Screening Questions for the Best Online Surveys

Screening questions are the questions that are placed at the beginning of the survey questionnaire to ascertain whether the respondents or their household has the required traits to fill the survey questions. Based on the responses provided by the respondent in these screening questions, they are either allowed to continue filling the survey or terminated from continuing. When properly used, these questions will allow the researcher to get information from the intendment respondents only. As such, the information collected with the survey is of high quality and is relevant to the survey. This is one of the best ways to ensure that you have the best online survey. Using screening questions in your survey has many benefits to offer, some of which are mentioned here.

Reduces the Cost

In some cases, the panel based companies will charge you per responses received on your survey. However, such companies will allow you to use screening questions at the beginning of the survey. This way, you will avoid any unwanted responses or irrelevant information from the untargeted audience. By so doing, you will ensure that you only get a few responses that are relevant and of high quality. This will also lower the cost of conducting the survey exponentially, especially if you are being charged per response.

Eliminates Bias by Respondents

For many researches today, respondent bias is a serious problem. This happens when the respondents fill the questions in a survey incorrectly. This may happen because the respondent is unable to provide accurate information for the questions or just because the respondent is not willing to be honest in giving the responses. Respondent bias can greatly impair with the ability of the researcher to get accurate information to influence decision making in his or her business. Using screening questions can play a significant role in minimising this bias. Such questions will help terminate the respondents who are likely to provide bias information by ascertaining their knowledge level or credentials, in line with the objectives of the survey.

Allows for Easy Analysis of Data

Without proper screening questions, data analysis will not only be time consuming, but also exhaustive and very difficult. This is because failure to screen the questions allows the unwanted respondents to answer the survey as well. The increased number of irrelevant answers can give you a hard time while analysing the response.

To come up with the best online survey, you should consider using screening questions at the beginning of the survey. An increasing number of researchers are using these questions to ensure that they get quality and relevant responses from the targeted audience.