Usually, while taking people’s opinions or feedback about specific topics, we confuse the questionnaire and survey. However, people need to understand the difference between a survey and a questionnaire to have a clear vision of feedback collection. Therefore, this article explains the importance of understanding the survey vs. questionnaire comparison and how to write successful questionnaires and surveys.
Why Should You Understand the Difference Between Survey and Questionnaire?
People usually use the terms questionnaire and survey as synonyms for each other. However, you should understand the difference between a survey and a questionnaire to avoid such confusion. Here are the points that will clarify why it is important to understand the difference between them.
- Scope and Conceptualization: Survey and questionnaire have different scopes and conceptualizations, making it essential to differentiate both terms.
- Flexibility and Interaction: It is vital to comprehend the differences between the survey and the questionnaire, as the survey is more flexible than the questionnaire. Moreover, questionnaires are pre-designed questions to collect data without direct interaction with respondents.
- Data Collection Methods: Researchers or professionals collect the survey through various methods such as face-to-face, telephone interviews, and online surveys. Besides that, the questionnaire only includes written questions to collect the data.
- Understand Respondent Experience: In the case of the questionnaire, only written questions are the source used to understand the respondent’s experience. At the same time, surveys offer numerous ways to collect respondent feedback, which makes it essential to understand the survey vs. questionnaire.
What is a Survey and its Sample?
The survey comprises questions, procedures, and methodologies that aim to analyze the data about a specific subject. It takes great care and time to create for professional and academic purposes. Furthermore, the survey is the strategic method to research and collect data that provides valuable insights. Incorrectly collecting and interpreting data can reduce the validity of the survey results.
The main purpose of the survey is to find out about the opinions of a specific group of people. Plus, the survey process usually involves the use of structured questionnaires, interviews, and face-to-face interaction to collect data. In addition to that, this starts with a defining objective to formulate clear and unbiased questions. Data collected from respondents is used to analyze patterns, trends, and correlations.
In the business setting, you want to know the customer’s opinion regarding your product or service. For this, create a survey that covers the questions aimed at knowing the satisfaction of the customer. The given template will help you gain knowledge about the satisfaction level of customers. Moreover, you can judge the components of your services with different opinions, such as satisfied, neutral, or unsatisfied.
Businesses can also know customer satisfaction by asking whether consumers will use the service in the future or not. Plus, any other question can also be added to know how satisfied customers are with the company’s service. You can add suggestion questions like how you can improve the customer service to understand the reason why customers are unsatisfied. The difference between a survey and a questionnaire can be understood clearly through this survey sample.
What Is a Questionnaire and Its Sample?
It is a written set of questions formulated to gather information from the respondent on a specific topic. Also, you can learn about the respondents’ behavior, experience, and opinions. The format and structure of the questionnaire can vary, ranging from open-ended to closed-ended questions. Additionally, carefully considering the research objective and purpose can create an effective questionnaire.
The aim of the questionnaire is to collect standardized and quantifiable data from individuals in a systematic manner. Additionally, this is the targeted conversation with people to get their opinions on paper, online, and in a digital format. While taking the opinions of respondents through a questionnaire, there is no direct interaction with them. Other than that, the outcome of a single questionnaire provides insight into an individual’s responses.
While hiring a new employee, companies want to gather information from that person during the interview. So, the questionnaire provides an organized way to collect the information and opinions of the interviewee for company records. The sample of the questionnaire consists of questions to know the personal information of the individual. Also, asking for individual skills, aims, and qualifications ensures their suitability for specific roles in the company.
The organization can ask other questions from interviewees, such as why they want to join the company. Additional note questions can be added to the questionnaire to take the opinion of the person who came for the interview. Furthermore, this sample indicates survey and questionnaire differences as questionnaires give information about one person.
When to Use Questionnaires vs. Surveys?
People usually confuse both terms and use them interchangeably in many cases to gather data from respondents. The discussion on samples of survey and questionnaire tells us that the two terms are different from each other. In addition to that, knowing when to use the questionnaire and survey can help you understand the difference between them. The use cases of both terms have been discussed in detail below for better understanding.
Use Cases of Survey
- Online surveys are conducted for market research as they give an idea of what is trending and the customers’ behavior.
- Companies create the survey to determine customer satisfaction regarding the products/services they offer.
- You can get an idea about the satisfaction of all your employees and things that should be improved in the workplace through survey responses.
- Furthermore, surveys are crucial in political campaigns to gauge public opinion on candidates, policies, and political issues.
Use Cases of Questionnaire
- Educational institutes can use the questionnaire to know how students perceive their academic performance.
- Moreover, organizations can collect information and opinions from interviewees by creating an interview questionnaire.
- The HR department uses an exit employee questionnaire to get feedback from employees who are leaving the organization.
- A gym health questionnaire is used by the gym instructor to track the progress in the health and fitness of the client.
How to Write a Great Questionnaire?
Now, you have become better familiarized with the concept of survey vs. questionnaire with the help of the above-discussed use cases of both terms. In addition to that, some practices and tips can make the questionnaire effective and successful. The practices and tips explained in the section below can help you write a great questionnaire.
1. Define Your Objectives
It is essential to define the objective and purpose of the questionnaire to understand what information you want to gather. This information can be about customer satisfaction, employee feedback, and market research. Additionally, a well-defined objective will guide the overall structure and content of the questionnaire.
2. Ask About the Right Things
You should craft questions that are directly related to your objective to avoid unnecessary queries. Also, prioritize the questions that align with your goals and ensure each item on the questionnaire serves a specific purpose. In this way, you can streamline the questionnaire and enhance the quality of responses received.
3. Use Appropriate Question Formats
Educational institutes and businesses can obtain accurate and actionable data by selecting the appropriate question format. You can use a combination of both open-ended and closed-ended questions to engage the respondent. Moreover, it increases the response precision by using different formats like scale and multiple choice questions with the help of Feedeo.
4. Be Mindful of Sensitive Topics
When formulating the questionnaire, it is necessary to be sensitive about the personal or potentially delicate subjects. Furthermore, design neutral and non-intrusive questions to get comfortable and honest responses. Also, this shows that you consider the respondents’ feelings and respect cultural differences and diverse perspectives.
5. Avoid Leading Questions
Leading questions can unintentionally affect or manipulate responses, compromising the integrity of data. In addition, refrain from making assumptions or providing hints that could sway the participants’ opinions. So, maintain the objectivity of questions to increase the likelihood of obtaining genuine and unbiased questions.
How to Write a Successful Survey?
It is essential to write a successful survey to collect trustworthy data and make informed decisions based on the data. After getting the know-how of surveys and questionnaire differences, anyone can create the right survey that gives valuable insights. Therefore, here are the tips that make the survey successful and beneficial for getting feedback from people:
1. Identify Your Target Audience
For a successful survey, you can begin by outlining your target audience’s characteristics, including demographics, interests, and behaviors. Furthermore, you should understand the survey’s purpose and align questions with objectives for relevance. If your audience is diverse, consider segmentation into smaller groups to customize questions for detailed insights.
2. Keep a Balanced Set of Answer Choices
Organizations should create a balanced set of answer choices with diverse options to cover a broad spectrum of responses. Besides, you can include a neutral option for questions to prevent respondents from feeling compelled to choose inaccurately. Additionally, avoid leading questions to maintain unbiased choices for more accurate and honest feedback from respondents.
3. Use Appropriate Language and Tone
Survey creators can proceed further by using straightforward and concise language in survey questions, avoiding confusing jargon. A professional and respectful tone across all subjects encourages respondent trust and honest feedback. Plus, you should ensure clarity and understanding for a larger audience to enhance effective communication.
4. Pilot Test Your Survey
The survey is conducted to take the feedback of a larger audience on a specific topic or subject. Therefore, it is essential to pilot-test the survey on a small number of people. In addition, the pilot test survey ensures that your survey is effective for taking the opinion of a wider audience.
5. Use Response Scales Whenever Possible
Incorporate response scales such as numerical ratings or similar scales to quantify respondents’ opinions and feedback. Additionally, ensure that the scale is clear and consistently labeled across all relevant questions. Use Feedeo to create a response scale video and enhance the interpretability of survey results.
Best Questionnaire Survey Method in 2024
The tips and practices make the questionnaire and survey tremendous and successful in obtaining effective feedback from the respondents. People sometimes do not fill out the questionnaires and surveys because of their boring format. However, video content usually grabs the attention of individuals and engages them in a better way.
For this purpose, you can use Feedeo to create the interactive video and encourage the respondents to complete the questionnaire and survey. With the help of this tool, you not only take people’s opinions but also engage them well in this whole process. In addition, Feedeo also has templates and samples of surveys and questionnaires for the ease of users.
- Plus, this survey maker provides AI avatars and voices to make customized survey videos.
- Additionally, you can write personalized content for your videos with the help of the script feature.
- It offers the logic feature to redirect pages of video-based surveys based on feedback collected from customers.
- Also, users can embed videos, surveys, or widgets on their websites to gather data efficiently.
