Before embarking on a questionnaire it is important to define your objectives:
- - What do I want to find out? From whom?
- - Why do I want to find this out?
- - How will this information be used?
- - Who am I finding this out for and how shall I tell them the results?
- - How much money do I have for this project? How much time?
Compared to face to face interviews, mail surveys are a very cost effective method of obtaining information. And unlike face to face interviews they do not include interviewer bias. However in a random sampling situation, your responses may still be skewed by socio economic or demographic factors. For instance, you may get a higher response from high income, educated sectors, or lower than average response from young single males.
As a general rule long questionnaires get a lower response than short ones. A maximum of five minutes for completion is ideal, although if the document is well written and proceeds in an orderly and interesting way, a longer completion time can be expected.
Answers should be easily captured into a database and therefore need to be presented in a yes/no, tick box, or rank order format. Nevertheless, it is important to allow respondents to qualify some of their responses at intervals. Using comment boxes allow free written comments which can be a rich source of feedback.
The Top Tips
1 Know your customer
Putting the NHS logo on the envelope will raise the communication above 'junk mail' status.
2 Use recycled paper or paper from sustainable sources
Inform the recipients of this.
3 Include a cover letter
Sent from an actual person explaining why you are doing the survey and why you need a response. Explain how the results will be used and also how the recipient's address was chosen.
4 Ensure that the status of the person writing the letter is as high as possible
A letter from the Chief Executive will raise response rates.
5 Include clear, concise instructions about how to complete the survey
6 Keep your language friendly, simple and jargon free
7 Include a postage paid envelope or FREEPOST address and tell the recipient that return postage is free
Instruct the recipient to use the reply paid envelope in the letter.
8 Give your survey a title
9 Put the sender's address details on the questionnaire
Envelopes sometimes get separated.
10 Make your first few questions non-threatening and topical
11 Make questions as brief as possible. Hold the respondents interest
12 Ask for one bit of information at a time
For example don't use 'Are you satisfied with your GP's opening hours and appointment system?'.
13 Use bold text, italics and underlining to emphasise important points
14 Make text as large and as easy to read as possible
15 Use tick boxes and rank ordering where possible for ease of answering and data capture
16 Do not ask the respondent to order or rank more than five items at a time
17 Leave plenty of space in comment boxes
Big response boxes and white space yield more information and make the survey look easier to complete.
18 Apart from introductory questions, place important questions in the first part of the survey
This is because respondents often send back only partially completed questionnaires.
19 Grouping similar questions and those that flow into each other make questionnaires easier to complete and thus produce higher response rates
20 If possible offer an incentive to complete the survey
At the least offer to send respondents a copy of the results.
21 Thank respondents for their time
22 Test the questions on colleagues for ambiguity
23 Make name and address box optional
Anonymous questionnaires produce more honest responses.
24 Explain your confidentiality policy
If respondents do provide name and address details, stress that the information will be confidential.
