What should you consider at the beginning of a questionnaire?
To prevent drop-outs and obtain as many complete responses as possible, there are several points to consider when creating a questionnaire. The opening questions play a particularly important role. Whether a questionnaire should begin with simple or more complex questions is a matter of debate. Two contrasting approaches can be found in surveys, each supported by different reasoning:
- Option 1: Begin with simple questions that are easy to answer
- Option 2: Begin with complex and demographic questions
Option 1: Supporters of the first approach assume that simple, easy-to-answer or entertaining questions can engage participants from the outset. Once their interest has been sparked and they have answered the first few questions, the assumption is that they will also answer the remaining ones. This should result in a correspondingly high response rate.
Option 2: Advocates of the second approach argue that participants who are willing to answer complex questions at the outset are highly likely to complete the questionnaire. Drop-outs would therefore occur at the beginning rather than later in the questionnaire. According to this theory, responses would consequently consist predominantly of completed questionnaires.
Opening questions: expert tips
In our experience, it is generally advisable to begin with simple questions that are easy to answer. Icebreaker questions, primarily intended to spark interest in the topic, can also be helpful at the beginning of the questionnaire. Entertaining and engaging questions can make the opening more appealing and increase participants' motivation. In short, the first question should spark curiosity, relate to the topic and encourage participants to continue.
If complex, demographic and/or sensitive questions must be asked, they should generally be placed at the end of the questionnaire. Participants are more likely to leave or skip these questions; as the survey creator, however, you may at least be able to include the answers submitted up to that point in your analysis.
By the way, filter questions and skip logic can be used right at the beginning of the questionnaire to direct participants along different questionnaire paths (for example, service staff to page 3 and administrative staff to page 4). This allows you to present participants with individually tailored questionnaires containing only relevant content. Find out more about individual response paths here: branching and skip logic
What is LamaPoll?
LamaPoll is a survey tool for creating online questionnaires. Our survey tool lets you create, run and analyse online questionnaires quickly and easily. Create your questionnaire in just a few steps, customise it for your organisation and conveniently invite customers or employees by email. An online questionnaire enables you to gather insights quickly and easily to improve customer or employee satisfaction. You can register for the LamaPoll survey tool free of charge and immediately create and run online surveys with up to 50 participants. If you need more responses for your online questionnaire, simply choose one of our plans: billed monthly, cancel any month. You can also choose from our online questionnaire templates and examples.
