User rights and respondent satisfaction do not receive enough attention

Extensive literature exists on the principles that must be followed to maximize the satisfaction of the respondents. The dissatisfied respondent will terminate the survey, will no longer respond to similar invitations, but will also provide poor quality answers:

• A survey invitation must include several essential elements, e.g. an explanation of why the survey is important, why and how the respondent was chosen, how personal data is protected;
• The codes of professional associations (eg guarantee of confidentiality, the prohibition of spam, clear assessment of duration, etc.) must be observed;
• The respondent must get the impression that his effort is valuable and useful;
• It must be ensured that the survey process has consistent questionnaire flow characteristics;
• Attractiveness and fun must be established, which can be achieved both in terms of content, design and other formal approaches, especially in the case of a longer questionnaire;
• Minimalist answering, so-called "satisficing", is required to be avoided and detected, where the respondent unrealistically often chooses "I don't know" answers; mean values of the responses on a scale (eg, a value of 3 on a scale of 1 - 5), or always the same values, etc .;
• Adhering to the principle of social exchange and providing compensation to the respondent for his or her time and participation can be a pleasure of completing, it can be a contribution to society, it can be a promise (and then actual mediation) of survey results, or it can also be practical gifts and rewards.

<< Back to Basic Recommendations