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Using Hidden Fields within Questionnaires

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Use hidden fields in online questionnaires to spare the respondent and spoil the survey analyst.

Spare the Respondent

Jim Davies, with Gartner, relates this story when he gives presentations about EFM:

One day boarding an airline, a steward came to his seat, addressed Jim by name and asked him to complete a paper survey.  He said he would be happy to, but then he looked at the survey.  It asked his name, origin of the flight, destination of the flight, whether or not it was nonstop, the type of aircraft it was, and so forth - information that the airline knew, but the survey firm didn't.  This made the survey seem as tedious as filling out a form.

The market-research firm that designed the questionnaire was right that such information would be useful to analyze. The firm was wrong to assume that the respondent was the best source of it; instead, the firm should have done a data merge with the airline's records (they had already printed Jim’s name on the questionnaire, after all).  Asking mundane questions, especially those that should already be known, lengthens the questionnaire, adds tedium and reduces response rates.

Now if this had been an online survey, such information could have been embedded behind the scenes. It could be kept hidden and used primarily for analysis. It could also be used to intelligently route the respondent through the questionnaire; for instance, for a survey about a flight, there could be a separate section visible only to those passengers who had to change planes. Intelligent branching makes surveys more relevant to respondents.

Additionally, some of the prepopulated hidden fields could be made visible, shown to the respondent to verify or update: job title and employer, for instance, are subject to change and could be shown in editable textboxes.

Spoil the Analyst

Short surveys are great for the respondent but often make it tough on the analyst to determine what is really driving satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Embedding hidden information keeps the survey short for respondents while providing a wealth of opportunities for analysis.

Good sources for hidden fields include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, which can describe the respondent, and operational systems, which can describe the transaction: for instance, a call center system can export information about the length of a call, how long the caller was on hold, how many times the call was transferred, as well as any call classification codes entered by the agent.

One of our customers embeds 197 hidden fields into an 18-question transactional survey. This provides a wealth of opportunities for cross-tabulation and correlation reports. As a bonus, the piped-in information about the respondent’s account is more accurate than if the respondent tried to recall it (chances are they can’t articulate precisely which services they subscribe to, how long they’ve subscribed, when they are up for renewal, etc.).

My favorite example of a short transactional survey with piped in information is the Domino’s five-question delivery satisfaction survey:

Behind the scenes they are collecting data from the order system about the type of order, whether it was delivered to a home or business, the time of day of delivery, the employee who delivered the order, the employee who cooked the order, and so on. This enables them to run quite sophisticated analyses without overburdening their respondents.

In Summary

Out of the 24 best practices studied in our CE IQ study, integrating CRM data with customer feedback responses was the best practice with the second-highest positive correlation to customer loyalty. By “integrating what you already know with what you want to know,” as Brian Koma puts it, you come across as knowing and understanding your customers as individuals. Failure to integrate means that you have to ask questions that the customer believes you should already know the answer to (e.g., what products and services they buy), creating a sense of distance between you and the customer. Integrating hidden fields shows the customer you know who they are and enables you to better analyze the drivers of satisfaction and loyalty.