Practical Surveys http://www.practicalsurveys.com/ Practical Surveys is a growing collection of survey research articles and resources. en Copyright 2008 Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:55:48 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists Cover image by Joel Best

While a fascinating read for all of us, this is most applicable if you're combining secondary research with your surveys. You'll never look at "facts" the same way again.

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]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/damnedliesandstatistics.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/damnedliesandstatistics.php Books Management Reporting Biased research Market research Public opinion polls Secondary research Statistics Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:55:48 -0800 How to Lie With Statistics Cover imageby Darrell Huff

There’s a reason this is still in print after 50 years, and that’s because we still fall for the same creative charting tricks.

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]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/liewithstatistics.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/liewithstatistics.php Books Reporting Biased research Charts Statistics Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:46:08 -0800 Respondent incentives When you've exhausted intangible payoffs, it's time to reach for the payola. Sometimes you'll get lucky and you can find an incentive that's cheap for you to provide—such as a product upgrade or free month's service—and sometimes it will be a straight cash deal.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/respondents/incentives.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/respondents/incentives.php Respondents Incentives Response rates Sampling Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:56:25 -0800 Questions and Answers in Attitude Surveys: Experiments on Question Form, Wording, and Context Cover image by Howard Schuman & Stanley Presser

Despite being in a quantitative industry, surveyors rarely conduct tests to measure what happens when we rearrange questions, add a neutral point in a scale, or make other adjustments. If you're ready to absorb some more advanced issues, complete with footnotes, this is a great book to pick up. Note that the 1996 copyright is simply a reprint of the 1981 text.

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]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/questionsandanswers.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/questionsandanswers.php Books Questionnaires Developing surveys Scales Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:08:55 -0800 Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing Cover image by Harry Beckwith

When you want to broaden your perspective, this will help you understand how customer and employee satisfaction mixes with and reinforces other marketing efforts. While the author focuses on services, it's useful in any industry—we're all competing on intangibles these days.

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]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/sellingtheinvisible.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/books/sellingtheinvisible.php Books Management Marketing Service quality Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:14:06 -0800 Watching for overly broad questions Recently I completed a telephone survey, and in the course of the 22 minute conversation (estimated at 12-15) I was asked:

Would you recommend a friend or family member attend University of California Davis?

Recommend for what? I'm aware of the school's solid reputation in engineering and veterinary medicine, but have no notion where their other programs rank.

Recommend for whom? I have to think of an individual as to whether the programs, lifestyle, location and tuition (in-state resident vs. full) would be a fit.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/broadquestions.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/broadquestions.php Questionnaires Customer satisfaction Index metrics Writing questions Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:44:15 -0800 Assembling a customer satisfaction picture Most everyone wants to measure (and improve) customer satisfaction, but how?

First and foremost, if your organization is new to surveys and doing this in-house, start simple! The goal of any survey is better information for decision-making, and a modest quantity of information that you actually use is far more valuable than a complex picture that may be flawed or too troublesome to maintain.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/custsatfacets.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/custsatfacets.php Management Questionnaires Benchmarks & trending Customer satisfaction Developing surveys Index metrics Service quality Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:59:53 -0800 Preventing duplicate survey responses A common concern is how to deal with duplicated survey responses. In practice, this is an issue when the benefit to multiple submits outweighs the effort of making them. For most surveys, the challenge is getting people to complete once.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/preventingduplicates.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/preventingduplicates.php Respondents Technology Data validation Passwords Sampling Web surveys Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:46:41 -0800 Balancing topics in your questionnaires A client working on a project for a non-profit recently sent me two questionnaires:

Version 1
Written by my client, and primarily driven by their contact, the CEO. The survey focused on evaluating the organization as a whole, though a significant emphasis was on communication and fundraising.
Version 2
Written by one of the non-profit's board members. The questionnaire was far more granular, focusing on specific programs offered.
]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/balancingtopics.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/balancingtopics.php Management Questionnaires Developing surveys Fri, 09 Nov 2007 07:43:11 -0800 Typical abandonment rates One of my most popular articles via Web searches is about typical response rates. What many researchers forget to look at is the abandonment or completion rate. If you extend an invitation to someone for the survey (mail, e-mail, banner ad, phone, dancing monkey, etc.) and they begin the questionnaire, do they finish it?

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/respondents/abandonmentrates.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/respondents/abandonmentrates.php Respondents Incentives Response rates Sampling Usability Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:59:46 -0800 The joy of a Web developer on call One of the great things about the Web is that almost any functionality is possible—it's just a small matter of programming (and budget and time and compromises). Sometimes you can imagine a widget which will make your respondent's or visitor's experience smoother or richer. Sometimes it's a function which will make your site easier to manage.

For Web surveys, there's a huge range of tools and services, so someone may already offer your dream feature. However, there are times when you just need something custom.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/webdeveloperoncall.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/webdeveloperoncall.php Management Technology Web surveys Mon, 27 Aug 2007 09:53:00 -0800 Ask about the small stuff I recently had lunch with a fellow consultant who focuses on employee surveys. Contrary to what you might expect in the grand scheme of employer/staff relations, he spends much of his time getting executives to pay attention to "small" problems. In one case, it was a departmental laser printer long overdue for replacement—very like the machine which met a violent end in Office Space.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/thesmallstuff.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/questionnaires/thesmallstuff.php Management Questionnaires Customer satisfaction Developing surveys Employee surveys Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:48:00 -0800 Scanning Survey Forms As great as the Web is for surveys, there are times paper is a better fit (and phones and in-person too of course). When paper is what you need, people often look to scanning as a "no data entry" solution. While you can get close with some surveys, as with all technology there's fine print.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/data-handling/scanning.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/data-handling/scanning.php Data Handling Technology Scanning Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:51:53 -0800 Stupid Excel data tricks These days, most of us do more in Excel than the VisiCalc creators would have dreamed. Following are a few of my favorite tricks for working with data in Excel (the raw side, not the chart side). This article includes:

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/exceldatatricks.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/exceldatatricks.php Data Handling Technology Excel Import & export Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:20:46 -0800 Opening a CSV in Excel—without corruption Comma Separated Values (AKA comma-delimited ASCII) are one of the most common formats used to exchange information. This is because they're compatible with applications on just about any operating system—going back to DOS days. On many computers, a .CSV file will be automatically associated with Microsoft Excel, and when you double-click on the file it opens using the automatic settings.

This is great—unless you have certain types of data such as East coast Zip codes.

]]> http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/excelcsv.php http://www.practicalsurveys.com/technology/excelcsv.php Data Handling Technology Excel Import & export Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:19:22 -0800