My quick checklist for writing a survey

I’ve been working on a couple of different consultation exercises recently so I am naturally spending a bit of time thinking about how I do this. Here I am sharing a few thoughts on how I write the introduction for an online survey – not the questions (although getting them right is obviously also important), but the information that respondents see when they first open the survey.

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

First of all, I am aware of the limitations of consultation. Consultation is not engagement and it is not participation. What it is a way of understanding what people think and (hopefully) gaining some insights into why they think that. It is important not to pretend it is any more than that but sometimes that is what is required.

Secondly, I don’t think a survey is necessarily the best way to carry out consultation and it is certainly not the only way. But it can work well, often alongside (or followed by) other activities which dig a little deeper and provide context. A survey provides a useful way to collect responses from a lot of people.

Bearing that in mind, here’s my personal checklist of things to include in the intro section when putting a survey together…

Before I start thinking about the questions, I want to make sure that respondents understand what the survey is all about and why they should fill it in. My intro section needs to be short, succinct, easy to read and also pretty compelling. It needs to tell the reader:

1. Briefly, what the survey is about – a survey title and a sentence describing what I am trying to find out
2. Who should complete the survey
3. Whether the survey is anonymous
4. Who is collecting the information and who will see the responses (especially if any of the questions ask about personal information)
5. How long it should take to complete the survey (or how many questions)
6. Whether the questions are compulsory or whether it is OK to skip questions (or to select ‘prefer not to say’ if that option is provided)
7. The deadline for completing the survey
8. The date when any personal identifying information will be deleted (names etc)
9. A website or contact details where respondents can access further information or raise any queries

Where the survey will include EDI questions I normally also include a couple of sentences to explain why these are important. Where relevant, I explain that I need to know whether the survey is reaching a wide range of people and whether there are any gaps in audience that cannot be explained by local population trends. I always say that these questions are optional and I always prefer both ‘other’ and ‘prefer not to say’ options.

I also tend to offer a prize draw incentive on most surveys – i.e. all respondents will have the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win XXXXX (it is important that the prize appeals to the target audience and I find that cash or vouchers are fairly universal). If this is offered then I explain this in the intro section as well.

There might be other things relating to individual surveys but that is my go-to checklist as a starting point. I use a version of this on all surveys – whether aimed at children, adults or targeted groups. I think it is important to respect the audience and make sure they have access to information about how their responses/data will be used.

A quick note about how I include a prize draw. It’s a bit clunky but this is what works for me…

First, I set up a new survey form which will ask only for name and contact details (with a new introduction saying that this is for the prize draw only, the draw will be on [date] and all responses will be deleted after the prize has been awarded). I then add a link to the new prize draw survey within the ‘thank you for submitting’ message on the main survey. So, once a respondent clicks submit, they see the new link on the screen and there they can enter their details for the prize draw. This enables me to keep the prize draw details completely separate. It means the main survey stays anonymous and it allows me to delete personal contact information immediately after the prize is awarded.

Photo by Anthony on Unsplash