Survey design Flashcards
What is a survey?
A survey is a method of collecting information by asking questions to a predefined group of people. The main goal of a survey is to gather data that can help in making decisions, understanding trends, or gaining insights into the thoughts, behaviors, and experiences of a particular group.
What types of surveys are commonly used in the retail industry?
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys: These ask customers about their experience, such as store cleanliness, product availability, or staff helpfulness.
- Market Research Surveys: These focus on customer preferences, buying habits, or brand perception, helping retailers tailor their products and marketing strategies.
What surveys are typical for e-commerce businesses?
- Post-purchase Feedback: After customers buy something online, these surveys ask about delivery times, product satisfaction, and ease of website use.
- Abandoned Cart Surveys: These target customers who left items in their cart without completing the purchase, asking why (e.g., high shipping costs, unclear checkout).
How do healthcare providers use surveys?
Patient Experience Surveys: These ask patients about their overall experience during a visit, including the quality of care, wait times, and the comfort level with the medical staff.
What surveys are used in education?
Course Evaluation Surveys: These are filled out by students to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the course, teaching methods, and course materials.
Module feedback survey
What kind of surveys are common in the hospitality and travel industry?
Guest Satisfaction Surveys: These ask hotel or travel guests about their stay, including room cleanliness, service quality, and overall satisfaction.
How are surveys used in the tech industry?
Beta Testing Surveys: These gather feedback from early users on the usability of a new product, like an app, focusing on bugs or user experience.
How do financial services use surveys?
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) Surveys: These measure how likely a customer is to recommend the service to others, providing insights into customer loyalty.
- Service Quality Surveys: These assess how well customer service functions, including wait times and the helpfulness of staff.
What types of surveys are used in human resources (HR)?
Employee Engagement Surveys: These measure how engaged and satisfied employees are with their jobs, management, and overall work environment.
What are the different methods for conducting surveys or collecting data?
- Traditional Methods: These include surveys/questionnaires and interviews/focus groups.
- Technology-Enabled Methods: These involve hardware (like beacons, cameras, RFID) and software (like websites, apps, or systems).
Tradtional method
What are the pros and cons of surveys/questionnaires?
Pros:
* Easy to distribute to a large group.
* Cost-effective and scalable for gathering data.
Cons:
* Response rates can be low.
* Risk of “survey fatigue” (people getting tired of answering too many questions).
Traditional method
What are the pros and cons of interviews and focus groups?
Pros:
* They allow for in-depth, detailed responses.
* You can ask follow-up questions to clarify or expand on responses.
Cons:
* Time-consuming and expensive, especially when you need to collect data from many people.
* Harder to scale for large samples compared to surveys.
Technology-enabled method
What are the pros and cons of hardware (cameras, beacons, RFID) in data collection?
Pros:
* These tools collect data automatically and passively, meaning they don’t need direct input from people.
* Efficient for long-term and large-scale behavioral data collection.
Cons:
* They only collect behavioral data, so they don’t provide context (such as people’s thoughts, motivations, or feelings).
* Potential privacy issues, since people might not be aware they are being tracked.
technology-enabled method
What are the pros and cons of software tools (like websites, apps, or embedded systems) in data collection?
Pros:
* Easy to deploy on a large scale through online platforms.
* Data is collected in real-time and is often easy to analyze.
Cons:
* Response rates can still be low, similar to traditional surveys.
* Survey fatigue may still occur, reducing the quality of responses.
What’s the overall difference between traditional methods and technology-enabled methods?
- Traditional methods (like surveys, interviews) tend to give more detailed, qualitative insights, but they are time-consuming and may not scale well.
- Technology-enabled methods (hardware, software) are efficient, scalable, and automated, but might miss out on human emotions and contextual data. They can also raise privacy concerns.
What are beacons?
Beacons are small, wireless devices that transmit signals using Bluetooth technology. They are used to send location-specific information to nearby smartphones or devices.
Think of them as digital “lighthouses” that constantly broadcast a signal, and when your phone comes close enough, it can detect the beacon and receive information.
In a store, beacons can send promotional offers or product details
to customers’ phones as they walk by certain shelves.
What is RFID?
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. These tags contain information that can be read by an RFID reader, even without direct line-of-sight, making it useful for tracking inventory, managing access control, or even making payments.
RFID uses radio waves to identify and track objects wirelessly.
What are the three key steps to conducting a survey or questionnaire?
- Structure: Designing the survey and setting up its framework.
- Administration: Distributing the survey and collecting responses.
- Analysis: Interpreting the results from the survey.
Planning the survey
What does the Structure step involve?
- Defining the Objective: Clarifying what you want to achieve with the survey (e.g., customer satisfaction, employee feedback).
- Identifying the Target Audience: Deciding who will be surveyed (e.g., customers, employees, or specific user groups).
- Choosing Question Types: Deciding whether to use open-ended questions (which provide more detail) or closed-ended questions (which are easier to analyze).
How the survey is distributed and managed
What is involved in the Administration step?
- Choosing Distribution Methods: Options include paper surveys, email/online surveys, or in-person surveys.
- Follow-up: To boost response rates, reminders may be needed, like follow-up emails or calls.
- Preparing effective cover letters, informed consent forms, and instructions
Reviewing responses
What does the Analysis step entail?
-
Analyzing Data: Reviewing the responses, often using both:
* Quantitative Analysis: For closed-ended questions (e.g., Yes/No, rating scales), turning responses into numbers or statistics.
* Qualitative Analysis: For open-ended questions, looking for patterns and themes in written responses. - Interpreting Results: This means drawing conclusions based on the data. For example, if your goal was to measure customer satisfaction, you would look at how satisfied customers were and what changes they suggest.
materials that support the survey process
What are the Related Documents in survey design?
- Cover letters or invitation emails
- Informed consent forms
- Survey instructions
- The questionnaire
- Pilot survey feedback
What is the purpose of Cover Letters or Invitation Emails in a survey?
These are sent to potential respondents to introduce the survey and encourage participation. They provide key details, such as:
* The purpose of the survey.
* How the responses will be used.
* Instructions on how to access and complete the survey.
* Emphasis on confidentiality or anonymity if applicable.
Why are Informed Consent Forms necessary for a survey?
Informed consent forms ensure that participants understand the survey’s purpose, their rights, and how their data will be used. They are critical, especially when dealing with sensitive information or formal research. Key elements include:
* Explanation of the study.
* Information on how the data will be used.
* Assurance of voluntary participation and the ability to withdraw at any time.
What are Survey Instructions, and why are they important?
Survey instructions provide detailed guidance on how to complete the survey, particularly if it includes unfamiliar formats or questions. They clarify:
* How to respond to different question types (e.g., multiple-choice, Likert scales).
* Navigation tips for online surveys.
* Submission instructions.
What is the role of the Questionnaire in the survey design process?
The questionnaire is the core document that contains the actual survey questions. It should be well-structured and designed to gather relevant data. Important considerations include:
- Using a mix of open-ended and closed-ended questions.
- Avoiding biased or leading questions.
- Ensuring clarity to avoid confusion.
What is Pilot Survey Feedback, and why is it valuable?
After conducting a trial run (pilot testing), feedback helps refine the survey before it is distributed on a larger scale. This ensures:
- The questions are clear and easy to understand.
- The survey is of an appropriate length.
- Any confusing or unnecessary questions are identified and revised.
Why are these related documents important in survey design?
- Improving Participation: Cover letters and clear instructions make respondents more likely to engage with the survey.
- Ensuring Ethics and Compliance: Informed consent forms protect the rights of participants.
- Improving Data Quality: Pilot testing ensures that the survey collects accurate and relevant data.
What are the Key Steps in Survey Design?
- Define the Objective: Clarify what you want to learn from the survey.
- Identify the Target Audience: Choose the right group to survey.
- Design Questions: Create clear and relevant questions.
- Pilot Testing: Test the survey on a small group to ensure everything works smoothly before launching it widely.
What are the Types of Survey Questions?
- Open-ended questions
- Closed-ended questions
What are the key differences between Open-ended and Closed-ended questions?
Open-ended Questions:
- Advantages: Provides in-depth and varied responses, allowing for more nuanced feedback.
- Disadvantages: More difficult to analyze due to the lack of structure and the variety of responses.
Closed-ended Questions:
- Advantages: Easier to analyze and standardize responses.
- Disadvantages: Limits respondents to predefined options, which may not capture their full thoughts.
When should you use Open-ended versus Closed-ended questions?
- Use Open-ended questions when you want qualitative insights or to explore a subject in more detail. They are good for understanding reasons, motivations, and personal opinions.
- Use Closed-ended questions when you need quantifiable, structured data that can be easily categorized and analyzed. These are helpful for quickly measuring satisfaction levels, preferences, or specific behaviors.
Survey Design tips:
- Keep it simple and clear: avoid jargon and ambiguity.
- Avoid leading or biased questions: will result in skewed results as respondents were compelled to respond in a certain way.
- Balanced scale questions: When designing scale-based questions (such as Likert scales), it’s important to provide evenly distributed response options that cover both positive and negative sides of the scale.
What are the types of Scales and Measurements in Surveys?
- Nominal Scale
- Ordinal Scale
- Interval Scale
- Ratio Scale
What are Nominal scales?
This is the most basic scale, where you just name or label things, with no ranking or order.
Just for categorising things, theres no right or wrong order.
Ordinal Scale (Ranked Order)
This scale puts things in a specific order, but you don’t know how big the difference is between them.
You can rank things from best to worst, but you don’t know exactly how much better one is compared to another.
Interval Scale (Equal Intervals)
This scale lets you measure things in equal steps (like a thermometer), but there’s no true zero. Zero doesn’t mean “nothing”; it’s just a point on the scale.
Example: “What’s the temperature today?”
Options: 10°C, 20°C, 30°C.
Key Point: The difference between 10°C and 20°C is the same as between 20°C and 30°C, but 0°C doesn’t mean “no temperature.”
Ratio Scale (True Zero)
This is the most powerful scale because it has equal intervals and a true zero, meaning zero really means “nothing.” This allows you to do math, like multiplying or comparing.
Example: “What is your monthly income?”
Options: $0, $1,000, $2,000, etc.
Key Point: Zero means “nothing,” and you can say things like “I earn twice as much as someone else.”
What is Sampling in survey design?
Samplin is the process of choosing a subset of individuals from a larger population to represent the whole group.
What are the Types of Sampling?
There are 3 main types of samping:
* Random sampling
* Stratified sampling
* Convenience sampling
What is Random Sampling?
Random Sampling means that everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey. It’s like drawing names out of a hat, where each person is equally likely to be chosen.
- Example: If you have 1,000 customers, you randomly select 100 of them to take your survey.
- Why it’s good: It reduces bias and gives a fair representation of the whole population.
What is Stratified Sampling?
In Stratified Sampling, you divide the population into groups (called “strata”) based on certain characteristics (like age, gender, income), and then you randomly select people from each group. This ensures that each group is fairly represented in the sample.
- Example: If your population has 60% men and 40% women, you ensure that your sample also has 60% men and 40% women, by dividing the population into male and female groups and then selecting random people from each.
- Why it’s good: It helps ensure that important subgroups are properly represented, especially if you know certain characteristics matter for your survey results.
What is Convenience Sampling?
Convenience Sampling means choosing people who are easiest to reach or most readily available, rather than selecting randomly or ensuring balanced representation.
- Example: Surveying people who walk into a specific store or sending the survey to employees in one department because they are the easiest to contact.
- Why it’s used: It’s quick, easy, and cheap to do.
- Downside: It can lead to bias because the people who are easiest to reach might not represent the entire population accurately.
Types of survey bias
- Selection bias
- Response bias
- Non-response bias
What is Selection Bias, and how can it affect a survey?
Selection Bias happens when the people chosen to take the survey are not representative of the entire population. This usually occurs because some groups are more likely to be selected than others, which can skew the results.
What is Response Bias, and how does it affect survey results?
Response Bias occurs when people don’t answer questions honestly, either because they want to look good (social desirability bias) or because the way the question is worded nudges them toward a particular answer.
What is Non-response Bias, and why is it a problem?
Non-response Bias occurs when certain groups of people don’t respond to the survey, leading to an overrepresentation of those who do respond. The opinions of non-respondents might be different from those who answered, skewing the results.
