1. Chapter 11 Questionnaire Design

2. LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this chapter, you should be able to
Explain the significance of decisions about questionnaire design and wording
Define alternatives for wording open-ended and fixed-alternative questions
Summarize guidelines for questions that avoid mistakes in questionnaire design
Describe how the proper sequence of questions may improve a questionnaire
Discuss how to design a questionnaire layout
Describe criteria for pretesting and revising a questionnaire and for adapting it to global markets

3. Questionnaire Quality and Design: Basic Considerations
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.
Composing a good questionnaire appears easy but, it is usually the result of long, painstaking work.
The questions must meet the basic criteria of relevance and accuracy.

4. 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?

5. What Should Be Asked? Questionnaire Relevancy Questionnaire Accuracy
All information collected should address a research question in helping the decision maker in solving the current marketing problem.
Questionnaire Accuracy
Increasing the reliability and validity of respondent information requires that:
Questionnaires should use simple, understandable, unbiased, unambiguous, and nonirritating words.
Questionnaire design should facilitate recall and motivate respondents to cooperate.
Proper question wording and sequencing to avoid confusion and biased answers.

6. How Should Questions Be Phrased?
Open-ended Response Questions
Pose some problem and ask respondents to answer in their own words.
Advantages:
Are most beneficial in exploratory research, especially when the range of responses is not known.
May reveal unanticipated reactions toward the product.
Are good first questions because they allow respondents to warm up to the questioning process.
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

7. How Should Questions Be Phrased? (cont’d)
Fixed-alternative Questions
Questions in which respondents are given specific, limited-alternative responses and 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:
Lack of range in the response alternatives
Tendency of respondents to choose convenient alternative

8. Types of Fixed-Alternative Questions
Simple-dichotomy (dichotomous alternative) Question
Requires the respondent to choose one of two alternatives (e.g., yes or no).
Determinant-choice Question
Requires the respondent to choose one response from among multiple alternatives (e.g., A, B, or C).
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.

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

10. EXHIBIT 11.1 Reducing Question Complexity by Providing Fewer Responses
Source: Don A. Dillman, Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978), p Reprinted with permission.

11. The Art of Asking Questions
No hard and fast rules; however avoid:
Using complex question language
Asking leading and loaded questions
Using ambiguous phrasing in questions
Asking confusing double-barreled items
Making internal assumptions in questions
Asking burdensome questions that tax the respondent’s memory

12. What Is the Best Question Sequence?
Factors Influencing the Sequencing Questions
Order bias
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.
Filter question
A question that screens out respondents who are not qualified to answer a second question.
Pivot question
A filter question used to determine which version of a second question will be asked.

13. What Is the Best Question Sequence? (cont’d)
Factors Influencing the Sequencing Questions (cont’d)
Anchoring effect
The first concept measured tends to become a comparison point from which subsequent evaluations are made.
Randomization of items on a questionnaire susceptible to the anchoring effect helps minimize order bias.
Order of alternatives on closed questions
The order of choices should be rotated if producing alternative forms of the questionnaire is possible.

14. EXHIBIT 11.2 Flow of Questions to Determine the Level of Prompting Required to Stimulate Recall
Source: “General Foods Corporation: Tang Instant Breakfast Drink (B),” © 1978 F. Stewart DeBruicker and Harvey N. Singer, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Reprinted with permission.

15. What Is the Best Layout? Traditional Questionnaires
Multiple-grid question
Several similar questions arranged in a grid format.
The title of a questionnaire should be phrased carefully:
To capture the respondent’s interest, underline the importance of the research
Emphasize the interesting nature of the study
Appeal to the respondent’s ego
Emphasize the confidential nature of the study
To not bias the respondent in the same way that a leading question might

16. EXHIBIT 11.3 Layout of a Page from a Telephone Questionnaire

17. EXHIBIT 11.4 Telephone Questionnaire with Skip Questions

18. EXHIBIT 11.5 Personal Interview Questionnaire
Source: Reprinted with permission from the Council of American Survey Research,

19. EXHIBIT 11.6 Example of a Skip Question

20. Internet Questionnaire Layout
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Software
The researcher can control the background, colors, fonts, and other features displayed on the screen so as to create an attractive and easy-to-use interface between the user and the Internet survey.
Layout Issues
Paging by going from screen to screen
Scrolling layout gives the respondent the ability to scroll down

21. Internet Questionnaire Layout (cont’d)
Push Button
A small outlined area, such as a rectangle or an arrow, that the respondent clicks on to select an option or perform a function, such as submit.
Status Bar
A visual indicator that tells the respondent what portion of the survey he or she has completed.
Radio Button
A circular icon, resembling a button, that activates one response choice and deactivates others when a respondent clicks on it.

22. Internet Questionnaire Layout (cont’d)
Drop-down Box
A space saving device that reveals responses when they are needed but otherwise hides them from view.
Check Boxes
Small graphic boxes, next to an answers, that a respondent clicks on to choose an answer; typically, a check mark or an X appears in the box when the respondent clicks on it.

23. EXHIBIT 11.7 Question in an Online Screening Survey for Joining a Consumer Panel
Source: J.D. Power and Associates, “JDPowerPanel,” accessed June 25, 2006.

24. Internet Questionnaire Layout (cont’d)
Open-ended Boxes
Boxes where respondents can type in their own answers to open-ended questions.
Pop-up Boxes
Boxes that appear at selected points and contain information or instructions for respondents.

25. EXHIBIT 11.8 Alternative Ways of Displaying Internet Questions

26. Internet Questionnaire Layout (cont’d)
Software That Makes Questionnaires Interactive
Variable piping software
Allows variables to be inserted into an Internet questionnaire as a respondent is completing it.
Error trapping software
Controls the flow of an internet questionnaire.
Forced answering software
Prevents respondents from continuing with an Internet questionnaire if they fail to answer a question.
Interactive help desk
A live, real-time support feature that solves problems or answers questions respondents may encounter in completing the questionnaire.

27. How Much Pretesting and Revising Are Necessary?
Pretesting Process
Seeks to determine whether respondents have any difficulty understanding the questionnaire and whether there are any ambiguous or biased questions.
Preliminary Tabulation
A tabulation of the results of a pretest to help determine whether the questionnaire will meet the objectives of the research.

28. Designing Questionnaires for Global Markets
Back Translation
Taking a questionnaire that has previously been translated into another language and having a second, independent translator translate it back to the original language.
A questionnaire developed in one country may be difficult to translate because equivalent language concepts do not exist or because of differences in idiom and vernacular.

29. Key Terms and Concepts Open-ended response question
Fixed-alternative question
Simple-dichotomy (dichotomous-alternative) question
Determinant-choice question
Frequency-determination question
Checklist question
Leading question
Loaded question
Counterbiasing statement
Split-ballot technique
Double-barreled question
Order bias
Funnel technique
Filter question
Pivot question
Multiple-grid question
Push button
Status bar
Radio button
Drop-down box
Check box
Open-ended box

30. Key Terms and Concepts (cont’d)
Pop-up boxes
Variable piping software
Error trapping
Forced answering software
Interactive help desk
Preliminary tabulation
Back translation