How to Write Good Survey Questions

With over 1.3 million members, Eureka Surveys has the power to send your survey to a wide, diverse audience. We offer quick, reliable responses. But before we can even begin to think about collecting responses, we have to craft the perfect survey. How does one write good survey questions? Read on for our quick tips.

10 tips on how to write the perfect survey questions

1. Tell a story.

Surveys can be dry and boring. You don't have to be. Create flavor and style in your writing by creating interesting, engaging questions. Respondents will be more likely to finish your survey and give you high-quality feedback.

Hot tip:Tell your respondent why you're making this survey. For example, you're a ghost kitchen looking to try out a new chicken sandwich recipe. Let the respondent know. They might give more impactful answers.

2. Keep it short and sweet.

Keep your survey to 7-10 questions, with a majority of multiple-choice and 1-2 free responses. Shorter surveys tend to yield higher quality results. Longer surveys tend to lead to survey fatigue and incompletes.

If you do have a longer survey, break it up into smaller surveys with specific topics. For example, if you have a long survey about new restaurant dish ideas, try breaking it into smaller surveys like "Meat recipes" and "Vegetarian recipes."

3. Use a variety of question formats.

At Eureka, we provide researchers the option to create both multiple-choice, check box, and free-response questions. Begin your survey with quick, easy multiple-choice and/or check box questions. Once your respondent has "warmed up," create free-response questions at the end.

Surveys that have a mix of the three question types tend to yield better results. Why? Multiple choice and check box questions allow a respondent to provide an answer from a limited range of options. Free-response questions allow a respondent to elaborate on previous answers and provide further insight for the researcher.

For example, we ran a survey about Columbus Day. Through a multiple-choice question, we asked, "Would you rename the US federal holiday Columbus Day?" In a follow-up free-response question, we asked respondents to explain their answers. Click here to see the wide range of responses that we received.

4. Keep multiple-choice questions close-ended and free-response questions open-ended.

In multiple-choice questions, we utilize close-ended questions to allow the respondent to quickly and decisively give their opinion. This also minimizes room for confusion. For example, when asking about chicken sandwiches, we can ask, "How many times a week do you eat a chicken sandwich?" The respondent can only give a limited response.

On the other hand, we utilize open-ended questions on free responses to allow the respondent to elaborate on their opinion. Open-ended questions also allow respondents to be more creative in their answers. For example, as a follow-up to the question above, we can ask, "Why do you eat chicken sandwiches?"

5. Make multiple-choice answer choices comprehensive and neutral.

It's important to give the respondent a wide variety of answer choices.

For example, we have the question:"How do you feel about the changing weather?" with the following answer options:

GreatSlightly greatNeutral

This set of answer choices influences the responder to answer positively about the changing weather conditions. However, if you were to change the answer options to:

GreatSlightly greatNeutralSlightly SadSad

You allow the respondent a wider range of options.

6. Use the "knowledge" and/or "gotcha" question.

A knowledge question makes sure that your respondent is familiar with a certain subject. For example, say you're Chik-fil-A running a survey about a new chicken sandwich. To make sure the respondent is familiar with your products, you can ask, "Which of these is not a Chick-fil-A sauce?"

A gotcha question is a quick attention check. For example, during the middle of a survey, you can ask:"Great answers so far! Let's make sure you're still paying attention. Pick the answer choice that says white."

If the respondent does not choose "white," then you know they are not paying attention!

7. Don't use leading questions.

Leading questions prompt the respondent to answer in a certain, biased way. For example, if you asked, "Why do you dislike the changing weather?" you are prompting the respondent to disagree with the weather conditions, even if they do not actually think so! Instead, you should ask, "How do you feel about the changing weather?" and give a neutral, diverse set of answer options (like shown above!).

8. Test your survey.

Before sending out your survey to a wide audience, test your survey on a small beta group. Eureka requires a minimum of 50 respondents. If you are seeing interesting and varied results from your beta group, then send out your survey to the greater Eureka audience.

Hot tip:You can easily duplicate your previous survey via the Eureka Surveys dashboard!

9. Build a better survey based on your past findings.

After sending out your first survey, you can always run a version two! Examine which questions worked and which did not. Re-work the questions, and then send out your survey again!

10. Need inspo? Check out our example surveys!

Need some more inspo? Check out our example Eureka surveys. Use the code FIFTY on your first survey to get the first 50 respondents for free!