If you're in business, surveys are a useful marketing tool. They help you find out more about your customers. And the more you know about your customers, the easier it is to meet their needs. You must ask the right questions, of course. And you must have a survey translation for thosewhose first language may not be English.

One Question at a Time
Don't ask questions that require two answers. This may seem obvious, but it's a common error.

For example, don't ask: "Are you satisfied with our sales staff and our after-sales service?" Split such a question in two. Ask: "Are you satisfied with our sales staff?" and "Are you satisfied with our after-sales service?"

Avoid Confusion
The moment a survey confuses a respondent, he or she puts it to one side. Therefore, always use clear and concise language. Keep each question as short a possible. And test the survey on business colleagues, friends and family before using it.

"Don't know"
When you ask a direct question, be prepared for someone to reply: "Don't know." In other words, don't always expect a straight "yes" or "no" answer.

For example, you might ask: "Do you like brown trainers?" Someone who has never owned brown trainers, or even thought about owning a pair, may not be able to give a positive or negative answer. In this instance, "don't know" is a reasonable alternative.

Flow
Ensure your questions flow from one to the other. If you have a lot of questions that cover different topics, group them in sub-headings.

For example, you may want to ask questions about food preferences. If so, you could use sub-headings for fruit preferences, vegetable preferences and so on.

One further tip: When you have groups of questions, make sure the survey translation also flows well. First test the translation on a small group and take note of the responses.

Don't Make Assumptions
It's easy to make assumptions about customers, but be cautious. If you sell pizzas, for example, don't assume all survey respondents have eaten pizza before. By jumping straight to a question such as "how many pizzas do you eat each month?" you ignore potential survey respondents.
Instead, the first question to ask is: "Have you ever eaten pizza?" If respondents answer "yes," you can go on to ask how many pizzas they eat each month, what toppings they like, etc.

If respondents answer "no," you may wish to direct them to a separate series of questions. These can probe why they don't eat pizza, and what would encourage them to do so.

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