Questionnaires - Definition, Advantages & Examples QuestionPro
Questionnaires - Definition, Advantages & Examples QuestionPro
com/blog/category/market-research/)
What is a Questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions or other types of prompts that
aims to collect information from a respondent. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of close-ended
questions and open-ended questions.
Open-ended, long-form questions offer the respondent the ability to elaborate on their thoughts. Research
questionnaires were developed in 1838 by the Statistical Society of London.
The data collected from a data collection questionnaire can be both qualitative
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/qualitative-market-research/) as well as quantitative
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/quantitative-market-research/) in nature. A questionnaire may or may
not be delivered in the form of a survey (https://www.questionpro.com/blog/surveys/), but a survey always
consists of a questionnaire.
With a survey questionnaire, you can gather a lot of data in less time.
Surveying online survey software is quick and cost-effective. It offers you a rich set of features to design,
distribute, and analyze the response data.
It can be customized to reflect your brand voice. Thus, it can be used to reinforce your brand image.
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The responses can be compared with the historical data and understand the shift in respondents’
choices and experiences.
Respondents can answer the questionnaire without revealing their identity. Also, many survey software
complies with significant data security and privacy regulations.
Uniformity: Questionnaires are very useful to collect demographic information, personal opinions, facts,
or attitudes from respondents. One of the most significant attributes of a research form is uniform
design and standardization. Every respondent sees the same questions. This helps in data collection
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/data-collection/) and statistical analysis
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/statistical-analysis/) of this data. For example, the retail store
evaluation questionnaire template (https://www.questionpro.com/survey-templates/retail-store-
evaluation/) contains questions for evaluating retail store experiences. Questions relate to purchase
value, range of options for product selections, and quality of merchandise. These questions are uniform
for all customers.
Exploratory: It should be exploratory to collect qualitative data. There is no restriction on questions that
can be in your questionnaire. For example, you use a data collection questionnaire and send it to the
female of the household to understand her spending and saving habits relative to the household
income. Open-ended questions give you more insight and allow the respondents to explain their
practices. A very structured question list could limit the data collection.
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LEARN ABOUT: Best Data Collection Tools (https://www.questionpro.com/blog/data-collection-tools/)
Question Sequence: It typically follows a structured flow of questions to increase the number of
responses. This sequence of questions is screening questions
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/screening-question/), warm-up questions, transition questions,
skip questions, challenging questions, and classification questions. For example, our motivation and
buying experience questionnaire template (https://www.questionpro.com/survey-templates/motivation-
and-buying-experience/) covers initial demographic questions and then asks for time spent in sections
of the store and the rationale behind purchases.
As we explored before, questionnaires can be either structured or free-flowing. Let’s take a closer look at what
that entails for your surveys.
You can use multiple question types in a questionnaire. Using various question types can help increase
responses to your research questionnaire as they tend to keep participants more engaged. The best customer
satisfaction survey templates (https://www.questionpro.com/survey-templates/customer-satisfaction-
surveys/) are the most commonly used for better insights and decision-making.
Scaling Questions: These questions are based on the principles of the four measurement scales –
nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio (https://www.questionpro.com/blog/nominal-ordinal-interval-
ratio/). A few of the question types that utilize these scales’ fundamental properties are rank order
questions (https://www.questionpro.com/features/rank-order.html), Likert scale questions
(https://www.questionpro.com/article/likert-scale-survey-questions.html), semantic differential scale
questions (https://www.questionpro.com/semantic-differential-scale.html), and Stapel scale questions
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/stapel-scale/).
Pictorial Questions: This question type is easy to use and encourages respondents to answer. It works
similarly to a multiple-choice question. Respondents are asked a question, and the answer choices are
images. This helps respondents choose an answer quickly without over-thinking their answers, giving
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you more accurate data.
Types of Questionnaires
Telephone Questionnaire: A researcher makes a phone call to a respondent to collect responses directly.
Responses are quick once you have a respondent on the phone. However, a lot of times, the respondents
hesitate to give out much information over the phone. It is also an expensive way of conducting
research. You’re usually not able to collect as many responses as other types of questionnaires, so
your sample may not represent the broader population.
In-House Questionnaire: This type is used by a researcher who visits the respondent’s home or
workplace. The advantage of this method is that the respondent is in a comfortable and natural
environment, and in-depth data can be collected. The disadvantage, though, is that it is expensive and
slow to conduct.
Mail Questionnaire: These are starting to be obsolete but are still being used in some market research
(https://www.questionpro.com/blog/what-is-market-research/) studies. This method involves a
researcher sending a physical data collection questionnaire request to a respondent that can be filled in
and sent back. The advantage of this method is that respondents can complete this on their own time to
answer truthfully and entirely. The disadvantage is that this method is expensive and time-consuming.
There is also a high risk of not collecting enough responses to make actionable insights from the data.
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Questionnaire design is a multistep process that requires attention to detail at every step.
Researchers are always hoping that the responses received for a survey questionnaire yield useable data. If
the questionnaire is too complicated, there is a fair chance that the respondent might get confused and will
drop out or answer inaccurately.
Think about what your questionnaire is going to include before you start designing the look of it. The clarity
of the topic is of utmost importance as this is the primary step in creating the questionnaire. Once you are
clear on the purpose of the questionnaire, you can begin the design process.
2. Keep it simple:
The words or phrases you use while writing the questionnaire must be easy to understand. If the questions
are unclear, the respondents may simply choose any answer and skew the data you collect.
At times, a researcher may be tempted to add two similar questions. This might seem like an excellent way to
consolidate answers to related issues, but it can confuse your respondents or lead to inaccurate data. If any
of your questions contain the word “and,” take another look. This question likely has two parts, which can
affect the quality of your data.
While designing, the survey creator needs to be flexible in terms of “option choice” for the respondents.
Sometimes the respondents may not necessarily want to choose from the answer options provided by the
survey creator. An “other” option often helps keep respondents engaged in the survey.
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The survey creator might end up in a situation where they need to make distinct choices between open
or close-ended questions. The question type should be carefully chosen as it defines the tone and
importance of asking the question in the first place.
A researcher should know their target audience. For example, if the target audience speaks mostly Spanish,
sending the questionnaire in any other language would lower the response rate and accuracy of data.
Something that may seem clear to you may be confusing to your respondents. Use simple language and
terminology that your respondents will understand, and avoid technical jargon and industry-specific language
that might confuse your respondents.
For efficient market research, researchers need a representative sample collected using one of the
many sampling techniques (https://www.questionpro.com/blog/types-of-sampling-for-social-research/), such
as a sample questionnaire. It is imperative to plan and define these target respondents based on the
demographics (https://www.questionpro.com/blog/demographic-survey-questions/) required.
Always save personal questions for last. Sensitive questions may cause respondents to drop off before
completing. If these questions are at the end, the respondent has had time to become more comfortable with
the interview and are more likely to answer personal or demographic questions.
Questionnaire Survey
A questionnaire can is a research
A survey is a research method used for collecting
instrument that consists of a set of
Meaning data from a pre-defined group of respondents to gain
questions to collect information from a
information and insights on various topics of interest.
respondent.
What is it? The instrument of data collection Process of collecting and analyzing that data
Consists of questionnaire and survey design, logic
Characteristic Subset of survey
and data collection
Time and Cost Fast and cost-effective Much slower and expensive
Use Conducted on the target audience Distributed or conducted on respondents
Questions Close-ended and very rarely open-ended Close-ended and open-ended
Answers Objective Subjective or objective
Questionnaire Examples
The best way to understand how questionnaires work is to see the types of questionnaires available. Some
examples of a questionnaire are:
1. Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire: This type of research can be used in any situation where there’s an
interaction between a customer and an organization. For example, you might send a customer
satisfaction survey after someone eats at your restaurant. You can use the study to determine if your
staff is offering excellent customer service and a positive overall experience.
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2. Product Use Satisfaction: You can use this template to better understand your product’s usage trends
and similar products. This also allows you to collect customer preferences about the types of products
they enjoy or want to see on the market.
English
German (Deutsch)
Spanish (Español)
French (Français)
Portuguese (Português)
Russian (Русский)
Turkish (Türkçe)
Privacy - Terms
Arabic ()العربية
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The above survey questions are typically easy to use, understand, and execute. Additionally, the standardized
answers of a survey questionnaire instead of a person-to-person conversation make it easier to compile
useable data.
The most significant limitation of a data collection questionnaire is that respondents need to read all of the
questions and respond to them. For example, you send an invitation through email asking respondents to
complete the questions on social media. If a target respondent doesn’t have the right social media profiles,
they can’t answer your questions.
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