1. Questionnaire Design

2. “It is not every question that deserves an answer.”
Publius Syrus (Roman, 1st century B.C.)

3. Ask a Sensitive Question, Get a Sensitive Answer
Survey researchers believe that the responses that people give are valid.
Care must be taken with sensitive questions.
Researchers must take care in asking relevant questions in ways that produce the most truthful results.

4. Basic Considerations in Questionnaire Design
Questionnaire design is one of the most critical stages in the survey research process.
A questionnaire (survey) is only as good as the questions it asks — ask a bad question, get bad results.
The questions must meet the basic criteria of relevance and accuracy.

5. What Should Be Asked? Questionnaire Relevancy Questionnaire Accuracy
All information collected should address a research question that helps the decision maker in solving a current marketing problem.
Questionnaire Accuracy
The information is valid; it faithfully represents reality.
Questionnaires should use simple, understandable, unbiased, unambiguous, & nonirritating words.
Questionnaire design should facilitate recall & motivate respondents to cooperate.
Proper question wording & sequencing to avoid confusion & biased answers.

6. Major Decisions in Questionnaire Design
What should be asked?
How should each question be phrased?
In what sequence should the questions be arranged?
What questionnaire layout will best serve the research objectives?
How should the questionnaire be pretested? Does the questionnaire need to be revised?

7. Phrasing Questions Open-ended questions Fixed-alternative questions
Aka essay questions, short-answer questions
Fixed-alternative questions
Aka closed or closed-ended questions

8. Open-Ended Response Questions
Pose some problem & ask respondents to answer in their own words.
Advantages:
Particularly beneficial in exploratory research, especially when the range of responses is not known.
Identify which words & phrases people spontaneously give.
Valuable at the beginning of an interview.
Disadvantages:
High cost of administering open-ended response questions.
The possibility that interviewer bias will influence the answer.
Bias introduced by articulate individuals’ longer answers.

9. Example of Open-Ended Response Question

10. Fixed-alternative Questions
Questions in which respondents are given specific, limited-alternative responses & asked to choose the one closest to their own viewpoint.
Advantages:
Require less interviewer skill
Take less time to answer
Are easier for the respondent to answer
Provides comparability of answers
Disadvantages:
Researcher may be unaware of all potential responses
Tendency of respondents to choose more prestigious or socially acceptable alternative

11. Example of a Fixed-Alternative Question

12. Types of Fixed-Alternative Questions
Simple-dichotomy (dichotomous) Question
Requires the respondent to choose one of two alternatives (e.g., yes or no).
Example:
Did you make any calls with your home (landline) phone during the 7 days?
_____ Yes _____ No
Determinant-Choice (multiple-choice) Question
Requires the respondent to choose one response from among multiple alternatives (e.g., A, B, or C).

13. Types of Fixed-Alternative Questions (con’t.)
Frequency-determination Question
Asks for an answer about general frequency of occurrence (e.g., often, occasionally, or never).
Checklist Question
Allows the respondent to provide multiple answers to a single question by checking off items.
Scale
Likert, Semantic Differential, Stapel, etc.

14. Influences on Question Phrasing
Phrasing Questions for Self-Administered, Telephone, & Personal Interview Surveys
Influences on Question Phrasing
Means of data collection — telephone interview, personal interview, self-administered questionnaire — will influence question format & question phrasing.
Questions for mail, Internet, & telephone surveys must be less complex than those used in personal interviews.
Questionnaires for telephone & personal interviews should be written in a conversational style.

15. Best Question Formats Vary by the Interview Medium

16. Guidelines For Avoiding Mistakes
Simpler is better
Avoid leading & loaded questions
Leading question – directs respondents to an answer you want them to give
Loaded question – suggests a socially desirable answer or is emotionally charged.

17. Guidelines For Avoiding Mistakes (con’t.)
“Avoid” ambiguity: Be as specific as possible
Probably /Definitely; Sometimes/Always, etc.
Avoid double-barreled items
Double-barreled question – may induce bias because it covers two or more issues at once.
Do you think the President is responsible for the federal government shut-down and the currently rising gasoline prices? Yes No
Avoid making assumptions
Given Macy’s skill-level at gift wrapping, …….
All-inclusive response alternatives
Avoid taxing respondent’s memory

18. Avoid Common Wording Mistakes in Questionnaire Design

19. Order Bias Question Sequence Randomized Presentations
Bias caused by the influence of earlier questions in a questionnaire or by an answer’s position in a set of answers.
Funnel technique
Asking general questions before specific questions in order to obtain unbiased responses.
Randomized Presentations
Used in electronic questionnaires, but rarely used in printed questionnaires due to coding difficulties.
Randomized Response Techniques
Randomly assigning respondents to answer either the question of interest (embarrassing) or a mundane & unembarrassing question.

20. Survey Flow Survey flow Breakoff Filter question Branching
The ordering of questions through a survey.
Breakoff
A respondent who stops answering questions before reaching the end of the survey.
Filter question
A question that screens out respondents who are not qualified to answer a second (or follow-up) question.
Branching
Directing respondents to alternative portions of the questionnaire based on their response to a filter question.

21. Survey Flow for Eurocar Tour de France Sponsorship

22. Telephone Questionnaire with Skip Questions

23. Survey Technology Physical Features Prompting Piping Software
Heat map question
A graphical question that tracks the parts of an image or advertisement that most capture a respondent’s attention.
Status Bar
A visual indicator that tells the respondent what portion of the survey he or she has completed.
Prompting
Informs the respondent that he or she has skipped an item or provided implausible information.
Piping Software
Allows question answers to be inserted into later questions.

24. Tracking Points of Interest Using a Heat Map

25. Illustration of Status Bar & Prompts

26. Pretesting & Revising Questionnaires
Pretesting Process
Seeks to determine whether respondents have any difficulty understanding the questionnaire
whether there are any ambiguous or biased questions.
Preliminary Tabulation
A tabulation of results of a pretest to help determine whether questionnaire will meet the objectives of the research.

27. I Give Up!
Large portion of respondents give up before finishing & abandon the survey (break-offs).
Guidelines
Visually appealing & easy to read
Fewer questions per page (no more than 20)
4 pages maximum for consumers
6 pages maximum for business leaders
Question order (funnel vs. reverse-funnel)
Sensitive questions & open-ended questions encourage break-offs &/or item non-response
Sophisticated samples increase response rate
Make information requests legitimate
Pretesting is important (pretest EVERYTHING)

28. Questionnaire Reproduction (if mail survey)
Professional appearance
Booklet format for long questionnaires
Place directions as close to questions as possible
Expect reproduction errors