Survey Trick or Treat: 7 Goblins, Ghosts and Gremlins to Avoid

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Are you spooked by poor survey response rates? Do you get a cold chill when your boss asks what can be done to make your surveys better? Are there skeletons in your survey closet you'd rather avoid? Are you bedeviled by survey bias, poor response rates and bad reporting? By understanding the problems that haunt most surveys, you can enhance the quality of your efforts, dramatically improve the value of your data and ensure high participation rates.

See if you recognize any of these goblins, ghosts and gremlins:

1. Zombie Surveys - In the movie "Shaun of the Dead," zombies move forward relentlessly under their own power, but have no thinking behind them. Zombie surveys are typified by survey projects that occur year after year because "we've always done it that way." Since good surveys start with good goals, getting rid of zombie surveys means asking two critical questions: Do I really need to conduct this survey to get this data? What action am I going to take with the data I gather? If you can't answer these questions, you've got a zombie to kill.
2. Frankenstein Surveys - Dr. Frankenstein bolted a monster together out of unrelated parts, and many organizations create surveys the same way. Too often individual departments are asked to contribute questions to a survey, resulting in an out-of-control monster. Avoiding Frankenstein surveys requires you to relentlessly narrow the scope of your survey and focus only on the data you need to make business decisions. Don't stitch together too many survey questions, but use a scalpel to cut out as many questions as possible.
3. Jekyll & Hyde Surveys - Dr. Jekyll looked perfectly normal, but within minutes of drinking his potion he turned evil. Jekyll & Hyde surveys look normal at the beginning, but quickly turn bad by injecting biased questions or by skewing response scales to summon a pre-ordained result. Never ask questions in such a way that respondents can determine where you stand on any topic. You can avoid drinking Dr. Hyde's potion by striving to write objective questions.
4. Response Rate Ouija Board - Conjuring up a high response rate requires more than just a dark room and the right incantations. The right ingredients for great response rates are:
• 1 high quality list of survey invitees
• 1 tasty survey invitation
• 6 key points for the survey invitation text
• a spoonful of tricks to avoid spam filters and blacklisting
• a generous helping of treats and incentives to overcome non-response bias 
5. Vampire Invitations - Bats can reach their destination even in complete darkness, but some of them turn into bloodthirsty vampires. Getting invitations out to potential respondents can involve a similar transformation that can limit your ability to field the survey if you're using non-permission based lists, or more importantly, not complying with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.  Repelling Vampire Invitations means your e-mail must be viewed as a friendly spirit by following these simple guidelines:
• E-mail text contains the physical street address of the sender
• Subject line is accurate and does not mislead the invitee
• "From" line contains the name of the company or representative
• Content includes a valid opt-out or unsubscribe link
• Email list has been reduced by removing names on your suppression list
6. Headless Horseman Reporting - If you're developing mindless reports that get buried and ignored, you're a victim of Headless Horseman Reporting. Since insights are the reason you conducted a survey, you've got to concentrate on survey reports that people will be dying to read. Overcoming this particularly pernicious gremlin means that you mustn't feel compelled to just report on data in the order it was gathered. Call out the most important elements no matter where they were collected in the survey. Make sure your report addresses the Essential Question that inspired the research in the first place.
7. Silence of the Lambs - Hannibal Lecter may have done despicable things, but he wasn't shy about talking about them ("I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"). You too must talk up your work. Consider developing summary reports, web seminars or blog posts about your survey data, or ultimately, create an online community to discuss results and show people that you're listening. For the greatest return on your survey investment, engage employees with VOC data, then share your results with customers to close the feedback loop and open up greater participation with your next research.

Exercise these best practices to exorcise the goblins, ghosts and gremlins from your research projects!