FAQs for Step 28: Compile Survey Information
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Q: I got a lot of useful data from my surveys, but most people left the age and income questions blank. Is the data I’ve collected from these people still useful?
Q: I got a lot of garbage responses on my surveys – people that I assume are just messing around. Is it okay just to leave these surveys out of the results?
Q: I’m launching a chocolate business and not one person has said they would try a lavender chocolate but I know if I got them in the store and they sampled it they would definitely buy. How much weight should I be giving to the survey data?
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Q: I got a lot of useful data from my surveys, but most people left the age and income questions blank. Is the data I’ve collected from these people still useful?
First, consider how important the age and/or income information is to your results. If the information is not necessary, consider dropping the question from your survey.
Secondly, take a look at how you couched the age and income questions. For the most part, it’s more effective to ask for approximate information rather than being too specific.
For example, the following question is used to gather the age group in the surveys at http://www.riskbuster.com/tools/surveys/
Check your age group:
10-18 ________ 19-29 ________ 30 & over ________
How much do you earn per year:
$10k to $20k ________ $20k to $30k ________ $30k to $40k ________ $40k to $50k ________ $50k and over ________
The format above will enable you to meet your objective of building a customer profile while not pressing or appearing to press the participant for information that is too “personal.
Q: I got a lot of garbage responses on my surveys – people that I assume are just messing around. Is it okay just to leave these surveys out of the results?
Suggest you take a close look at the responses before tossing any. You want to be certain that you’re not classifying them as garbage responses simply because they don’t agree with how you see the world. Be careful not to drift into the dark art of continuing to survey until you get the answer you want, a practice commonly followed by government surveyors.
If the suspect responses are obviously and definitely garbage, then by all means toss them out. But if it’s a consistent kind of “garbage,” perhaps the responders are trying to tell you something. For example, you might be surveying the wrong crowd, or your survey questions might be unclear. In these cases you might try surveying a different audience or altering your survey form to see if the problem corrects itself.
Q: I’m launching a chocolate business and not one person has said they would try a lavender chocolate but I know if I got them in the store and they sampled it they would definitely buy. How much weight should I be giving to the survey data?
It seems that people need to experience some things before they can really understand the value or benefit. Massages and chocolates for instance. So, it is possible that you’re not getting a true picture from your survey data. Have you considered doing a taste test? We’ve tasted lavender chocolates and we know… if people taste them, they want them.
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Q: I’m launching a hot air balloon business and my survey data is a bit confusing – I have a lot of responses at either end of the spectrum – people seem to love it or hate it. How do I go about interpreting and using the data?
It rather makes sense that people would either love or hate the idea of drifting wherever the wind happens to want to blow you, a few hundred meters above the earth, held there by a large balloon that rises and falls according to how much flame you blast into it…it seems no surprise that your survey responses are as hot and cold as the flame-powered balloons themselves. If you’ve done a thorough job of designing your questions and targeting your responders, your survey might be directing you toward a certain demographic or psychographic cohort.
Here are a couple things to consider:
- Ensure you’re asking enough questions and the right questions to be able to determine what the surveys are telling you.
- If you’re attempting a random sampling, make sure you’re truly random, not biased in some way.
- If you want a fabulous grounding on the topic if surveying, we urge you to download and read Jeffrey Henning’s free Survey Software Success eBook at http://blog.vovici.com/blog/bid/18188/Survey-Software-Success-Free-EBook
- We also advise you to ensure you do enough surveys to bring you within an acceptable degree of confidence (see Step 24 FAQ’s )
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Email us at faqs@riskbuster.com
We welcome all questions, comments and feedback and look forward to hearing from you!