Absolute Marketing & Research believes that quality research begins with quality design and quality project management. Our project managers are intimately involved with all aspects of the project maintaining close contact with the client from start to finish.

Questionnaire design can only begin once project objectives are clearly defined. A good questionnaire often appears very simple, but is usually the result of several hours of work.

To illustrate, most people can appreciate someone playing a beautiful song on an instrument. The musician may make it look very easy and effortless, yet picking up that instrument and imitating that skilled musician isn't quite so easy, is it? The same is true of a well-written questionnaire.

Some questions to ask when writing a questionnaire:

1. Are the project objectives clearly defined?
2. Does the questionnaire obtain the necessary information to meet the objectives?
3. Is each question relevant to the project’s objectives?
4. Is each question clear, concise and understood?
5. Is each question in the appropriate logical sequence?
6. Does any question seem leading or introduce any type of bias from the respondent?
7. Does the questionnaire keep the participant interested and cooperative?

Using a professional questionnaire writer can avoid the many possible pitfalls, which can result in poor results and conclusions. For example:

Pitfall: A question is phrased poorly, the respondent isn't sure what is being asked, or even what the subject is about. Result: Unclear study results.

Pitfall: A question is out of sequential order causing the respondent to answer with thoughts that are not his own. Result: Biased study results.

Pitfall: There are too many extraneous "wouldn't it be nice to know" questions. Result: Study is too long, participants don't complete or give full answers.