How Not to Create a Survey

Create a survey, and you'll create facts that help you make better decisions. But, make sure your survey doesn't generate biased results, like the one at a Caribbean resort I visited.

As our week began to wind down, we received a very nice invitation to attend a party at which we would meet the managers; at the end of that party they asked us to fill in a satisfaction survey. So far, so good.

But...

The people running the resort put on quite a party before handing out the survey forms. They ushered us into their most comfortable and attractive facility and served exotic drinks. Next, the loud and cheerful music started, followed by dance contests, and their profuse thanks for visiting the resort.

A really big build-up came next, and then as we waited, breathless with excitement (the staff hoped), the master of ceremonies introduced the general manager?). He, in turn, and with much hyperbole, introduced the department managers. As each came triumphantly up to the manager's side, the staff encouraged us to cheer loudly.

A bit more hype, and then we received the survey forms. As for the manager and department heads, they vanished before we could meet them. Too bad. I didn't get to complain about the pillows that felt as comfortable as speed bumps on a busy street.

Too bad, too, for the resort, which lost an opportunity to respond to a customer complaint. But, then, all the feedback they garnered that day meant little.

Yes, you might say the resort"˜s management team got themselves some positive satisfaction results with which to impress the shareholders or owners. But, they didn't have good data about how their guests really felt - in fact they had bad data - which could mean a trip to the unemployment office one day.

Surveys, you see, are very sensitive creatures. You must create a survey and administer it in such a way that you prejudice respondents' views as little as possible.

When writing the questions, you must make them as neutral as possible, and what's more, make the scoring as neutral as possible. And, as I say, you'll want to administer the survey in as neutral a way as possible, which rules out the approach taken by our friends at the resort.

You'll find lots of resources on the Internet that help you create a survey, with information on how to write good questions, how to score the answers, and how to select people to interview. If this sounds like a lot of work, it certainly can be. But, there's a good reason to invest your time and effort.

And it comes down to this: a flawed survey is worse than no survey at all. If you base your decisions on data from a bad survey, you will, by definition, make bad decisions. And, you know what? The cost of those bad decisions will very likely cost you more time and money than you saved. The computer programmers grasped the essence of when they said, "Garbage in, garbage out."

In summary, when you create a survey, focus on creating one that is as unbiased as possible, recognizing that the fairer the survey, the better the data, and the better the data, the better the decisions you'll make.

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