Tips for writing customer survey questions
When writing questions, follow these rules:
- Keep questions simple and clear
- Use short, concise questions without sub-questions
- Ask about simple, easy-to-understand issues
- Do not overwhelm customers
- Avoid complicated sentences, unfamiliar terms and convoluted sentence structures
- Avoid double negatives
- Avoid leading questions
- Do not use neutral questions
The following example illustrates how the wording of a question can influence the responses.
Example from Noelle-Neumann / Petersen (1996)
Question wording 1: Do you think all workers in a company should belong to a trade union?
Responses:
- All should belong to a trade union: 36%
- Against; it should be up to each individual: 35%
- Undecided: 29%
Question wording 2: Do you think all workers in a company should belong to a trade union, or should each individual be free to decide whether or not they want to join one?
Responses:
- All should belong to a trade union: 14%
- Against; it should be up to each individual: 81%
- Undecided: 5%
Surprising, isn’t it?
