I’ve seen a couple of questions recently which have asked respondents to rank long lists of attributes. An example is shown below: Ignoring the fact that I’ve never looked for any “benefit” in a loyalty rewards programme for an online travel agency, and I’ve no idea which criteria I should be using for ranking these benefits, there are several…
Author: austinresearch
We know it’s wrong but market researchers are still producing long, boring surveys. How can we change?
In their book Super Freakonomics, Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner discuss a common problem facing hospitals, doctors not washing their hands as often as they should. In 1999 the Institute of Medicine estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans a year die from avoidable hospital errors. The leading cause of these errors was wound infections, easily prevented by doctors washing…
Its not a maths exam! Don't ask respondents to calculate percentages.
A client recently wanted to include a question on a b2b survey asking retailers what percentage of their sales of a certain product were accounted for by different brands. I took their request very literally and turned it into a question that directly asked the percentage of total sales that each brand accounted for. There was no problem with respondents understanding…
Surveys Room 101: My pet hates about surveys
As an experienced survey designer I often see questionnaires that frustrate me in some way, be they too long, too complicated or just designed without any regard for the respondents who are asked to complete them. I try not to let these frustrations affect my mood. However, there are some relatively minor, but recurring, issues that anger me to the point…
Knowing nothing about your client's business could be an advantage
In his book Seeing What Others Don’t, Gary Klein describes how true insights are transformational. They change how we understand, act, see and feel. As insight professionals how can we maximise our chances of producing insights that really make a difference? Perhaps Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (best known for writing Freakonomics) have the answer in their most recent book…
Order! Order! The importance of questionnaire structure.
An industry body that I am a member of recently sent me their annual survey. The questionnaire covers topics such as they type of work you do and how you see the future of your business as well as asking for ratings of different aspects of the group’s offerings and any suggestions you have as to how the activities of…
How many people should I interview? Deciding on sample size.
You’re putting together a survey and know who you want to interview and what you want to ask but how do you decide on the number of people you want to interview? There is no easy answer, the most appropriate sample size for any survey depends on the resources available and the project objectives. Firstly, generally the larger the sample…
Why are we weighting? A basic introduction to the concept of weighting
Often, data collected from surveys isn’t exactly representative of the target population even in those instances where quotas have been applied (see our blog on how to get representative samples for more on quotas). Weighting is a statistical technique that can be used to correct any imbalances in sample profiles after data collection. Imagine we have a target population that is evenly split…
Why don’t we celebrate good questionnaire design?
Sometimes I get positive feedback from clients (which is always appreciated!). I’ve been told that my presentation was great or that the survey data has been really useful but not one client has ever complemented me on the design of a questionnaire. If I type “examples of great questionnaires” into Google I get links to plenty of guides on how…
The importance of representative samples and how to get them
What are representative samples? For most market research surveys it is impractical, in terms of time, budget and other factors, to interview everyone in your target population. To get a view of how the population of the UK feels we don’t need to interview everyone in the country, instead we ask a sample for their opinions. As far as possible the…
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