Designing Survey Questions

PSY7660- Survey Construction & Admin

Unit 5- Assignment 1: Designing Survey Questions

List potential questions to be included in the proposal.

Below contains a list of potential questions to be used on a survey to measure customer satisfaction for patrons who have utilize the services at Sir Chance’s Palace.  Each questions were carefully selected using an even numbered Likert scale containing possible responses for the participants to select from.  

Sir Chance’s Palace Customer Survey:

  1. Overall, how would you rate the quality of your customer service experience at Sir Chance’s Palace?
    • Very Positive
    • Somewhat Positive
    • Neutral
    • Somewhat negative
    • Negative
    • Very negative
  1. How well did we understand your concerns regarding your pet?
    • Extremely well
    • Very well
    • Well
    • Somewhat well
    • Not so well
    • Not well
  1. How much time did it take us to address all questions or concerns related to the treatment of your pet?
    • Much shorter than expected
    • Shorter than expected
    • About what I expected
    • Expected length
    • Longer than expected
    • Much longer than expected
  1. Are their noticeable changes in the pet’s behavior after receiving anxiety treatment at Sir Chance’s Palace?
    • Extremely noticeable
    • Very noticeable
    • Noticeable
    • Neutral
    • Somewhat noticeable
    • Not noticeable
  2. How likely is it that you would recommend this Sir Chance’s Palace to a friend or colleague?

               NOT AT ALL LIKELY                                                                 EXTREMELY LIKELY

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Explain the types of questions that should be included in a survey.

Asking the right type of questions is the key to research specifically regarding customer satisfaction as the goal is to understand levels of satisfaction in correlation to services offered to patrons.  It is important to ask the right questions having direct answers for the participants to select from.  Now of course the easies possible question a researcher could select to ask is “How satisfied are you?” but the answer wouldn’t provide detail nor substantive conclusions.  It is better to ask more specific questions as in the questions I have listed above in order to draw conclusions.  The answers will clearly show what worked well and which areas need improvements as well as how urgent they need to be addressed or corrected.

Additionally, there are aspects of business that an owner should want feedback on to understand levels of customer services that aren’t actively being addressed by the customer. 

Explain the types of questions that should be included in a survey. – cont.

As it results, it helps to be direct with questions that are being asked as well as asking the customer how they feel about specific details. Thus, making this approach to survey questions advantageous to determining quantifiable way to measure responses.  Additionally, adopting a satisfaction scale section is a great way to create a consistent approach to quantifying the subjective survey feedback, thus the above survey questions were created.

Provide a rationale for each survey question.

            Questions and their order in the questionnaire establish logic and flow; the questions are organized by content so that the participants are focus and respond accordingly.  Participants answers a series of questions related to the same underlying construct (in the case it’s customer service) as such the participants comes to better understanding of that construct (Knowles, 1975).  In this questionnaire the participants are answer questions to help the researcher understand levels of customer satisfaction.  The first questions ask provide the bases for why the survey was constructed – customer service.   

First, the survey sets out to understand if the customers’ expectation were meet upon initial service. The next few questions asked provide the researcher with insight to the level of attentiveness the customer received along with the level of customer service satisfaction with the selected rendered services for each patron. 

Analyze advantages and disadvantages of proposed questions.

            An advantage of the proposed questions is that the question phrases were positive assertion that the goal at Sir Chance’s Palace is for its patrons to received excellent customer service.  The questions are proposed with even number of options as the Likert-type scale, as it is the hope of this research to be able to scale the answers as supplied by each of the participants. This removed a “no-opinion” option and forced participants to select a response which could be used to scale the level of customer satisfaction.   

Analyze advantages and disadvantages of proposed questions. – cont.

A disadvantage of asking questions in this format is what if the participants did not understand the question, or did not know the answer to a particular question, he or she will be forced to provide a false response (Bilodeau, 2006, Fowler, 2014).  This practice could have led to skew survey results, increasing the rate of error and decreasing the reliability and validity of the results (Leedy & Ormrod, 2013; Warner, 2013).

Suggest strategies for minimizing disadvantages of proposed questions.

In any survey instrument the possibility exists that questions or terms used will not be understood by the participants.  Interpretation bias can increase the probability of erroneous data report (Gobo & Mauceri, 2014).  One strategy used to minimize ambiguity with the distribution and collection of a forced-choice survey instrument is to provide clear directions at the beginning of the survey (Fowler, 2014).  Gobo and Mauceri (2014) also suggested using words that have common cultural meanings.  phrasing and meaning.  In addition, the length of the survey must not lend itself to biased, patterned responses (Morren, Gelissen & Vermunt, 2012).

Reference

Bilodeau, A. (2006). Non-response error versus measurement error : A dilemma when using mail questionnaires for election studies. Australian Journal of Political Science, 41 (1), 107-117. doi : 10.1080/10361140500507310

Gobo, G., & Mauceri, S. (2014). Asking and questioning. In Constructing survey data: An interactional approach (pg. 73-102). London, GBR: Sage Publication Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781446288481.n4

Knowles, M. (1975).  Self- Directed Learning. Chicago: Association Press and Follett Publishing Company

Morren, M., Gelissen, J., & Vermunt, J.K. (2012).  Responses strategies and response styles in cross-cultural surveys.  Cross Cultural Research, 46(3), 255-279

Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J.E. (2013). Practical research: planning and design (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/97812256815457

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