A poorly designed and overloaded ranking question can yield poor results. Consider some revisions.
We’ve all completed our fair share of surveys. Many contain clear and direct questions that get straight to the point and allow you to flow through the survey easily. However, there is the occasional survey that tends to drag on with elaborately designed questions.
Snap Surveys guest blogger, Gary Austin of Austin Research discusses his reasons and opinions as to why it is not a good idea to include a long list of attributes in a ranking question in his recent blog post, Rank bad questions: How not to ask ranking questions (below).
Rank bad questions: How not to ask ranking questions
I’ve seen a couple of questions recently which have asked respondents to rank long lists of attributes. An example is shown below:
Ignoring the fact that I’ve never looked for any “benefit” in a loyalty rewards programme for an online travel agency, and I’ve no idea which criteria I should be using for ranking these benefits, there are several reasons why I don’t think questions like this should be asked…
About Gary Austin: Contributing guest blogger, Gary Austin of Austin Research has over 20 years of experience in designing, managing, and interpreting quantitative research projects. Gary shares a true passion for the quality and integrity of surveys, and enjoys sharing his insights.
