Review the basic objectives of the study. What are you trying to discover? What actions do you want to take as a result of the survey?  This helps you double check the validity of the data collection mechanism. Online Surveys are just one way of collecting and quantifying perspectives.

Visualize all of the relevant information items you would like to have. What will the output report look like? What charts and graphs will be prepared?  What information do you need to be assured that action is warranted?

Rank each topic in items 1 and 2 according to the value of the topic. List the most important topics first.  Revisit items 1 and 2 again to make sure the objectives, topics and information you need are appropriate.  Remember, you can't solve the problem if you ask the wrong questions.

How easy or difficult is it for the respondent to provide information on each topic? If it is difficult, is there another way to obtain the information by asking another question?

This is probably the most important step. Online Surveys have to be Precise, Clear and Concise. Due to the nature of the "Web" and the fickleness associated, if your questions are too complicated and are not easy to understand, you will have a high "drop out" rate.

Create a sequence for the topics that is unbiased. Make sure that the questions asked first do not bias the results of the next questions. Sometimes providing too much information, or disclosing purpose of the study can create bias.

Once you have a sequence of topics, you can have a basic layout of a survey. It is always prudent to add an "Introductory" text to explain the project and what is required off the respondent. It is also professional to have an ending "Thank You" text as well as information about where to find the results of the survey, when they are published.

Determine the type of question that is best suited to answer the question and provide enough robustness to meet analysis requirements. This means do you use open-ended text questions, dichotomous, multiple choice, rank order, scaled, or constant sum (ratio scale) questions. There is a fine line you need to walk here - Generally tougher analysis requirements will lead to more complicated questionnaire design. However there are a couple of tools available to make life easier: -

1. Page Breaks - Avoid having a huge scrolling survey. Introduce page breaks as necessary. Please also refrain from just having one question per page. This increases the time to complete the survey as well as increases the chances for "drop outs".
   
2. Skip Login - Use Page Skip Logic to make your surveys "Smart". Avoid using text like, "If you answered No to Q1 then Answer Q4" - this causes respondent frustration and increases the "drop out" rate. Design the survey using the Page Logic so that the correct questions are automatically routed based on previous responses.

Write the questions.  You may need to write several questions for each topic, selecting the best one. You might also be better off dividing the survey into multiple sections.

Sequence the questions so that they are unbiased.

Repeat all of the steps above to find any major holes.  Are the questions really answered?  Have someone review it for you.

Time the length of the survey.  A survey should take less than five minutes.  At three to four questions per minute, you are limited to about 15 questions. One open end text question counts for three multiple choice questions. Most online software tools will record the time taken for the respondents to answer questions.

Pretest the survey to 20 or more people. Obtain their feedback... in detail. What were they unsure about?  Did they have questions? Did they have trouble understanding what you wanted? Did they take a point of view not covered in your answers or question?

1. An easy way to do this is to create another survey, with a few "open ended" essay questions along with your main project. Let's call this the "feedback survey".
2. Email the "Project" survey to your test group and then email the "feedback" survey also after that.
3. In that way, you can have your test group send you comments regarding the functionality as well as usability of your "Project" survey by using you "feedback survey"!

Revise your online questionnaire incorporating the feedback that you got.

Send the Survey out to all your respondents!

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Here are general recommendations:

1. Keep it simple. Your customers want to respond to your survey, but you should make it as easy as possible for them. How you invite them to participate, the way you ask questions and what design template you use will affect participation rates. In many regards, the simpler the better. Also, write your questions clearly so that people who are not native speakers of your language can understand the questions.

2. Keep it short. Choose the length of your survey based on the type of product or service you sell, how much they spent for your product or how often they use the product or contact your company. Generally speaking, about 20 to 30 questions are appropriate for an image-based survey and no more than ten are appropriate for a transactional survey (more on what these two types of surveys are in the next section). Any survey over 40 questions will have a high abandonment rate.

3. Keep your implied promises. If your goal is to identify what your organization can change to improve satisfaction levels, you need to be willing to respond to survey results. Your customers will view the survey as a mechanism by which they can affect change. If they don't see any improvements, they will become disillusioned and will view the company negatively. This means you need to concentrate on measuring concrete factors over which you have control, such as response time, delivery policies, support professionalism, and order accuracy. Avoid generalized questions such as "Do you think XYZ is a good company?" One respondent may think "good" refers to skill, while the next may think it means morally good. In both cases, you can't learn enough from this type of question to make any concrete changes.

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A five-step process can be used to make these longer-term improvements.

Step 1: Spot the gap

• Look at the customer satisfaction data to see where there are low absolute scores and low scores relative to the competition
• Pay particular attention to those issues that are important to customers
• Assume the scores are correct unless there is irrefutable evidence to the contrary – and remember, perceptions are reality

Step 2: Challenge and redefine the segmentation

• How do satisfaction scores vary across different types of customer?
• Are segments correctly defined in the light of the customer satisfaction findings?
• How could a change in segmentation direct the offer more effectively and so achieve higher levels of satisfaction?

Step 3: Challenge and redefine the customer value propositions

• Are customer satisfaction scores low because the customer value proposition (CVP) is not being communicated effectively to the market?
• Are customer satisfaction scores low because the CVP is not being effectively implemented?
• Is the CVP right for the segment? How could a change in CVP achieve a higher customer satisfaction index (CSI)?

Step 4: Create an action plan

• Describe the problem
• Think through the issues that need to be addressed and list them out
• Identify the root cause of the problems
• Identify any barriers that could stop the improvement taking place
  Set measurable targets
• Allocated resources (usually money and people)
• Assign people and time scales to the tasks
• Measure and review progress

Step 5: Measure and review

• How has the customer satisfaction index (CSI) moved?
• Is the movement significant/real?
• Has the action recommended in the plan, taken place? Has it been enough? Has it had enough time to work?
• Revisit the steps – spot the gap, challenge the segmentation and CVP, more action

Many of the issues that affect customer satisfaction span functional boundaries and so organisations must establish cross-functional teams to develop and implement action plans. One of the best ways of achieving this involvement by different groups of employees is to involve them in the whole process.

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In customer satisfaction research we seek the views of respondents on a variety of issues that will show how the company is performing and how it can improve. This understanding is obtained at a high level (“how satisfied are you the ABC Ltd overall?”) and at a very specific level (“how satisfied are you with the clarity of invoices?”).

High level issues are included in most customer satisfaction surveys and they could be captured by questions such as:

• What is your overall satisfaction with ABC Ltd?
• How likely or unlikely are you to buy from ABC Ltd again?
• How likely or unlikely would you be to recommend ABC Ltd to a friend or colleague?

It is at the more specific level of questioning that things become more difficult. Some issues are of obvious importance and every supplier is expected to perform to a minimum acceptable level on them. These are the hygiene factors. If a company fails on any of these issues they would quickly lose market share or go out of business. An airline must offer safety but the level of in-flight service is a variable. These variables such as in-flight service are often the issues that differentiate companies and create the satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

Working out what questions to ask at a detailed level means seeing the world from the customers’ points of view. What do they consider important? These factors or attributes will differ from company to company and there could be a long list.

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