Things You Need to Know About How to Create a Questionnaire

Importance of Questionnaire

You would not know the answer without asking a proper question. We know this for a fact as a business owner, as a student, as an online shopper, as a customer, and as someone who wants to understand the people and things around the circle. In this article, we are gladly sharing the things you need to know about creating a good and effective questionnaire for your business online. Now that we live in a paperless and digital age, it is easier to gather information from the web. As an online business owner, all you need to do is to write down a questionnaire that you can flash on your website or send a survey question via an electronic Newsletter. You just need to craft what are the perfect questions to ask.

Creating a well-structured questionnaire is significant to business growth and development. By asking a series of questions, you will be able to know and understand your customers. You can determine the room for improvement for your own business and what drives your customers to buy a certain product. A well-crafted and properly executed customer satisfaction questionnaire can help your website get more traffic and sales because you have unraveled their thoughts about your products. Just shoot a question to your customers, and you’ll discover a wide range of opportunities for your business.

What is a Questionnaire?

According to QuestionPro, a questionnaire is a set of questions used as a research instrument to gather information. There are several ways or types of prompts that aim to gather information from a certain respondent. A questionnaire is usually composed of close-ended and open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are used to help people elaborate on their thoughts and perspectives, while close-ended questions are answerable by yes or no.

A questionnaire may be delivered as a form of a survey but not in all cases. This is where confusion falls between these two terms because not all questionnaires are executed in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of a questionnaire to conduct research. A questionnaire is an efficient and effective way of collecting information that can save you time, energy, and resources. You don’t need to conduct interviews one at a time because you can just ask people to answer a series of questions on their most convenient time. This is an effective strategy as well to get people thinking about their answers rather than asking them an impromptu question about how they feel about the company, or what are their thoughts about the new policy, or how they feel about the customer service.

Types of Questionnaires:

• Structured Questionnaire - it is a type of questionnaire that collects quantitative data. Formal inquiry is initiated about prior research that aims to gather precise information.
• Unstructured Questionnaire - it is a type of questionnaire that collects qualitative data. An unstructured questionnaire does not limit the respondent’s response. Usually, an open-ended question is used to gather a specific answer from the participants.

Types of Questions in a Questionnaires

• Open-ended Questions - Long-form questions can get the respondents to think deeper and elaborate their answer to a question. An open-ended question is used to determine a specific answer based on the person’s point of view.
• Close-ended questions - Generally, this type of questionnaire is answerable by yes or no. It doesn’t take too much time to answer this question, but it helps validate a certain case or hypothesis. Close-ended questions are also used to conduct rad surveys to get results fast.
• Scaling Questions- The type of questionnaires that are based on the principles of four measurement scales as nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. Rank order questions are very common in this type of questionnaire.
• Multiple-Choice Questions - it is also a type of closed-ended question in which the participant is asked to select among the given options. The person may pick single or multiple answers depending on the given instruction or question.

Questionnaire Examples

1. Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire - this type of questionnaire is used to evaluate a customer’s feedback or suggestion after having an interaction with a certain service provider or organization.

Excellent example: You can send a quick survey questionnaire via email or text to a customer who has visited your art craft exhibit. In this case, you would know how they feel about the setup. You can use open-ended or close-ended questions like:

• Did you find the art craft exhibit interesting?
• What do you love most about the art exhibit setting?

Image taken from Japanese Craft website

1. Product Use Satisfaction Questionnaire - For businesses with online and physical shops, this is very effective in getting the customer’s perspectives about your store products. Get them talking by asking questions to your website or sending them a short survey through a Newsletter.

Excellent Example: For cosmetics shops, you can ask your customers to answer at least two to three questions to help them find the perfect product based on their skin type, tone, etc.

• Do you have an allergic reaction to cream-based moisturizer?
• What is your skin type? A. Dry B. Oily C. Normal

Image taken from Swish website

1. Company Communications Evaluation Questionnaire - the type of questionnaires that involves internal and external communication between employees and the company management. It is used to evaluate if a certain policy or others refer to as ‘house rules’ is being enforced. It aims to get the employees' thoughts about the company’s rules and regulations to better serve their needs in performing tasks.

Excellent Example: A Human Resources officer may ask the employees to take a short survey sent to their work emails about the newly implemented Perfect Attendance policy.

• How do you find the Perfect Attendance Policy?
• Do you think the incentive can motivate the employees to achieve their goals?

Image taken from Scan Ask website

Quick Tips on Effective Questionnaire Design

1. Simplicity - Keep it short and simple. Truly, you don’t want to disappoint your customers by taking long surveys and critical questions ahead.
2. Consistency- Ask a question only once. There’s an old saying that once is enough and twice is too much. Avoid repetitive questions that ask for the same answer. Tell you what, it can annoy an interested customer.
3. Flexibility- Be flexible. Give your participants a wide range of options to choose from. Don’t be stuck with close-ended questions. Try in-depth, long-form questions to get your customers talking. Take note that you can also give them multiple-choice questions with relevant options.
4. Familiarity- Know the scope of your survey questionnaire. Understanding the scope of your research will lead you to ask the right questions and get the right answers.

Image taken from Luka lesson website

How to Create a Questionnaire with Strikingly Using Custom Form?

Strikingly knows the importance of questionnaires in improving services and product ventures for online businesses and physical establishments. This is why we are glad to share with you one of the features that you can use to collect information, get your customers talking, and share their thoughts about your product or service. With Strikingly Pro Plan and other yearly plan access, you can simply add a Custom Form for your customer satisfaction questionnaire on your site. Follow these five steps on how to create your website:

1. Sign up and create an account with Strikingly. We love to get your customers talking and taking an online survey. Create a survey questionnaire website and bring your business on board with an amazing web presence.

1. Choose among our pre-designed templates. We recommend that you select among our questionnaire templates or designs that are relevant to the type of questionnaire you will make. We have talented users who have done this before. Check them out.

Image taken from Strikingly website

1. On our website editor, you can add a section where you can select Custom Form. This is your gateway to interact with your visitors and let them share your thoughts about your website. Did they find what they’re looking for? You will definitely know!

Image taken from Strikingly website editor

1. Customize each section with the questions you have prepared. You can simply edit form, add options, etc. in this space. Make sure to review the different types of questionnaires that you can use so that your customers will not be stuck in answering yes or no questions.

Image taken from Strikingly website editor

1. Publish your survey questionnaire website and promote it to your customers. Strikingly will help you promote your questionnaire website on social media and email with our website services and tips to inspire you.

Image taken from Habit House

We are waiting for you to make the best decision for your business. What are you waiting for? Did you find this content helpful? Keep in mind the types and examples of questionnaires that you can create for your business. Remember to keep it short and straightforward. Welcome your customers and help them find what they’re looking for. Go on, just shoot them a question.