Generate feedback

A carefully structured survey significantly influences the willingness to provide feedback. A meaningful evaluation can only be produced if there is a sufficient amount of feedback. Many decisions have to be taken before you can get good results from a survey. When do I ask which questions? How do I formulate the questions? Which survey tool do I choose? We have compiled seven tips below on how to make surveys meaningful.

The first survey page should arouse curiosity and interest. The choice of design plays a crucial role. Choose a simple, intuitive layout that focuses on the most important elements and provides colour support. Integrate the company logo and choose a font size that is easy to read for your audience.

Design the questions and answer alternatives using clear and simple vocabulary. This will prevent participants from feeling frustrated about an unclear question and therefore cancelling the survey. In addition, the sentences are easier to read and you avoid the risk of content being misunderstood. Here is an exaggerated example: «How are you feeling right now?» is easy to understand and therefore recommended. The following question is complex: «Can you tell us your impression of XX GmbH from this moment on?» 

Different versions are suitable depending on the objective of your survey. The personal survey is similar to an interview. A question sequence is prepared that can be deviated from during the conversation. In addition, facial expressions and gestures can be observed. The telephone survey also has the advantage that responses are made and can be specified by additional inquiries. However, phone calls from organisations or survey institutes are perceived as an invasion of privacy and are less popular.

The written survey is usually sent by post or e-mail to the target group or conducted in digital form directly at the location. Once the answers have been given, no spontaneous adjustments to the course of the questions can be made. Online surveys are completed directly on the website. Depending on the approach being taken, this measuring instrument gives scores with a short evaluation time and timely graphical summaries.

In the case of open questions, the respondent has been given the opportunity to respond in any form. Most of the time you use ‘wh-‘ questions (who, what, when, where, why, how, for what). The open question provides more information, details and background, which reduces the scope for interpretation. However, across a range of responses, the results are somewhat more difficult to summarise. Then it is worth categorising the evaluation.

In the case of closed questions, the interviewee can only select a correct answer from predefined alternative answers. With these, the advantages and disadvantages are inverse to the open questions. Even with a high number of participants, the results are easy to summarise and also visualise graphically, but there remains a larger amount of room for interpretation.

Filter questions separate the wheat from the chaff. For example, if you are interested in the participants who have used a specific service provided by your company, the filter question will help categorise the respondents. If the participants have chosen «Yes», you can ask this group more questions about the service. Those who have selected «No» will be sent to the next one or the survey will be over. On the one hand, this benefits the participants because they are not wasting their time, on the other hand, you can carry out a correct analysis and evaluation.

Suggestive questions manipulate the respondent in advance. These are formulated in such a way that the question, more or less intentionally brings about an answer from the respondent. With phrases like «Don’t you think that...» or «You certainly want that...» you put a certain answer in the participant’s mouth. This means that results are (un)consciously distorted.

If participants have to deal with a long list of questions, there is a risk that respondents will lose concentration and then just can’t be bothered. The golden rule of the number of questions in a short survey is 5 +/- 2. For longer surveys, it makes sense to group the questions and commit to a similar number of questions per category.

Our approach with the opiniooon solution lets you complete your survey directly on site. It takes your customers just a few seconds to share their opinions. Once submitted, surveys are available in graphically prepared form within seconds. Compare surveys in just a few clicks and work out improvement measures directly in the evaluation cockpit.

With opiniooon's multi-channel feature, you can conduct surveys seamlessly across any digital feedback channel. In addition to tablet surveys, you can also send surveys by email and text message and integrate questionnaires directly onto your website or map survey links to QR codes. All of the feedback across all channels can be evaluated conveniently and centrally on the personal evaluation cockpit.

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_{Sources include: Appraisal, Feedback and Development. Making performance review work. Clive Fletscher 2008.}