Survey Galaxy

Subjective Questions

2015-11-28T01:00:00.000+00:00

It is quite common to come across surveys that ask questions similar to the one below.

That the survey publisher, nor for that matter the respondent would find anything particularly wrong with such a question is perhaps the nub of the problem.

The problem is that the answer options, Rarely, Occasionally, Quite Often and Very Often are that they are all subjective answers so what the survey publisher may have considered to be Occasionally the respondent may consider to be Quite Often or even Very Often.

It is okay to use subjective answer options providing they are quantified so that everyone is using the same definition, for example.

In this way it doesn't matter that the respondent has a different definition of what Occasionally means as it is clearly defined.

However, it is also important that the respondent can answer accurately which if they wanted to respond that they eat out five times a year or on average eleven times a year then they would not be able to answer accurately as there is no answer option that specifically caters for those frequencies.

It is also important to note that in the above example Quite Often is qualified but unlike the other answer options it is a very precise answer, whereas the other answer options cover much wider groups.

It is therefore always better to ensure that respondents can answer accurately and that the groupings are relatively consistent such as the example below:

The Problem with Asking Respondents to Respond Using a 1 to 10 Scale

2015-11-27T11:48:00.001+00:00

How often have you seen a survey question that requires the respondent to indicate their opinion by selecting a number between 1 and 10?

Such question formats are not that surprising as it is very common for people to be verbally asked their opinion by being asked to score something from 1 to 10, so why when designing surveys is using a scale in any way wrong?

Asking someone to rate something out of ten is quite acceptable when the intention is to simply gauge a single individual’s opinion, or just to informally test the temperature of a group over a particular topic, but where the intent is to collate meaningful data it can at worse be flawed and at best convoluted.

So what is the problem?

Ambiguity

Some surveys commit a cardinal survey sin by using a response scale and not advising the respondent as to whether 1 is to be scored low or high causing all the data being collated to be flawed as there is no way of knowing how many people will have answered thinking 1 should be scored high and how many the opposite, so the first rule when using any type of numeric scale is to remove any ambiguity and state clearly as part of the question if 1 is to be scored high or low.

Why 1 to 5 is much better than 1 to 10 or 1 to 100

Regardless of how 1 is to be scored, there are however further considerations one of which is why have the numeric scale set from 1 to 10, or in some cases 1 to 100?

If when analysing survey responses such questions are nearly always divided into five distinct groups such as:

"Very Poor", "Poor", "Okay", "Good", "Excellent"
"Strongly Disagree", "Disagree", "Neutral", "Agree", "Strongly Agree"
"Very Satisfied", "Satisfied", "No Opinion", "Dissatisfied", "Very Dissatisfied"

If the collated information is going to be grouped into five distinct groups, it makes sense that the numeric scale is set from 1 to 5 rather than 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 as the scores are only going to be regrouped during the analysis stage.

But why use a numeric scale at all?

Since all numeric scales need to be clarified by associating the numbers to descriptive text, such as "Very Poor", "Poor", "Okay", "Good", "Excellent", why not just cut straight to the chase and use the text descriptions as unlike with numeric scales there is no ambiguity when text is used and there is no need for any further clarification.

In summary

If using a numeric scale make sure that you advise the respondent if 1 is to be scored high or low.
Unless there is a good reason to do so consider how the collated data is going to be analysed and reported and then seriously consider if using a numeric scale that is from 1 to 5 is better than using a 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 scale.
Unless there is a good reason to use numeric scales always consider if it would be better and less complicated to use text descriptions rather than numeric scales, especially if the text descriptions are going to be used in reports when analysing the collated data.

How Long?

2015-11-23T10:07:00.003+00:00

It can be difficult to sometimes gauge how long it takes respondents to complete a survey. However, it is now possible to see how long each respondent took by using the respondent activity menu option as it now displays the survey respondent's start and submit survey times and displays the duration in hours minutes and seconds.

If there is no submittted or duration time that indicates that the survey response is incomplete.

Keep in mind that when using the duration information that it is possible for a respondent to start completing a survey and then for whatever reason stop and continue at a later time, even a later day, so if the duration information is being used to provide future respondents with a realistic time to complete it is recommended that any extreme duration times are excluded from any calculation.

Export Survey Results to SPSS Statistics Application

2015-11-17T05:00:00.000+00:00

IBM’s SPSS Statistics is a popular software package used for statistical analysis.

For customers who would like the ability to export their Survey Galaxy survey results directly into the SPSS Statistics application there is now an additional export option to include .csv files that are specifically formatted to be imported to SPSS.

There are two options to choose from:

Single file
This will export all the survey results information into a single .csv file.

Separate data files
This will create multiple .csv files for the survey results data split into three files containing the Headings, Result and Values.

Enhanced Grid Styling

2015-11-16T05:00:00.000+00:00

Grid Format Style Banding

To improve the visibility of questions entered in into grids new grid style elements have been created. Grid questions can now be given alternating display band attributes and the grid border colour can be set.

The grid style elements that are now available are:

· Grid Questions, Odd Bands (Default)

· Grid Questions, Even Bands

· Grid Body, Odd Bands (Default)

· Grid Body, Even Bands

· Grid Borders (Fore Colour Only)

If grid banding is not required then the Even Bands style elements (Grid Questions, Even Bands & Grid Body, Even Bands) are left blank (or cleared) and then banding will be disabled and the odd and even bands will both use the default Grid Questions, Odd Bands (Default) & Grid Body, Odd Bands (Default) style attributes.

If grid banding is required, then first the Odd Bands (Default) style elements should be confirmed or set and then the Even Bands style elements configured.

For example using the survey composer’s Style Customizer screen, the Grid Questions, Odd Bands (Default) element is selected and the Fore Colour is set to crimson (#782727) and the Back Colour to a shade of ocra (#cc9900).

Then the Grid Questions, Even Bands element is selected and the Font Colour is set to white (#ffffff) and the Back Colour to a rusty brown (#cc6600).

The Grid Body, Odd Bands (Default) Fore Colour is set to White (#ffffff) and the Back Colour to Sand (#b7781d). For this example the Grid Body, Even Bands is not defined as the grid body is not required to be banded.

Finally, the Grid Borders (Fore Colour Only) Fore Colour is set to black (#000000) in order to set the colour of the grid borders.

Combined with other attributes that have been set such as the surveys default font, font colour, background colour, grid headings and heading the results of setting the grid style attributes as above results in the following display style.

If the Grid Body, Odd Bands (Default) and Grid Body, Even Bands attributes are changed so that their Back Colours are the same as their respective question’s Back Colour, the result would be as shown below.

New Home for Survey Galaxy Website

2015-11-15T12:16:00.000+00:00

Today is the day that Survey Galaxy has moved to a new hosting company.

In the process we have taken the opportunity to released a number of enhancements some of which we will document here over the next few days.

Survey Galaxy offers a very generous free subscription that allows an unlimited number of surveys to be published with up to 30 survey questions per survey and a combined 500 monthly response allowance.

All Survey Galaxy surveys are free from any advertising and Survey Galaxy branding and all subscriptions are able to use all of the single user facilities.

Free Fully Functional Personal Mini Subscription

2013-06-16T22:01:00.000+01:00

Survey Galaxy are please to announce that our popular Personal Mini subscription is now available free of charge.

The Personal Mini subscription will allow our members to publish an unlimited number of surveys of up to thirty questions. The personal mini subscription includes a monthly allowance of 500 responses after which the standard excess response charges will apply.

The free Personal Mini subscription provides all the non time related features of the Personal Maxi subscription and non-multiuser features of the Enterprise subscription.

Personal Mini subscribers are free to include their own branding, there is no Survey Galaxy branding with any of the Survey Galaxy subscriptions.

Should surveys be required that have more than thirty questions members can upgrade to the Personal Maxi subscription, or if multi-user facilities are required then the Enterprise subscription is available.

Smart Label Management for Charts

2012-11-05T13:49:00.001+00:00

Charts now include smart label management that will attempt to choose the most appropriate display mode for data labels in order that the labels are displayed neatly and without overlapping, no matter how long or small they are.

If the number of data labels is greater than what can be accommodated in the available space, then the data labels are either truncated (with ellipses to indicate truncation), wrapped, or rotated. Ellipses are added automatically when the label overflows beyond a predefined length. In any of these cases, the complete label is still visible to your user in the tooltip.

Due to the flexibility of format selection and the limitations of automation there may still be instances where label overlapping will occur, if increasing the size of the chart is not an option, it will still be possible to override the default smart label management format by selecting the Slant labels option from the Results Analayzer’s Display Options.

Advance Warning of Scheduled Server Maintenance

2012-07-31T12:51:00.000+01:00

Please be advised that our datacentre requires further urgent maintenance and is scheduled to be closed on Saturday 4th August between 8.0am and 13.00pm.

We will do our best to minimize the amount of downtime and apologise in advance for any inconvenience that this outage will cause.

Advance Warning of Scheduled Server Maintenance

2012-07-13T10:05:00.000+01:00

Please be advised that our servers will be closed down for essential maintenance on Sunday 15th July 2012.

The Survey Galaxy website will be unavailable from 13:00 GMT and we expect the work to take between 3 and 4 hours.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Update - New password restrictions

2012-03-19T05:50:00.000+00:00

To prevent problems with the third-party applications that are used to zip and encrypt exported information we have now introduced restrictions to the characters that can be used for passwords and we will no longer allow the use of embedded spaces, nor the % or " characters.

The new restrictions will only apply to new members or existing members who change their passwords, existing members who have passwords that contain any of the characters will be able to continue to use their passwords but will be asked to change them should they be unable to decrypt exported information.

Enhancement - Setting a survey's response limit

2012-03-19T05:36:00.000+00:00

It is now possible to restrict the number of responses by entering a Response Limit value.

A survey's Response Limit is set using the survey's Edit Details menu option and is part of the Runtime Settings.

As with all the Runtime settings the Response Limit value is dynamic and will be applied without the need to stop the survey publication.

The Response Limit is based on the number of completed responses and leaving the Response Limit field blank will indicate that there is no response limit. Once the response limit has been reached any responses that have previously been started will be allowed to continue through to completion.

Once the maximum number of responses has been reached new respondents will be advised that the survey is closed and for multi-language surveys the closed message will be displayed in the survey's base language.

New Edit Details Action Button

2011-09-28T00:38:00.000+01:00

For more convenient access the survey's Edit Details menu option has been added to the list surveys display action buttons.

Create a Survey - New Folder Option

2011-09-28T00:36:00.005+01:00

When you create a survey you now have the folder options to leave the new survey unassigned, assign it to an existing folder or specify a new folder name.

You will be able to change a survey's folder assignment by using the Manage Folders and Assign Folders menu options, or a survey's Edit Details menu option.

Survey File Management Facility

2011-09-28T00:36:00.004+01:00

We have now added support to allow folders to be created and assigned to surveys for easier management.

For more details please view the Survey Folder Management tutorial.

Survey 'Edit Details' Displayed Reorganized

2011-09-27T13:54:00.023+01:00

The survey's Edit Details display options have been re-ordered and reorganized into six sections, General, Runtime, Presentation, Language, Popup and Search Engine Optimisation options; with the exception of the General section, sections can be expanded or collapsed.

You can also now use the Edit Details menu option to assign individual surveys to predefined folders.

The Public Decide Blog - Public Surveys

2011-09-27T13:26:00.000+01:00

A new Blog, The Public Decide, has been associated to the main Survey Galaxy website.

The Public Decide blog features fun and topical public surveys for all the family.

The link, Public Surveys, can be found on the home page in the footer section.

Questionnaire Questions

2011-09-17T00:11:00.000+01:00

Many people find themselves in a position where they know they could benefit from conducting a questionnaire but have difficultly on deciding what questions to ask.

Questionnaires come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be conducted for a plethora of reasons and there is unfortunately no definitive answer to what the right questionnaire questions should be.

Our latest article Questionnaire Questions provides some basic guidelines for writing effective questionnaires.

Survey Questionnaire Checklist

2011-09-16T17:48:00.000+01:00

So you have created your questionnaire and are ready to publish it to the Internet, before you do why not just run through a final checklist to confirm what you already know that your questionnaire is as perfect as you think it is.

Check out our latest guide Survey Questionnaire Checklist.

Enhancement - Response Capture Facility Updated

2011-08-29T13:43:00.004+01:00

The Response Capture facility has been reworked to make it easier to enter response data from external sources, remove unwanted and modify existing responses.

To activate the facility, select the survey that you wish to modify, then use the Capture menu option.

The Capture menu will only be displayed for surveys that have been previously published, changes can be made to surveys that are no longer published but the facility will only operate on the latest dataset.

Getting the Best Out of Survey Galaxy

2011-08-27T19:45:00.003+01:00

The Survey Galaxy interface is designed so that new Members find it easy to use and simple to learn, but that can mean that some of the advanced features are hidden from view and sometimes a little guidance wouldn't go amiss to reveal features that may help you design better surveys.

If you would like a little guidance please view the new article added to our Article library Getting the Best Out of Survey Galaxy.

Spotlight - Business Surveys

2011-08-10T00:11:00.000+01:00

Besides the traditional Customer, Employee, Marketing and Market Research surveys there are many other areas of business that can benefit from using online surveys.

From helping to write your business plan, assisting in promoting and managing health and safety and compliance issues online surveys can be adapted in many different ways.

Listed here are articles from the Survey Galaxy article library that detail some of the areas where online surveys can really benefit a business or organization.

Id	Title
11.	Let Your Survey Write Your Business Plan
23.	The Compliance Officer's Killer Application
30.	Surveys - The Effective Management Tool

Spotlight - Employer, Employee and Human Resources

2011-08-09T08:09:00.005+01:00

The mark of a good organization will often be that they have made the effort and established good communications between Senior Management and the workforce.

Although it is reasonable for a small business with a handful of employees to communicate with each other one on one, the numbers do not have to grow very high before the practicalities of one on one communications disappear.

No matter how large the organization, if done properly online surveys can be an effective method of maintaining the communication between the Boardroom and the coal face.

Listed here are a number of articles from Survey Galaxy's article library that are related to the Employer and Employee relationship.

Id	Title
6.	Why Employee Satisfaction Surveys And Employee Exit Surveys Make Good Sense
20.	Have You Fixed The Broken Window?
24.	I Can't Get No Employee Satisfaction
26.	Employee Satisfaction Surveys - Step By Step Guide
27.	The Advantages Considerations & Risks of Employee Satisfaction Surveys
28.	Why Do Good Employees Leave?
29.	A Manager's Guide To Redundancy
40.	Are Employee Satisfaction Surveys a Waste of Time?
41.	Employee Surveys – Asking the Right Questions
42.	Employee Satisfaction - Why Bother?

Spotlight - Political Campaigning and Polling

2011-08-08T12:46:00.004+01:00

Be it for the school prom King and Queen or mainstream politics communicating with the electoral register is essential when polling or running a political campaign.

Online surveys are a cost effective and efficient method to collate the concerns and preferences of the electorate and to deliver the candidate's message.

The following article from Survey Galaxy's article library discusses how to take full advantage of online surveys.

Id	Title
5.	Political Poll And Campaign Tool

Spotlight - Customer Service Articles

2011-08-07T19:23:00.002+01:00

Customers are vital to every business and online Customer satisfaction surveys are the cost effective way to communicate directly with your customers.

Featured here are a number of articles related to Customer Service from the Survey Galaxy article library.

Id	Title
4.	Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work
7.	Why Passenger Surveys Are A Transport Operators Best Friend
8.	The Webmaster's Assistant
22.	Four Tips For Learning What Customers Want
32.	Flawed Customer Services - Not closing the sale
33.	Flawed Customer Services - Alienating the Customer
34.	Flawed Customer Services - Single Point of Failure
39.	Customer Saftisfaction Surveys Overview