FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
If you have questions about any of our other services, please contact us and we will add them to this page.
Survey FAQs
2. What is desk/secondary research and field/primary research?
4. Can I run a survey myself or should I engage a specialist?
6. I have been running the same survey for years and it seemed to work – would I have to change it?
7. What do qualitative and quantitative mean?
8. Is it difficult to design a questionnaire?
9. What do you think of online surveys versus traditional paper questionnaires?
What is a survey?
A survey is just a means of collecting information from a group of people. We all collect information informally every day on a variety of topics – where to go on holiday, which car to buy, which digital camera takes the best pictures – and so on. A survey imposes a structure on the questions you ask, to ensure your respondents (the people you ask) are asked exactly the same questions in the same way. This makes it easier to compare the answers and avoids what we call ‘bias’ (people telling you what they think you want to hear). It also means that the same survey can be repeated over a period of time, so you can check whether your results are showing a trend (pattern).
What is desk/secondary research and field/primary research?
Desk or secondary research refers to any kind of research that can be conducted whilst sitting at your desk – or more properly, consulting reports written by other people, or looking at other data sources that have already been published. Field research (or primary research) involves obtaining new information that does not already exist. Surveys would therefore be one type of primary research.
Do I really need a survey?
It depends on what you intend to do with the results. Imagine you had a high staff turnover. You might run a staff satisfaction survey to find out what people liked or disliked about working in your organisation. If, as a result of what you learn, you are willing to implement improvements that reduce your staff turnover, the survey will have been worthwhile. If you have no intention of doing anything, regardless of what the survey tells you, it would probably be better not to do a survey. Not only would it be a waste of time and money, it could even backfire, as your staff will feel even more aggrieved that you have made an effort to gather their views – and then ignored them! The same is true for customer satisfaction surveys.
Can I run a survey myself or should I engage a specialist?
Anyone can learn the basics of survey design, given time and practice. However, you should be asking yourself whether you ought to be running your own survey. If you are not familiar with survey methodology, questionnaire design, sampling techniques and statistical analysis, then you should seriously consider paying someone else to do it. You might think you can save money doing it yourself, but when you account for the time and effort involved, plus the cost of getting it wrong, it can turn out to be a false economy. And there is the issue of confidentiality. Take staff surveys, for example. As an employee, would you feel comfortable giving your views about your employer, knowing that the form could be read by your line manager/HR director/chief executive? How honest do you think your responses would be?
Are surveys expensive?
There is no straight answer to this. It’s like asking if cars are expensive. It all depends on what you want. On the whole, primary research is generally more expensive than secondary research because you are tailoring that research specifically to your needs rather than buying information ‘off the shelf’. Some surveys are more labour-intensive than others. The cost of a survey is influenced by several factors – sample size (i.e. how many respondents you need), sample location (i.e. are respondents geographically spread out, or grouped together) number of questions, type of questions (i.e. tick-box answers or detailed comments), means of administering the survey (i.e. paper forms, face-to-face interviews, on-line surveys), detailed analysis (i.e. do you want ‘headline’ data or detailed cross-tabulations). This may seem daunting, but we spend a lot of time working out the best approach for each client.
We always ascertain what a client’s budget is, and give them an honest appraisal of how far that budget will stretch. We provide a transparent costing, with no hidden extras.
I have been running the same survey for years and it seemed to work – would I have to change it?
Not necessarily. The advantage of carrying on with the same survey is that you can compare the results with preceding surveys. This enables you to see if there are any trends over a given period of time. The disadvantage is that if the original survey was badly designed and does not yield any useful information, then you have been wasting your efforts and it would be better to start again with a different survey. We would always discuss both options with a client to help them understand the implications, but at the end of the day, it’s your choice.
What do qualitative and quantitative mean?
Qualitative research explores respondents’ opinions and feelings. Respondents are given freedom to provide their answers in their own words. An example of a qualitative question is “What do you enjoy most about working for XYZ Ltd?” Answers will vary from respondent to respondent, and are therefore more difficult to analyse. They also require more thought by the respondents and so are more time-consuming to answer.
Quantitative research, as the name suggests, seeks information that can be quantified and counted. Typically, respondents will be asked to tick a box to indicate their response. Therefore the number of possible answers is limited to the number of tick-box choices, which means the data can be counted and statistically analysed. An example of a quantitative question, and tick-box choices, is “How long have you worked for XYZ Ltd? (a) Less than a year; (b) 1-3 years; (c) More than 3 years”.
Is it difficult to design a questionnaire?
There is a difference between writing a list of questions and turning them into a questionnaire. A good questionnaire should above all be easy to navigate (see 'routing' in the next section). The idea is to make it as easy as possible to fill in. This is more difficult than you might think, so is probably best left to an expert.
What do you think of online surveys versus traditional paper questionnaires?
Online surveys greatly streamline the survey process. They do away with the need for data inputting because the responses are captured directly by the survey software. They save paper and are easier to administer, provided respondents have access to the internet, and so tend to be more cost-effective. Some clients still prefer the traditional paper questionnaire because that is what they are used to. Respondents, on the other hand, may prefer to fill in a questionnaire online because it is easier. One great thing about online questionnaires is that they make routing questions completely effortless. 'Routing' is when respondents are asked to only answer certain questions, depending on their responses to preceding questions, for example:
Q1. How did you travel to work today?
(a) Bus (please answer Q2 next)
(b) Bicycle (please go straight to Q3)
Q2. How long did your journey take?
If this were a paper questionnaire, respondents could completely miss the instructions in brackets and answer the wrong question. An online questionnaire would be programmed to only show the relevant questions to each respondent, thus eliminating any potential errors. We have seen some truly awful paper questionnaires where respondents are routed all over the place, to the extent that it takes almost as much time to work out which question to answer next, as it does to fill in the answers.
Survey log-in
If you are participating in one of our live surveys, click on the link
below to go straight to the survey page.
Online
surveys