. Research from Pew Research Center's guide on survey questions shows how earlier questions change later answers in sneaky ways.
Say you ask "How happy are you with your job?" right after "How's your relationship with your boss?" Now people focus too much on their boss when rating their overall job happiness. Or flip it around - asking about specific product features before overall satisfaction makes people weigh those features too heavily. Think of your survey like a conversation - start broad, then zoom in on details. This keeps each question's answers clean and accurate.
9. Show Progress
Nobody likes feeling stuck in an endless survey. Adding a simple progress bar or "Question 4 of 10" counter taps into basic psychology - people push through when they can see the finish line. Smart survey response optimization means showing exactly where someone stands in your survey. This tiny change keeps people moving forward because they know exactly how much time they're investing.
10. Test Small First
Send your survey to a test group. A startup caught confusing product terms by testing with five customers first. Those five people saved them from sending bad questions to thousands.
11. Optimize for Mobile
91% of U.S. adults own smartphones and most prefer taking surveys on their phones. This means your perfect-looking desktop survey might become a frustrating mess on a small screen. Grid questions, matrix formats, and long text boxes that work fine on computers turn into conversion killers on mobile devices.
Smart mobile design means vertical layouts, touch-friendly buttons, and questions that fit on one screen without zooming. Break complex questions into simple ones. Replace grid questions with straightforward scales. Keep text input minimal - typing long answers on phones frustrates people. Your survey needs to work flawlessly on the smallest screen first, then scale up to larger devices.
12. Balance Your Scales
Give enough rating options without going overboard. Restaurant reviews show this - three stars misses the gap between "good" and "amazing," but ten stars makes people think too hard. Five to seven options hit the sweet spot.
13. Estimate Completion Time
Be straight about how long it takes. "3 minutes to help us improve your next visit" beats "Please complete our feedback survey." Clear time estimates works wonders for improving survey participation rates.
14. Add Open Comments
Every survey needs a safety net - that final "What else should we know?" question catches gold your other questions miss. Think of it as your survey's suggestion box. People save their most honest, detailed feedback for this spot because they can explain things their way. Make it optional and keep it simple.
We've seen companies completely change their product roadmap based on patterns they spot in these open comments. Plus, it gives survey takers a chance to feel fully heard instead of just picking from pre-set options.
15. Let AI Power Your Surveys
AI-powered tools change static forms into smart talks. Modern tools write better questions, shift follow-ups based on answers, and spot patterns people miss. In addition, they catch bad wording before you send and analyze open answers in seconds, not hours.
Read - The Purpose of a Survey: How Brands Can Leverage Insights for Growth
Make Your Surveys Better With TheySaid
Creating perfect surveys eats time - but AI fixes this. TheySaid turns the top survey best practices into a one-click job. Our AI builds questions that get real answers, not checkbox clicks. It learns your business to make every question count. With smart follow-ups and instant analysis, you get deeper insights faster. Stop wrestling with old-school surveys. Try TheySaid's AI-powered surveys and get feedback that matters. Let’s talk!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How long should my survey run?
A: Keep it under 5-7 minutes. Response rates tank after that. Most people give good answers for 10 questions or less. My testing shows every minute you add beyond 5 costs you about 8% of your potential responses.
Q: Do incentives work?
A: Small rewards boost responses but watch for bias. Gift cards work better than discounts on your stuff. The sweet spot? A $5-10 gift card tends to double response rates without skewing your data quality.
Q: How many rating options work best?
A: 5-7 choices hit the sweet spot. Too few limits detail, too many makes people freeze up. Testing shows that adding more than 7 options actually reduces accuracy - people start picking random numbers instead of thinking through their answers.
Q: When should I send surveys?
A: Tuesday through Thursday mornings get most responses. Skip weekends and late hours. The golden window? 10 AM to 2 PM local time catches people when they're most likely to engage with non-urgent tasks.
Q: How do I ask tough questions?
A: Make it anonymous and explain why you ask. Show how answers help fix problems. The key is building trust first - start with easier questions, then work up to the tough stuff once people are invested in helping you improve.
