You might think that any survey question—because it helps you to gain valuable insight and data from your respondents—is a good one. But it’s important to ask the right questions. When respondents take a survey filled with good questions, they are more likely to have an enjoyable experience and finish the survey. When a respondent comes across one or more bad survey questions, it might rub them the wrong way, eventually causing them to abandon your survey. This article teaches the difference between good and bad survey questions. Learn how to avoid bad questionnaire examples and examine the examples of bad survey questions with us in this article. Continue reading to find out how to recognize the real examples of bad surveys and questions you should avoid using to create an engaging and relevant study.
1. Leading questions
When examples of bad survey questions are the topic, leading questions are usually one of the first culprits. Leading questions use biased language that influences the participant’s answer selection. The problem with leading questions is that they might seem innocuous, but are actually fishing for a certain answer. When seeking objectivity, biased questions are the worst. Unbiased survey questions should be strived for, as well as unbiased answers. Biased surveys won’t give you accurate data to work with when making your next business decision.
Here are some bad survey examples that use leading questions:
- Did you enjoy our delicious new milkshake?
- Are you upset with how long shipping takes?
To remove the bias from these questions, make them clear and objective. Avoid using adjectives to describe the subject of your question.
2. Loaded Questions
Loaded questions influence answers. For example, the question “Where do you like to go swimming?” It assumes everyone likes to go swimming and knows how. Some respondents will have no choice but to abandon the survey or give inaccurate answers. You should avoid writing questions like these to prevent misinformation in answers.
The only time a loaded question is appropriate is if a preliminary question is asked first so that logical branching can be used to skip over people the question doesn’t apply to. For example, you can ask “Do you like to swim?” With the answers, make sure there is an option for “I don’t know how to swim.” If the person answers “yes,” then you can go ahead and ask them where they like to swim.
3. Double-Barreled Questions
One of the most common survey mistakes is asking a double-barreled question. This type of bad survey question forces respondents to answer multiple questions simultaneously. This isn’t the best way to acquire usable data. Your survey questions should always ask one question at a time and have an exact answer for each question. If you ask more than one question, you won’t know why respondents answered that way or which question they were answering. This is an example of terrible survey questions, especially for Likert scale questions (which we explain here.
Examples of good and bad double-barreled survey questions include:
Poorly written survey question:
- How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with your hotel room and dinner on your trip?
Good survey questions:
- How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with your hotel room and dinner on your trip?
- How satisfied or dissatisfied were you with your dinner?
If you want answers to more than one question, then use multiple survey questions.
4. Absolute Questions
An absolute question does not allow the survey participant to provide useful feedback. An example of a poorly worded survey question is “Do you always watch TV?” With only a yes or no option, you’re likely to receive “no” from every participant. A better way to ask this question is to remove “always” and give a selection of answers.
- An example of a good survey question is “How often do you watch TV?” You can then provide a selection of answers that allows respondents to specifically answer your question, like 2 hours per week. Avoiding absolute questions will not only make your survey participants happier, but it will give you better data to work with.
5. Unclear Questions
A good survey question is a simple one that is easy to understand. If a respondent has to think about your question longer than a few seconds, it’s probably too difficult to understand and they can’t answer it honestly. Make sure to use simple language and avoid clichés, abbreviations, slang, catchphrases, and colloquialisms. You should also avoid any words perceived as potentially offensive.
Examples of unclear survey questions:
- Does your Medicare plan include OTC benefits?
- How many selfies do you take per day?
The first question uses an abbreviation that not everyone will understand. For best practice, spell out everything and then add an abbreviation in parentheses for reference. The second question refers to selfies, which not all age groups might understand. For best practice, avoid slang and write out what you are actually asking, like “How many pictures of yourself do you take per day?” The less unclear the questions, the more accurate the response you will receive.
6. Random Questions
If your survey is all about a customer’s experience on your website, don’t throw in a random question asking them about their favorite food. This is one of the common examples of flawed survey questions. Not only is the question out of context, but it’s completely random and irrelevant. If you want to know their favorite food so that you can offer a product related to it, give some background context before you include a random question in your survey.
7. Double Negative Questions
If your survey is all about a customer’s experience on your website, don’t throw in a random question asking about their favorite food. This is one of the common examples of flawed customer experience survey questions. Not only is the question out of context, but it’s completely random and irrelevant. If you want to know their favorite food—so that you can offer a product related to it—give some background context before you include such a random question in your survey.
8. Net promoter score (NPS)
This is one of the most common mistakes in survey design. NPS is a metric that asks customers if they would recommend the product or service to others (typically on a scale of 0-10).
Ask one of the most popular customer survey questions, such as: “How likely are you to recommend our company?” to examine customer satisfaction.
This can be useful if your business has more than one product or service and you want to know which ones perform better than others. But if you only have one product or service, it doesn’t make sense to ask this question. If someone uses your product or service and likes it, they’ll give you a high score anyway. You don’t need to ask for their opinion about whether they’d recommend it—just look at your conversion rates.
However, some professionals suggest that it’s best not to ask questions requiring respondents to make predictions; instead, focus on what happened in the past (or what’s happening now). So, for example, instead of asking about the likelihood of recommending your company, ask about the likelihood of recommending specific products or services within your company.
Avoid Bad Survey Questions Using SurveyPlanet
Now that you’ve seen examples of good and bad survey questions, we hope you can differentiate between good and bad questionnaire examples.
Explore our infographic Dos & Don’ts below to see more examples and gain even more insight into this topic. SurveyPlanet makes it easy to create your first survey. Upgrade to SurveyPlanet Pro for added features, including question branching, export tools, and uploading images. Check out our plans & pricing, explore our beautiful themes, browse survey examples, and find other options when you log in or create an account.
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