{"id":483,"date":"2019-10-17T18:36:18","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T18:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/?p=483"},"modified":"2020-11-23T14:18:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T14:18:06","slug":"the-problem-with-ambiguous-survey-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/the-problem-with-ambiguous-survey-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top:3rem;margin-bottom:1rem;\"><span class=\"firstpart\">The Problem With<\/span>   Ambiguous Survey Questions<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ambiguous\nquestions are some\nof the most dangerous elements of a survey. They can ruin the reliability and the usefulness of the\nresults, which could mean that either the survey has to be carried out again or your business takes actions that\nare counterproductive. Therefore, ambiguous\nqueries need to be avoided at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\nare various ways to avoid this type of query in\nyour surveys.\nHowever, it takes time, patience and some level of writing skills. So, here is our quick guide to ambiguous questions and how to\navoid them in your surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&gt;&gt; Create your&nbsp;<strong>Online Survey<\/strong>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<strong>Drag\u2019n Survey<\/strong>,&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\">click here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"849\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/ambiguous-questions-min.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/ambiguous-questions-min.jpg 849w, https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/ambiguous-questions-min-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/ambiguous-questions-min-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 849px) 100vw, 849px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><u>What Is An Ambiguous Question?<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nfirst thing you need to do is identify and understand what an ambiguous question is. There are\nsome who don\u2019t understand the difference, and some people who mistakenly mark queries as ambiguous when\nthey\u2019re not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An ambiguous question is defined as one where there is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.collinsdictionary.com\/dictionary\/english\/ambiguous\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"no specific query (opens in a new tab)\">no specific query<\/a>, it could have more than one meaning, asking for several responses, or not clearly defining the subject\/object. Here are some examples with reasons why they aren\u2019t good questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8211; Did you see the      film last weekend? &#8211; <em>what film? where did they see it? How much of it      did they see? Did they have to watch it or just know that it was on at the      cinema\/on television?<\/em><\/li><li>&#8211; Did you enjoy it?      &#8211; <em>what were they supposed to enjoy? Could they have liked an aspect of      it but not enjoy the experience?<\/em><\/li><li>&#8211; Have you bought      anything in the past three months? &#8211; t<em>his is rather obvious, most      people have bought something in the past week, let alone three months. But      where did they make the purchase? What did they buy? Why is it applicable      to the survey? How did they pay?<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>By\nusing ambiguous questions\nwithin a survey,\nyou can get a wide range of responses.\nFor instance, \u2018did you enjoy it\u2019, many people might say no. If it was about a\nnew ice cream they could have enjoyed the flavor, but the texture was\nunpleasant, or they could have enjoyed the ice cream but the environment was\ntoo noisy\/crowded for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><u>The Dangers Of Ambiguous Questions<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nproblem is that the information you get back can be equally as ambiguous. It\ncan also hold little value. For instance, \u2018did you enjoy it\u2019 could lead to\neither a yes or no response.\nHowever, if the majority of people don\u2019t like it, you still don\u2019t know why they\ndon\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This\nmeans that you can make mistakes with business decisions. You could completely\nchange a recipe, activity or product that customers might have appealed to the majority but didn\u2019t like a certain\naspect of. This can damage your business\u2019 reputation and force customer\nsatisfaction to drop further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply\nput, ambiguous questions\nlead to a limited amount of information. And as information is key to decision\nmaking, you\u2019re putting your brand at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><u>How To Avoid Ambiguous Questions?<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There\nare many ways of writing better questions. Here are some\ntips for your surveys\nto help you get more data from them and improve the value of results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Split Questions Into Numerous Parts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One\nof the biggest errors of ambiguous questions is that they are often asking for too much information\nin too little space. For instance, \u2018did you enjoy it could\nask for a wide range of aspects of a product. Instead, you should break\ndown the query into several parts. An example, if it was about ice cream, this\nset would be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8211; What did you think about the color of the product?<\/li><li>&#8211; What did you think about the texture of the product?<\/li><li>&#8211; What did you think about the flavor of the product?<\/li><li>&#8211; What did you think about the smell of the product?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These\nare very specific and can give you an indication about what people did or did\nnot enjoy about the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Don\u2019t Ask For Yes\/No Answers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Only\nask for a yes\/no response\nif you\u2019re sure these are the only two answers that are available (like if\nsomeone has bought a particular product). For all other questions, you want to give either space\nfor a qualitative response,\na scaled answer response\n(i.e. strongly disliked to strongly liked) or a multiple choice set of answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Don\u2019t Use Jargon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Jargon is <a href=\"https:\/\/sharingscience.agu.org\/jargon-and-how-to-avoid-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"terrible for surveys (opens in a new tab)\">terrible for surveys<\/a>. It confuses audiences who might not know the proper meaning of the word, and if someone doesn\u2019t understand the term, it makes it ambiguous by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Be Specific<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When\nspeaking about something, don\u2019t rely on luck\nthat the audience knows what you\u2019re referring to. Be specific with the question. For instance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDid\nyou see the latest superhero film at the cinema during the weekend of the 4\/5<sup>th<\/sup>\nJuly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nmore specific you are in your questions, the better the quality of the answers you\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Test Surveys Before Sending Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Another\nkey aspect is to always test out your surveys before sending them out. Get together\na group of audience and see how they respond to your survey. If they seem to struggle, you know that some of the questions may not be worded correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><u>Conclusion<\/u><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ambiguous\nquestions are not\ngreat for your brand. They provide poor data that can result in you taking\naction that could harm your business\u2019 operations. Therefore, look at queries\nbefore sending surveys\nout to audiences and ensure that they\u2019re being specific enough to collect the\nright data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More about surveys:<\/strong><br>Make Better Decisions With Better Data, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/make-better-decisions-with-better-data\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><br>14 Questions To Ask For Your Customer Satisfaction Survey, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/14-questions-to-ask-for-your-customer-satisfaction-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><br>How Surveys Enhance 360 Degree Feedback, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/how-surveys-enhance-360-degree-feedback\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><br>Find Out How You Can Address Your Employees\u2019 Concerns, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/find-out-how-you-can-address-your-employees-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><br>The Role Of Surveys In Creating Benchmarks, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"click here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/the-role-of-surveys-in-creating-benchmarks\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:53px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambiguous questions are some of the most dangerous elements of a survey. They can ruin the reliability and the usefulness of the results, which could mean that either the survey has to be carried out again or your business takes actions that are counterproductive. Therefore, ambiguous queries need to be avoided at all times. There&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/the-problem-with-ambiguous-survey-questions\/\" rel=\"bookmark\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:3rem;margin-bottom:1rem;\"><span class=\"firstpart\">The Problem With<\/span>   Ambiguous Survey Questions<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-create-online-survey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":664,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qualif.dragnsurvey.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}