In order to create online surveys that are well received by survey respondents, it is important to keep the following tips in mind:

Tip #1 - Avoid Survey Fatigue - Keep the size of you online survey to a minimum

As you create your online survey, if you find that your survey is growing in size to the point where it will take longer than 10 minutes to complete, consider breaking it up into a series of smaller surveys. While this might take a little more work, it avoids a common issue known as survey fatigue. With survey fatigue, even the most well intentioned respondents can find themselves getting tired answering page after page of questions. When this happens, they tend to put less thought into their answers or in the worse case randomly answering questions or skipping questions altogether.

Tip #2 - Incentivize Your Respondents - Tell them why they should complete your survey

Offering an incentive is a great way to promote survey completion. This can include incentives such as: small cash or gift card rewards, free information incentives such as e-books or white papers, providing a copy of the survey findings upon completion of the research project or simply letting the respondent know how their input will ultimately benefit them (e.g. in the form of product enhancements based on their input).

Tip #3 - State Your Privacy Policy - Let respondents know how you will use their input

Let your respondents know in advance how you will use the information they provide. Be clear and up front if you plan to disclose any information that can be identified as coming from them. If not, assure them that their response will be kept confidential and that their response will only be summarized with those of other respondents with no identifiable answers being disclosed.

Tip #4 - Use Skip Logic - Don't make respondents read through pages or questions that are not relevant to them

Although some surveys use written commands such as "If you answered yes to question #3, please skip to question # 8 otherwise continue with question #4.", it is better to take advantage of the built-in skip logic features provided by ZapSurvey when you create your online survey. It helps respondents avoid any possible confusion and shortens the time it takes for them to answer your survey.

Tip #5 - Use Multiple Pages - Except for very short surveys, don't try to put all the questions onto a single page

When respondents see a very long page of questions, it may scare them off from completing your survey. Instead, consider splitting your survey up onto multiple pages.

Tip #6 - Set Expectations - Tell respondents how long it will take to complete the survey

If your survey is short and will only take a few minutes to complete, let your respondents know that up front. By doing so, it will remove a potential excuse they have for not completing it. But be honest with your time estimates. If a respondent greatly exceeds the time you specify, they may feel cheated. If you have a long survey, you will also want to tell your respondents up front how long it will take to complete. Not doing so may cause respondents to quit in the middle because they have other time commitments.

Tip #7 - Test Your Survey - Make sure it has been reviewed before deploying to large groups of respondents

Before you deploy your survey to your respondent pool, consider having friends and co-workers test your survey. Not only can they help advise of spelling and grammatical mistakes, you can also review their answers to make sure your questions are being interpreted in the manner you expect.