Let’s be honest—collecting client information is not what gets you up in the morning.
But it’s still a critical business process and it needs to be done properly. The good thing is that you can replace all those time-consuming phone calls, back and forth emails, and interviews with questionnaires.
A questionnaire is a shortcut to understanding your clients. Not only does it help you assess clients but also makes it possible to anticipate their future needs. This one is huge because 70% of people expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.
In this post, you’ll learn:
Content Snare helps you create amazing questionnaires. Sign up to access our built-in questionnaire templates.
A questionnaire is a research tool for collecting feedback and measuring clients’ opinions, preferences, and behaviors. It usually consists of multiple-choice survey questions, but we’ll discuss the alternatives later.
A well-crafted questionnaire enables B2B companies to gain deeper insights into the client’s preferences, often leading to small but invaluable improvements. It also helps companies collect business-related data in many areas, including financial planning, marketing, and event planning.
On the other hand, B2C companies use questionnaires for collecting customer feedback from a large number of respondents in a short amount of time. The benefits of questionnaires include:
| Survey vs. QuestionnaireA survey is a much broader concept than a questionnaire. It includes different actions like determining the target audience, choosing answer categories, making a questionnaire, and interpreting data. The questionnaire is the tool for conducting surveys. We often use these two words interchangeably, but it’s good to know the difference. |
Questionnaires can tell you a lot about the client, provided you design them well and ask the right questions. Here are five steps to making an effective questionnaire.
Before you start writing questions, it’s important to understand the aim of your survey. What type of data is needed and why? The point is to focus on a single subject. If you want to screen renters with a tenant questionnaire, don't ask questions about vendors.
You should also choose the right type of questions. The two common types include:
Besides that, remember that adding too many questions can lead to survey fatigue. Aim for up to 20 survey questions, but ask even fewer if that will do the trick. That helps respondents complete the entire survey and provide more accurate results.
You will improve data quality by keeping the questions simple and straightforward. Avoid long sentences or asking for multiple explanations in a single answer.
Don't ask questions like this: “Does your company process health-related information and do you have a security policy in place?” Do this instead:
Separate questions make it easier for respondents to concentrate and give the right answers.
It’s also important to use neutral wording when writing survey questions. Avoid any language that could lead clients to answer in a certain way. That includes assumptions or judgmental statements about products, processes, or client relationships. Here’s an example:
The order of your questions should be logical and flow smoothly, allowing respondents to quickly move through the questionnaire. Start with simple, easy-to-answer questions and then progress to more complex ones as they progress. Most companies can do it like this:
This questionnaire structure does two things—it collects the information you need while leaving extra room for respondents to express their thoughts or ideas.
The last tip is to keep the questionnaire design neat and clean. It means not using too many:
A simple design makes online surveys better because it eliminates distractions and helps clients focus on the essence. And remember—whitespace is your friend. It helps make a scannable and well-organized questionnaire.
You can create a survey from scratch, or you can use questionnaire templates to speed up the work. Templates are practically cheat codes that save hours on the questionnaire design process. You can use them in almost all businesses, and we’ll show you a few common use cases.
The sales cycle is long and fickle, but you can make it more predictable with a client discovery questionnaire. This template concentrates on four areas:
Sometimes you’ll use online surveys to evaluate the client before coaching. In this case, you can use the pre-coaching questionnaire template.
Consultants are experts by definition, but they need to prove their expertise right away with a well-planned questionnaire. So, how to create a questionnaire as a consultant? Conduct surveys using these questions:
These are only some of the more popular templates, but you can launch multiple surveys to gather data on different types of clients. Let’s breeze through other templates for developing questionnaires:
Collecting survey data is simpler if you use a questionnaire builder, but how do you know which one is best for you? We recommend looking for a platform with these features:
Search for a questionnaire builder that offers professional templates. It should also cover everything from website design and logo questionnaires to search engine optimization survey templates.
The best questionnaire builders are user-friendly. It shouldn’t take you more than five minutes to figure out how to use the tool. If it takes more time, switch to a different tool.
You can improve a questionnaire template through customization. Pick a tool that allows you to play with different styles or add branded elements to the survey.
Advances questionnaire builders are based on automation. That means all answers are saved automatically, helping respondents pick up where they left off. It also means the platform will send survey reminders based on your settings.
There are many questionnaire builders that will do a fine job creating a simple survey, but most of them have serious limitations. If you want an easy-to-use tool with advanced features, Content Snare is your best option.
It offers a range of readymade questionnaire templates, but you can also create requests from scratch. Create questionnaires in minutes, and Content Snare will do the rest:
The days of back and forth emails are over. Use Content Snare to create questionnaires and collect client feedback.
Dražen Vujović is a journalist and content writer. More importantly, he is a father of two and a long-distance runner.
