Questionnaire Design

A structured questionnaire is a formal list of questions framed so as to get the facts. The interviewer asks the questions strictly in accordance with a pre-arranged order. If, for example, the marketing researcher is interested in knowing the amount of expenditure incurred on different types of clothing. i.e. cotton, woolen or synthetic, by different households classified according to their income, he may frame a set of questions seeking this factual information. If the marketing researcher appoints some interviewers to collect information on his behalf, the interviewers are expected to adhere to the same order in asking questions as contained in the questionnaire.

A structured questionnaire can be of two types, namely, disguised and non-disguised. This classification is based on whether the object or purpose of the survey is revealed or undisclosed to the respondent. Thus, a structured non-disguised questionnaire is one where the listing of questions is in a prearranged order and where the object of enquiry is revealed to the respondent. Most marketing research studies use this type of questionnaire. In the case of a structured – disguised questionnaire, the researcher does not disclose the object of the survey. He feels that if the respondent comes to know the object of the survey, he may not be objective in giving the necessary information and, as such, it purpose may be defeated. He is, therefore, very particular not to divulge the purpose of the investigation.

It may be mentioned that in a large majority of cases, it is felt that the respondent should be taken into confidence and clearly told why the survey is being undertaken, so that he would realize its relevance and give the desired information accurately. Questionnaires of this type are known as structured and non-disguised questionnaires. It may be pointed out that most of the surveys of marketing research use this type of questionnaire.

A non-structured questionnaire is one in which the questions are not structured and the order in which they are to be asked from the respondent is left entirely to the researcher. He asks the questions in the manner in which he deems fit in a particular situation. In fact, he may only have certain main points on which he may develop the questions at the time of the actual interview. As it will be seen, a non –structured questionnaire is devoid of rigidity and allows considerable freedom to the researcher is choosing the order as well as the specific content of questions. Normally, unstructured questionnaires are used in exploratory research when some respondents are contacted. It is only subsequently, on the basis of answers received, that a well –structured questionnaire is developed. This is because the interviewer has a better understanding of the problem on hand only after the exploratory research. Questionnaires of this type can be split into two sub-types. Where the purpose of the enquiry is disclosed to the respondent, the questionnaires are known as non-structured and non-disguised while in other cases, the questionnaires are classified as non-structured and disguised questionnaires.

Let us briefly discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different types of questionnaires. The structured non-disguised questionnaire has several advantages. Firstly. It facilitates the collection of information in a systematic and orderly manner as the questions have been formulated in advance. Secondly, since the questions asked by each by each interviewer happen to be identical and are asked in the same order, the information is generally not vitiated on account of the varying characteristics of the different interviewers. As such, even less qualified interviewers can be deployed in canvassing such a questionnaire. Forth, such a questionnaire makes it far easier to edit. Tabulate and intercept the data it contains. Finally, a structured questionnaire can be convectively pre-tested so that suitable modifications can be made in the phraseology of questions or in their sequence or both.

As against these advantages of a structure questionnaire, it suffers from major limitations. This arises when the respondent is asked questions concerning personal or motivational aspects. Despite this weakness, the structured –none—disguised questionnaire to most frequently use in marketing research, as was mentioned earlier.

An unstructured questionnaire is most suitable when motivational factors are involved. The interviewer is free to ask probing questions to get at the key motivational factor or factors. Questionnaires of this type are normally used in depth interviews.

Such questionnaires facilitate the conducting of interviews in an informal manner. They also lend flexibility to the whole process of interviewing. A point worth emplacing is that in the case of unstructured questionnaires, the role of the interviewer becomes for more important as compared to the one when a structured questionnaire is used. In view of this, more capable interviewers are required to handle is unstructured. This also enhances the overall cost of the field survey. Finally, the researcher faces problems while editing and tabulating an unstructured questionnaire.

Having discussed the relative strengths and weaknesses of the structure and unstructured questionnaires, we now turn to the designing of structured questionnaires.

Designing a Questionnaire: Designing a questionnaire is not as simple a job as it looks at first sight A marketing researcher intending to collect primary data has to be extremely careful in deciding what information is to be collected, how many questions are to be formulated, what should be their sequence. What should be the wording of each question, and what should be the layout of the questionnaire. All these aspect need considerable time and effort of the marketing researcher If he is able to develop a questionnaire suitable for his field investigation, he will find that his task to collecting the data has become much easier than otherwise.

Type of Information to Be Collected: While attempting to design a questionnaire, the marketing researcher has to first ask himself what type of information he needs from the survey. He should seriously consider this question as it will have considerable repercussion on the usefulness of the survey. For, if he omits to collect information on some relevant and vital aspects of his survey, his research study is unlikely to be useful. At the same time, if he collects information on some issues not directly relevant to his study, he not only raises the total cost of the survey but also increases the time factor, This being the case, the survey will take much more time than is really necessary. It will also led to greater inaccuracy as the respondent will have to answer many more questions than are strictly necessary and he will, therefore, not be sufficiently careful in giving the exact answer. In either case, the marketing researcher will be the loser. To avoid this situation, he should give serious thought to the specific information to be sought. It will considerable facilitate him if he looks ahead to the analysis stage so that he could enlighten himself on the type of tabulation as also the statistical methods that are to be used.

Crisp has very lucidly explained the different types of information which are generally sought in marketing research. The information could be one or more of the following type:

• Facts
• Quasi facts
• Awareness, or penetration of information
• Opinions
• Attitudes
• Future action plans and
• Reasons

Factual information is perhaps sought most frequently in marketing research. For example, the question- Do you own a car? Is intended to seek such factual information In addition, sometimes information collected belongs to the second category, namely, quasi facts. This implies that the information received from respondents is not factually corrected though it may appear to be so. Thus, a question in continuation of the earlier one about the ownership of a car, could be – If yes, when did you buy the car? Here, the respondent may not remember on the spur of the moment, the year when he bought the car respondent. For example, the respondent owing a car, may be asked why he bought that particular make. He is expected to give one or more reasons in support of his choice. Here too, there is an apprehension that the respondent may not come out with genuine reasons.

Type of Questions

The second important aspect in the designing of questionnaire is to decide which types of question are to be used. Questions can be classified in various ways. One way of classification is as follows.

• Open –ended question
• Dichotomous question
• Multiple –choice questions

An open –ended or simply ‘open’ free answer’ question gives the respondent complete freedom to decide the form. Length and detail of the answer Open questions are preferred when the researcher is interested in knowing what is uppermost is the mind of the respondent. However, open questions pose certain problems. At the time of the actual interview, it becomes difficult for the interviewer to note down the respondents answer verbatim. It the interview has to take down the answer all by himself without any mechanical aid, he is quite likely to miss some vital information contained in the respondent’s answer. Further, if several interviews are conducting interviews and each one recording the answers to opinion questions according to his understanding, and in his own way. Then there is likely to be an element of bias in the recorded answers. Another difficulty in respect of open questions is that it is extremely difficult to compress lengthy answer in a meaningful manner. Such answers may be good qualitatively but their quantification becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible. The dichotomous questions has only two answers in the form ‘yes’ or ‘no’ ‘false’.’ use’ or’ do not use’ etc.

Phrasing of the Question: The next issue in the preparation of a questionnaire is how to phrase the questions. The way in which a question is draft is very important as a slightly suggestive wording elicit a very different answer from the respondent. Consider, for example, the following question.

Don’t you think that this is a sub-stranded product?

A question of this type would prompt respondents to answer in the affirmative. Many of them, who do not have a definite opinion about the product, are likely to agree that it is of sub-standard quality. However, if the above question is worded a little differently, the answer is likely to be different. Suppose the question is put as follows:

Do you think that this is a sub-standard product?

A question of this type is not a suggestive question. It is a straight forward question and respondents are not likely to be prompted to say ‘yes’ as was the case in the earlier question. It will be interesting to know that a little difference in the answers. Payne cites an example in this regard. He gives the following three questions and the related affirmative responses:

Question	Percentage of respondent saying ‘yes’
Do you think anything should be done to make it easier for people to pay doctor’s or hospital bills?	82
Do you think anything could be done to make it easier for people to pay doctor’s or hospital bills?	77
Do you think anything might be done to make it easier for people to pay doctor’s or hospital bills?	63

These questions were put to three matched samples of respondents – one questions to each type. The only difference was in the words ‘should’ ‘could’, and ‘might’. This change in one word changed the percentage of affirmative responses by as much as 19 per cent, which clearly proves that the phasing of questions has to be done with great care so that there is no room for any ambiguity.

In order to ensure the appropriate phrasing question, one should be particular about the following factors

Difficult words should be avoided as far as possible. Likewise, technical or special terms which an average respondent may not understand, should be excluded.

Vague words such as ‘many’ ‘often’ ‘generally’, ‘on the whole’ and ‘reasonably’, should not be used.

Lengthy questions should be avoided. Too much verbosity makes questions lengthy, and is likely to confuse the respondent.

One should avoid combining two questions into me. For example, the questions –Which of the following modes of transport is cheaper and more convenient?

• Train
• Bus

It is quite likely that according to the respondent both the attributes, namely cheapness and convenience may not be applicable to either of the two modes of transport. One may be cheaper while the other may be more convenient.

Question lacking specificity should be avoided or modified suitably so that they become more precise: For example, the questions-Are you satisfied with your job? –is sufficiently specific because it does not provide the necessary frame of reference to the respondent. One may be satisfied, say, from the viewpoint of emoluments but one may not be satisfied with the type or nature of one’s work. These are two distinct aspects which perhaps cannot be taken care of by one question.

Order of Questions: Another aspect that should receive the attention of the researcher is the sequence or order of questions to be contained in a questionnaire. Since, in the beginning, the researcher has to establish some rapport with the respondent, it is necessary that questions asked at the beginning are simple and thereby helpful in establishing the report. Difficult questions or those on sensitive issues should be relegated to the end of the questionnaire. Further, question of a general type should be asked in the be asked in the beginning while those which are specialized, needing some in –depth information from the respondents, should be left to the end.

However, care should be taken the interest of the respondent until so that he is able to answer specialize question in a normal manner without fatigue and indifference. If the questionnaire is very lengthy, two or three sets of the same can be printed where the order of questions can be changed by a scheme of rotation for the sampled units. In such a case, some respondents would can be changed by a scheme of rotation for the sampled units. In such a case, some respondents would answer the specialized questions towards the middle of the questionnaire instead to towards its end.

How Many Question to be Asked?: The researcher has also to decide how many questions are to be asked. We may add that the number of questions is not so important as the actual length of the questionnaire. We have just mentioned above that the researcher has to sustain the interest of the respondent until the last moment so that the interview can be completed successfully and the requisite information obtained. Too lengthy a questionnaire would obviously be a disadvantage and the response to it may be quite poor.

While deciding on the number of questions or the length of the questionnaire, the researcher should put himself in the respondent’s shoes and imagine how he would react to that questionnaire. He can calculate the probable time that might be required by the respondent in answering the entire questionnaire. He can also canvass the questionnaire amongst some of his friends and acquaintances. Their opinion and reaction will be very helpful to him in finally deciding how lengthy the questionnaire should be. This is, in a way, pre-testing of the questionnaire.

Layout of the Questions: Finally, the researcher on his behalf has to decide about the layout of the questionnaire. This implies that the documents should be set in such a way that it leaves a favorable impression in the mind of the respondent. It should be neatly pages should not have too many questions so as to appear crowded. Proper spacing between the question and within a question should be provided for. The more important wordings, to which the researcher would like to draw the attention of the respondent, should be set in bold types or underlined. If it is really a lengthy questionnaire, special care should be taken to reduce its size by providing two columns in a page and by using finer types. But, this can be done up to certain point for too fine a print may cause inconvenience to the respondent. The questionnaire should have ‘easy looks’ which means that it should be short and printed on superior quality paper so that writing with pen or pencil is smooth.

Mail Questionnaire: So far the discussion was confined to the designing of questionnaires to be filled in by personal interviews. In fact, the type of questionnaire to be designed depends on the type of survey. Broadly, there are three types of survey namely, personal, mail and telephone. As far as the telephone survey is concerned, it is not commonly used in India. As such, the personal interview and mail survey are the only two methods. Since a mail survey needs a questionnaire which should have some additional characterizes. It is necessary to look into this aspect in some detail. First, we should would the advantages and limitations of a mail survey.

Advantages

• It is much easier to approach a large number of respondents spread all over the country through post.
• A mail questionnaire will not have distribution bias as it will not show any particular preference or dislike for a certain neighborhood, household or individual. This, however, is not the case with the personal interview as it is likely to be affected by the personal preferences or dislikes of the individual interviewer.
• Likewise, a mail questionnaire is free from any interviewer’s bias and errors which may undermine the reliability and validity of the results emerging from the survey.
• Where the question asked such that it cannot be answered immediately and needs some thinking on the part of the respondent. It is the mail questionnaire which will be most appropriate. A respondent can think over the question leisurely at home before giving his answer. The quality of answers is, therefore, likely to be superior to that obtained in the personal interview.
• Since a large number of respondents can be approached all over the country through mail in a short period, a mail questionnaire saves a lot of time in collecting the desired information.
• There is a good deal of saving in the total cost of a mail survey as cost of traveling, boarding and lodging of interviewers is not to be incurred. This enables the organizers of the survey to complete the investigation within a limited budget.
• Incase of mail questionnaires, there is no difficulty in having central supervision and control over the survey operations over a large region. This, however,, is not the case when a large number of interviewers are appointed to cover different territories. As they have to be instructed, supervised and checked, these tasks cannot be managed from one center along.
• Mail questionnaires also avoid the bias arising from any inhibitions in answering questions. In particular, when questions are of a personal nature, the respondents may hesitate to answer them in the presence of an interviewer. This type of inhibition will not be there if the mail survey is undertaken.
• Finally, mail questionnaires will not have the problem of non-contacts in the strict sense as might be the case in personal interviews when the interviewer finds that the respondent, being away from home, is not available.

Limitations: The mail questionnaire suffers from some major limitations which are mentioned below:

It is not suitable when questions are difficult and complicated. In such a case, the help of interviewers is required to offer some introductory explanation to the respondent. Further, in all such surveys where the main object is to get the respondent talking or to undertake deep probing, mail questionnaires are completely unsuitable.

When the researcher is interested in the spontaneous answers of the respondent or his own answer uninfluenced by others who may influence his thinking, the mail questionnaire is inappropriate.

In case of mail questionnaires, it is not possible to verify whether the respondent himself or herself has filled in the questionnaire. If a questionnaire is addressed to a housewife concerning expenditure on durable items in the family, it is she who is supposed to answer it. However, she may ask her husband or someone else in family to fill in the questionnaire on her behalf. It should be evident that such answers may not be correct. Further, they may not reflect the opinion of the particular respondent whose opinion was sought.

The researcher has to accept the answers as they are provided in the mail questionnaire. In case there is any inconsistency or ambiguity in the answers, it will be difficult for the researcher to make use of such questionnaire. He cannot further probe into the same to get some additional information or to remover the inconsistency or ambiguity.

The respondent, in case of a mail questionnaire, may go through his answers after he has filled in the entire questionnaire and may make certain modification in his original answers as a result of which these answer cannot be regarded as independent.

A mail questionnaire does not allow the researcher to supplement the information by his personal observations. That will be possible only when the questionnaire is canvassed by him personally.

Finally, a mail questionnaire normally has a relatively poor response compared to a questionnaire canvassed personally. In the latter case, even if the respondent is initially reluctant to answer the questionnaire, the interviewer can explain the purpose of the survey and point out its relevance to the respondent who may then agree to answer the questionnaire.

Additional consideration for the preparation of a mail questionnaire As the interviewer is just not available for any explanation or clarification that a respondent is likely to need, it becomes necessary to prepare a mail questionnaire with greater care and more thought. It would, therefore, be worthwhile to look into additional factor that can significantly improve the quality of a mail questionnaire.

• Mail questionnaires should be shorter than the questionnaire to be used personally otherwise the response rate would be affected adversely.
• The wording should be extremely simple so as to avoid any misunderstanding.
• In case a lengthily mail questionnaire has to be used, it may be desirable to send an advance letter, seeking the cooperation of the respondent. This may be followed by the questionnaire. Such a practice will prepare the respondent mentally to receive a lengthy questionnaire and a reasonably high response rate can be maintained.
• Wherever necessary, suitable explanations should be provided so that respondents understand the question in the proper perspective and in the manner in which the researcher intended.
• A covering letter must invariably be enclosed with the mail questionnaire. The covering letter should explain the purpose and importance of the survey and solicit the cooperation of the respondent. It should be emphasized in a covering letter that the information to be given by the respondent will be kept strictly confidential and that his identity will not be disclosed.
• A mail questionnaire should also be accompanied by a pre-addressed and stamped envelope to facilitate and respondent to return the same as soon as it is filled in without incurring any expenditure himself.

Pre-testing the Questionnaire: Once the questionnaire is ready, it should be pre-tested which implies that it is tried out on a few respondents and their reaction to questionnaire is observed. It helps the researcher decided whether any changes in the question –content or the wording of questions are called for. If so, specific changes that are desirable can also be ascertained and incorporated in the questionnaire. This would improve it and if it is a mail questionnaire. It would perhaps increase the response rate as well.

The other benefit of pre-testing questionnaire is that the researcher can know the suitability of the instructions given to the interviewers as also their capability. In case certain changes are required. The same can be introduced. Interviewers will also have an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the problems they might face in the collection of data. This apart, pre – testing may indicate whether a particulars sample design is feasible or some other sample design, which maybe more appropriate, should be selected. Sometimes, pre-testing of a questionnaire is undertaken to find out the suitability of data for particular needs. For this purpose, the researcher may be and prepare dummy tables. With the help of these tables, one can examine whether such data would be appropriate and adequate for the objectives of the survey. In the light of this investigation, the questionnaire can be revised to elicit additional information.

The Questionnaire — Pros and Cons

First of all it is important for you to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the questionnaire as opposed to the personal interview. This knowledge will allow you to maximize the strengths of the questionnaire while minimizing its weaknesses.

The advantages of administering a questionnaire instead of conducting an interview are:

The primary advantages of questionnaire are

• It is economical in terms of money and time
• It gives samples which are more representative of population
• It generates the standardized information
• It provides the respondent the desired privacy We will discuss these advantages of Questionnaire technique of collecting primary data

Economical In Money and Time: The questionnaires will save your time and money.

• There is no need to train the interviewers, there by reducing the time of operation and is economical.
• The questionnaires can be send to a large group and can be collected simultaneously, however when personal interview is done the interviewer has to go to each and every individual separately.
• The questions reach the respondents very efficiently. Finally, the cost of postage should be less than that of travel or telephone expenses.

Recent developments in the science of surveying have led to incorporating computers into the interview process, yielding what is commonly known as computer automated telephone interview (or CATI) surveys. Advances in using this survey technique have dramatically reshaped our traditional views on the time-intensive nature and inherent unreliability of the interview technique.

Better Samples: Many surveys are constrained by a limited budget. Since a typical questionnaire usually has a lower cost per respondent, you can send it to more people within a given budget (or time) limit.

This will provide you with more representative samples.

Standardization: The questionnaire provides you with a standardized data gathering procedure.

• The effects of potential human errors (for example, one can alter the pattern of question asking, calling at inconvenient times, and biasing by “explaining”) can be minimized by using a well-constructed questionnaire.
• The use of a questionnaire also eliminates any bias introduced by the feelings of the respondents towards the interviewer (or vice versa).

Respondent Privacy

• Although the point is debatable, most surveyors believe the respondent will answer a questionnaire more frankly than he would answer an interviewer, because of a greater feeling of anonymity.
• The respondent has no one to impress with his/her answers and need have no fear of anyone hearing them.