Conducting an anonymous survey is one of the best practices you can use in research. First, if you make your survey confidential, potential respondents are more likely to participate and share their honest opinions. Secondly, you are ensuring that your research results can be analyzed without any bias.
But to do that, you need to get familiar with the best practices when conducting surveys. For example, even though there are numerous circumstances when it is crucial to create an anonymous survey, there are also some instances when it is not recommended.
Additionally, you need to know how to find the right anonymous survey tool to use.
Continue reading to find out how to make the best anonymous online survey by following some straightforward steps, as well as how to protect your respondents’ identities when a purely anonymous survey is not an option.
What is an anonymous survey? And why should you use one?
Simply put, the survey is anonymous if the personal information of respondents remains confidential (i.e., unknown to any of the researchers). This means that an anonymous questionnaire shouldn’t collect identifying information such as name, date of birth, address, etc. This way researchers can’t link survey responses to individual participants.
Certain questionnaires need to have demographic survey questions because such data is crucial for accurate research results. However, many people are reluctant to provide feedback about their ethnic background, educational status, or income level.
Making your survey anonymous can help you collect all necessary feedback while also protecting sensitive information. Anonymous surveys provide the following benefits:
- An increased response rate: Respondents are more likely to participate when they know their personal information remains confidential.
- More honest feedback: This will result in more accurate data, with anonymity also increasing the willingness of participants to be honest.
- An unbiased analysis of the collected data: This is especially true in cases where knowing the identity of your participants could affect your analysis.
Bear in mind that there are also additional data that should be excluded from questionnaires for them to be truly anonymous. This includes IP address and contact information (such as an email address).
When should you make an anonymous survey?
Before explaining how to make an anonymous survey, we should first cover the reasons why to use one in the first place. We will do this by listing some situations in which this type of survey is most beneficial.
An anonymous questionnaire is highly useful in circumstances where revealing the identity of respondents can be problematic, either for respondents personally or for the results of your research. Here are some examples:
- When your survey covers a sensitive topic, respondents will feel more comfortable expressing their honest opinion if they remain anonymous.
- When knowing the identity of the respondents, or their specific personal information, can lead to bias when analyzing responses.
- When there is a possibility of retaliation against the respondents (for example, when reporting abuse in school or workplace).
Are there any cases when you can’t use anonymous surveys?
When you need to do a follow-up survey, you can’t have participants be anonymous because you have to know which people to contact afterward.
So, how can you avoid knowing their identities and still be able to follow up?
By using a free anonymous survey tool to create a questionnaire and then share it with your participants via your newsletter. One of the many features of our free anonymous survey creator is survey embedding, which makes it easy for you to share pre-made survey templates via email.
Using this tool, you can send a follow-up survey to all email addresses without having to know which participants completed the survey. When doing so, keep in mind that you need to turn off all conversion trackers in order for the recipients to stay anonymous.
However, there are certain circumstances when sending out general follow-up questions to all potential participants won’t be an option. Instead, you will have to contact specific respondents and ask for their feedback.
In that case, the best solution is to designate one party that will keep all the personal information unknown to everyone participating in the research. When conducting an anonymous employee survey, this role can be taken on by the company’s HR department or an outside company.
Five tips on how to make the best anonymous surveys
Creating anonymous surveys is not at all complicated. Here are our top five tips that will help you create your next anonymous questionnaire with ease.
Underline the anonymity of the survey
Make sure your participants know their personal information is protected. Simply stating “This survey is anonymous” may not be enough for some participants to feel safe participating. Instead, explain in more detail how this is accomplished with the protocols you have put in place. It’s best to do this in your welcome message.
Provide extra information about the research
It is imperative to give your participants a chance to get familiar with your survey. People feel more comfortable participating when they know what the research is about. Explain its goals, who will analyze the feedback (and how), and the purposes for which it will be used.
Choose the right anonymous survey maker
When creating anonymous surveys, you need to make sure you are using the right tool. The best anonymous survey tool is one that can offer all the features you need while saving both money and time.
That’s why we created SurveyPlanet, a free anonymous survey maker with numerous features. Apart from many pre-made survey questions, themes, and survey templates available, our survey software offers important features such as anonymity, embedding, result exporting and filtering, white-label surveys, and more.
Use a large sample
The more people you include in your research, the more difficult it will be to identify participants through their responses (if you were to try to). That is why it is essential to use a large sample. If you start with a group of people you know, expand the sample as much as the research allows.
Pay attention to the questions you’re asking
This is not about different question types like Likert scale, NET promoter score, or open-ended survey questions. Instead, we are talking about the content of your questions and how these can unintentionally compromise respondents’ identities.
For example, when you create a survey that will be used in the workplace, make sure you don’t ask for employees’ departments or job positions. Don’t ask about specific experiences or relationships with others that can be unique to a particular respondent.
Lastly, remember that when combined a series of questions and responses may reveal someone’s identity. To avoid this, keep the previous questions in mind when writing new ones, and make sure you don’t make too many personal inquiries.
Three research areas that benefit the most from anonymous surveys
Anonymous research surveys can be used in many different areas, such as education, healthcare, the public sector, and many more. Here are some of the most important ones.
Workplace: Exploring employee engagement and satisfaction
It is important to conduct surveys on company culture and other employee surveys because they provide you with valuable feedback about each employee’s experience at work. However, not all surveys provide you with accurate data.
Employees are often very reluctant to state their honest opinion, especially about sensitive subjects such as leadership and management, job satisfaction, or potential maltreatment. This is because they are afraid of retaliation from their superiors or colleagues.
Creating an anonymous survey is essential if you want to know their honest opinions. Only then can you expect to gather data that will strengthen your research.
Market research: Testing new products and profiling your target audience
Using anonymous surveys is extremely beneficial in market research. However, many people skip this kind of survey, not because there is a possibility of retribution for stating your consumer habits but because people are skeptical about providing their personal information.
Creating anonymous market research surveys will increase your survey response rate and provide you with more extensive and honest feedback. Such data can be used to build future business success.
Customer experience and customer satisfaction
Customers are the key point to every successful business. If you want to know how you’re doing on the market and grow your business, you need to understand their opinions and needs.
Different kinds of customer surveys measure customer experience with your products or the overall customer service you provide. In an anonymous customer satisfaction survey, customers can leave honest reviews without fearing retaliation or misusing personal information.
When using anonymous surveys, people feel more comfortable participating and sharing their honest opinions. That is the most significant advantage of this practice. If you want to improve your research, sign up for a free SurveyPlanet account and start creating anonymous surveys today.
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