Exploring Different Types of Survey Attention Checks
Here are four types of “attention checks” to build into your questionnaires and analysis in order to assess whether respondents are fully engaged in answering your survey.
Translating Surveys Perfectly Will Make Them Perfect – But It Doesn’t Actually Matter
A recent study shows that team translation is superior for accurate survey translation, but that less accurate translations will work just as well in terms of survey measurement.
A Better Way to Ask Race and Ethnicity (and Proof That It Works)
Versta Research has a new way of asking about race and ethnicity on surveys, and it is reducing respondent confusion and complaints by 80%.
How to Test Knowledge and Misperceptions on a Survey
It’s not easy to use a survey to measure public knowledge or misperceptions. Why? Because surveys are not quizzes. Respondents expect you to ask questions they can answer truthfully and correctly based on their opinions and experience. As good researchers, we mostly try to reassure respondents: “There are no right or wrong answers! Please give…
How to Fix a McKinsey Survey: 10 Best Practices They Should Have Followed
Last week we showed you a survey that might convince you to think twice about hiring a super high-end consulting firm for your survey research and insights. Fancy business consultants may know a lot about business, but they know little about gathering good data to answer their business questions. So this week, instead of focusing…
This is What a McKinsey Survey Looks Like
Ever wonder what you get if you hire a fancy schmancy consulting firm for your survey research and marketing insights, instead of Versta Research? Every once in a while we have a potential client who insists: “Give us IBM! Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.” I got a view into what those surveys look…
For Better Response Rates, Try Dumping Qualtrics for Mail Chimp
If you suffer from miserably low response rates to surveys you send with your own e-mail list, here’s something to try: Dump the e-mail invitation functionality that is built into your survey platform like Qualtrics. Instead, use a stand-alone email tool like Mail Chimp or Constant Contact. This will make your life harder, and it…
A Checklist for Testing Surveys
We recently offered an article about needing to “punish test” surveys lest you end up with a mess of mistakes like text piping that fails, or survey layouts that do not to adapt to user devices. But how do you actually punish test a survey? The best way, we think, is to start with a…
Here’s Why You Should “Punish Test” Your Surveys
Testing a survey before it launches takes about 4 to 6 hours of an experienced professional’s time, for a standard ten- to fifteen-minute survey. If you don’t invest that time up front, you are almost certain to discover mistakes while in the field (or worse: after), which can make for a nightmare of programming corrections…
Mobile Surveys Are Better in One Surprising Way: You Get More Revealing Personal Information
Contrary to some widely held beliefs that mobile devices are a barrier to survey participation, a majority of survey respondents nowadays fill them out on phones, rather than on desktops, laptops, or tablets. Research has amply documented that the quality and reliability of data collected via mobile devices is comparable to data collected on desktops.…