How to Write Compelling Basic Survey Questions?
Basic survey questions are essential in running a profitable business. They assist in collecting insights directly from your intended audience.
These questions can collect qualitative and quantitative data depending on the overarching goal.
Besides, there are multiple variants of survey questions you can use in your questionnaires, namely:
All these question types are only effective when used at the right time with the right data type. We recommend you consider the following when designing survey questions:
These factors (mentioned above) will help you overcome issues that may derail the overarching objective.
Assume you’ve cherry-picked the right question type, designed a goal-driven questionnaire, and gathered responses.
How do you think you should proceed from here?
Like a car with an empty gas tank, data can be less helpful, especially if you lack the know-how and tools to harness insights.
This is where survey-oriented visualizations, such as Likert Scale Graph, come in.
A Likert Scale is designed to help you visualize diverse question types, including Likert Scale questions.
Microsoft Excel lacks survey-oriented charts, such as the Likert Scale Chart. You don’t have to do away with the spreadsheet application. Install a particular add-on we’ll talk about throughout the blog.
What are the Basic Survey Questions?
Definition: Survey questions are a series of inquiries you can use to gather information from a target audience.
You can use basic survey questions in various settings, like academic research, market research, and customer satisfaction studies.
These questions can be divided into several types, namely:
Well-designed survey questions need to be straightforward, brief, and neutral.
Besides, we recommend you word them in a way that is easy for respondents to understand. So, avoid leading or confusing language.
Also, ensure the questions are relevant to the research goals to avoid derailing.
The order of the basic survey questions is significant.
We recommend you start with more general or easy questions and then move on to more specific or difficult ones. This helps to build rapport with the respondents and makes them more comfortable with the survey process.
In the coming section, we’ll address the following question: What is the purpose of a survey?
We’ll take you through the types of basic survey questions in the ensuing section.
Types of Basic Survey Questions
Open-ended survey questions have no restrictions. Respondents put their responses in a text box.
Respondents aren’t limited to set answers, allowing them to share their thoughts in their own words. This type of question often yields a large
volume of detailed information.
Multiple-choice survey questions allow single or multiple answers. For this question type, we recommend you include the editable “other” category as one of the answer options.
It’ll provide your target audience with the freedom to give more responses or clarify their position in detail.
A Likert Scale is a psychometric scale you can use to measure respondents' attitudes or opinions on a topic.
The scale consists of a series of statements about a particular topic or theme. It asks your target respondents to indicate their agreement or disagreement with each statement.
The statements are typically presented visually, such as on a horizontal or vertical scale. Besides, a Likert Scale has options ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree."
Some basic survey questions in this category may include a "neutral" or "undecided" option.
You can use Likert Scale questions in market research, political polls, and other types of surveys because they are relatively simple and easy to understand.
Likert Scale questions are valuable for analyzing and comparing feedback from various groups or demographic segments.
This is one of the basic survey questions you can use to ask respondents to rank options or items in order of preference.
Ranking questions can help you gather information about how people prioritize different options or features.
Check out the ranking survey question examples below.
Please rank the following options in order of importance to you
Please rank the following features in order of how much you value them in a smartphone
One of the limitations of this survey question type is that some respondents may not have strong preferences for all of the options being presented.
Rating Scale Questions
Rating scale questions can help you ask respondents to rate a particular topic or product on a numerical scale.
You can use these question types to gather feedback or measure attitudes and opinions on various topics.
Check out examples of rating scale questions below.
Rating scale questions can provide a quantitative measure of respondents' attitudes and opinions, which can be visualized using charts, like the Likert Scale Chart.
Besides, you can track changes in attitudes over time or compare the attitudes of different groups of people.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through the importance of survey questions (benefits).
Let’s dive in.
Importance of Basic Survey Questions
Questions are a crucial element of a survey.
You can use them to gather information from your target respondents.
The quality of the questions can significantly affect the overall quality of the survey and the usefulness of the insights generated.
Below are some key considerations for creating effective basic survey questions:
You’ll create effective survey questions that will help you uncover valuable insights by considering these factors.
Stay tuned up next, we’ll guide you through the process of analyzing survey questionnaire data using Excel.
You don’t want to miss this.
How to Analyze Basic Survey Questions Data in Excel?
Excel is a widely used spreadsheet tool for visualizing survey results.
However, it doesn’t include specialized, ready-to-use survey charts like the Likert Scale Chart.
There’s no need to switch away from Excel. Instead, enhance its capabilities by adding an add-in called ChartExpo, which offers a variety of survey-specific charts, including the Likert Scale Chart.
With ChartExpo, you can create visual representations of your survey data in just a few minutes. Plus, it’s affordable at only $10 per month.
The add-in includes over 50 attractive and easy-to-use charts, graphs, and maps.
Next, we’ll walk you through the steps to install ChartExpo, enabling you to utilize the Likert Scale and a variety of other advanced charts.
Basic Survey Questions: Visualize Responses Seamlessly in Excel:
The following video will help you create a Likert Scale Chart in Microsoft Excel.
Basic Survey Questions - FAQs
What should I ask in a survey form?
Before writing your survey questions, ask yourself how you intend to use the answers from your survey.
Once you know the goals of your survey and the information you’d like to collect, you’ll be able to choose the right survey questions easily.
What is the most common type of survey?
There are many types of surveys, and the most common type can vary depending on the context of the survey and the data collected.
Some common types of surveys include:
What is a satisfaction questionnaire?
A satisfaction questionnaire is a survey you can use to gather information about how satisfied a person is with a particular product, service, or experience.
Satisfaction questionnaires may include questions about various aspects of the product or service, such as its quality, value, ease of use, and overall performance.
Wrap Up:
Basic survey questions play a crucial role in building a successful business.
They enable you to gather valuable insights straight from your target audience.
Depending on your main objective, survey questions can capture both qualitative and quantitative information.
Imagine you’ve carefully selected the ideal question types, crafted a purposeful questionnaire, and collected the responses.
What’s the next step?
Raw data alone isn’t always helpful unless you know how to extract meaningful insights from it.
This is where specialized survey visualizations—like the Likert Scale Graph—become indispensable.
While Microsoft Excel is widely used, it doesn’t offer built-in charts tailored specifically for surveys, such as the Likert Scale Chart. But you don’t need to abandon Excel.
So, what’s the answer?
We suggest adding the ChartExpo add-in to your Excel toolkit. It provides a variety of ready-to-use survey-focused charts and graphs, including the Likert Scale Chart.
ChartExpo is an Excel extension packed with powerful visualizations designed to help you tell compelling stories with your survey data.
Try it free for 7 days today and unlock access to visually engaging survey charts like the Likert Scale Chart.
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1dBasic Survey Questions really do lay the groundwork for collecting meaningful feedback.