Over the last few decades, business leaders have sought out more and more sources of data that can help support decision making.  Surveys have become a common example of this, and with online surveys being an incredibly efficient way of collecting opinions from people, they are used for many different purposes.  For example, many companies will send surveys to their customers and employees to gather feedback about satisfaction, experience, safety, culture, and more, often using different surveys. 

The challenge of course is that, like we have highlighted in other articles, survey fatigue is a real thing.  We are all constantly being asked for feedback about various aspects of our lives, and the reality is that people are less likely to engage with you if you keep asking them what feels like similar questions over and over again.  They have plenty of other things to do with their time.

So what is one to do when survey data is so valuable?

One thing you can do to is to plan survey activities in a way that respects the people you want to survey.  Instead of doing three surveys to a particular audience, do one.  And highlight just how important their feedback is on that occasion.  It’s a small gesture, but it will certainly help to make sure you are not annoying people.

But won’t this make my surveys too long?

And herein lies your challenge.  We have also suggested in other articles that long surveys are never really a good idea.  The more questions you ask, the less likely someone is to finish answering all the questions.  This is where survey design becomes a form of art, because often you can ask one great question that will give you loads of great feedback instead of asking several.

Long surveys will not work for you.

Luckily at Tandem Surveys, we have a lot of experience in helping to create highly effective surveys that are not too long to engage your audience.  If this is something you need help with, simply get in touch with us.