How to Conduct a Survey – Survey Basics

Survey Research can be broken down into 5 steps. How difficult the individual steps are depends on the size and scope of your project. Try to take each step individually. This will keep you from getting overwhelmed and “stuck in the mud”.

The posts to follow will each address one of these steps.

The five steps of the survey research method are:

Each step has its intricacies and pitfalls, but taken individually they are each easy to accomplish.

Expanding these steps we find several sub-steps.

1. Create

Objectives
Question Development
Design the Survey Instrument

2. Deploy

Online
Mail
Telephone
In Person

3. Analyze

Reporting
Benchmarking
Statistical Analysis

4. Take Action

Action Plans
Execution of Action Plans

5. Re-Survey

Measure Progress
Adjust Action Plans

You should not proceed to the next step without fulfilling the requirements of the prior step. For instance, part of the Create process (Step 1) is to determine the objectives of your research. Your survey results may not be of any value if you do not correctly identify these research objectives.

I will post an article on each of the steps individually to keep them nicely compartmentalized.

Next, let’s talk about creating the survey.