Surveys are one of the best methods of learning what consumers really think about a product or service. Therefore as a business owner or survey developer, it is very important that the survey design phase includes a period of time set aside for survey planning; what to ask in the online survey, who the target audience is, and so forth.

There are many reasons it is important to properly plan and develop a survey before it is administered; below are several of those reasons, and why it is important to plan, before submitting survey questions to your target survey response group.

Target audience

One of the most important factors to consider is the audience that will be answering the survey questions, and who your actual target audience is. If your company is survey planning for a new product release that was targeted at males in their twenties, the survey questions have to be indicative of that demographic group. Questions have to be worded in a manner they understand, in a way they are comfortable answering, and should be specifically targeted to that audience, and their purchases in general.

What to ask

Again, the questions that are asked will give you the basic information about a product, service, or any other information that you are looking to receive. It is important to plan the questions out, properly plan the order in which they are asked, the wording that is used, and the manner in which responses should be given (multiple answer questions, yes/no answers, etc).

Most surveys will benefit from an effective mix of both open-ended and closed questions. Asking the right questions, based around the survey’s main topic, will result in answers that are actually going to help the business learn about what their customers think, and what they feel about a product or service.

What is the survey about

If a survey is about a product, it should be developed in one fashion; if it is about customer service, about new products customers would like to see, or any other topics, the surveys have to be developed in a different format, for each of these topics. So, considering the topic, the kind of response you are hoping to elicit, and the individuals you are targeting, are all important pieces that should be considered in developing a survey.

The last thing you want is to offend a person who is responding to your survey, or making questions too broad or narrow, so that they do not know how to answer. Planning ahead, using research statistics to find out what the best survey format is, and simply thinking about your target audience, are all things that can be done, to help the developers properly create a survey, that is going to give them the feedback and responses they are hoping to get. Each survey has a different purpose, therefore the survey form will be developed a little differently for each type of survey being conducted.

Research and planning will help in the development phase, and are sure ways survey planning that is going to get the responses a company wants, from the target group answering the questions.