Survey Question
Best Practices

 

Customizing your survey program can offer a ton of value to different aspects of your business. Surveys don’t just support client satisfaction, they impact employee morale and training, financial forecasting, marketing efforts and operational processes. This makes setting a strong tone right at the beginning imperative.

The below best practices will help get you started on ways to think about creating your survey as well as some questions we’ve seen to be effective. Once you’ve finished crafting your survey set, share it with your dedicated Customer Success Manager via a word doc and they’ll be happy to offer feedback and submit it to the Operations team for processing.

Full survey customization is available with Enterprise plans only.

Surveying Best Practices

1. Set goals - what are you hoping to accomplish?

  • How are you sharing this information after the survey closes? 

2. Asking close-ended questions to gather hard data 

  • Yes, No, etc.
  • Keep scales consistent so respondents have solid framing in mind

3. Ask questions that support a statement or A.K.A “the headline exercise”

  • Make your headlines/results statements first, then back into question crafting to support that. Answers to those questions may not always turn out to be positive, but you’ll uncover some truths if there are surprises.

4. Ask questions that are actionable 

5. Avoid the below:

  • Leading questions
  • Sales questions
  • Double-barreled questions (questions that are two separate things with a single yes/no for example)

6. Think how the survey questions can impact operations, internal professional development, cross service education and marketing opportunities

7. If a new structure or process has been put in place, gauge how impactful it’s been and if any adjustments that can be made

  • As an example: a new billing system, Zoom calls instead of in person, training webinars, etc.

8. Keep the survey short (think 12-14 questions max)

  • Short = actionable  
  • Short = digestible
  • Short = easier for the survey recipient to respond

9. Keep open-ended survey questions to a minimum (2-3)

10. The types of questions we support are:

  • Scaled (0-10)
  • Select (choose one answer)
  • Multi-Select (chose more than one option)
  • Open-ended

We do not support more advanced survey question types like ranking, array, or limit answer selection.

The Types of Questions that ClearlyRated Support Resource will provide more detailed examples.

Survey Question Examples (Client)

1. The people assigned to your engagements have the right level of expertise and experience to get the job done.

  • Always
  • Sometimes
  • Never
  • N/A

2. So we can be readily prepared with support, do you anticipate needing additional project staff/resources in the next 3-6 months?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know

3. How do we compare to our competition on quality of talent?

  • Above average
  • About the same
  • Below average

4. Are you satisfied with the level of work contributed by the talent that [brand] supplies?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know
Survey Question Examples (Talent)

1. If you are not satisfied with your current assignment, would you call the branch to find an alternative assignment?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know

2. Which of the following are reasons that impacted your decision to leave [brand]?
[Multi Select List of Reasons]

3. If you left before your last assignment ended, what was the main reason you left the assignment?
[Open-ended or Select]

4. What was your primary objective in seeking an assignment with [name of client brand]?
[Open-ended or Select]

5. Has the training provided to you been effective in helping you to learn the job duties?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know
Survey Question Examples (Internal Employee)

1. I feel that I have access to the technology and tools that allow me to be successful in my job function at [brand].

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know

2. Do you see yourself working here in a year?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know

3. What is the reason for your answer above?
[Open-ended]

4. Hypothetically, if you were to quit tomorrow, what would your reason be?
[Open-ended]

5. What practices do we need to change?
[Open-ended]

6. How can we help improve your engagement at work?
[Open-ended]