Survey data collection: Methods, examples and best practices

Sixty-two percent of workers say data helps them make better decisions about product development, marketing messaging, customer experience and more.

Survey data collection is the not-so-secret solution to tackling difficult business decisions. Is the product design modern? Do customers know about your brand? Is your buyer journey simple? Your target audience knows and can help you understand how to improve your business without the guesswork.

With over 3.5 million surveys launched each year and 25 million questions answered daily on the SurveyMonkey platform, we know a thing or two about survey data. Read our guide on survey data collection methods, best practices and examples.

Survey data collection involves collecting information from respondents through a survey.

Businesses use surveys to ask their target audience questions that inform decisions on areas like product development and marketing messages.

Although survey data comes in various forms, it generally falls into two main categories: qualitative and quantitative data. Let’s take a closer look at each type.

Qualitative data is expressed in words, sentences and phrases. It gives you insights into your respondents’ opinions, attitudes, impressions and behaviours.

The data is entirely subjective and is provided in the respondents’ own words. When analysing qualitative survey data, you’re looking at how your target audience thinks, how they feel, how they behave, and most importantly, why they do the things they do.

Qualitative data complements quantitative data by giving the meaning behind the numbers. SurveyMonkey provides a Sentiment Analysis tool that categorises responses as positive, neutral, negative or undetected. The tool can filter responses by sentiment within a question or across the entire survey.

Quantitative data is represented by numbers, quantities and values. This is hard data that delivers concrete results. It’s measurable, objective and dependable.

This type of data is gathered using surveys with various closed-ended questions. Quantitative data helps you track trends over time, set benchmarks and test or confirm hypotheses. It’s easier to analyse but typically needs a larger sample size to reach credible conclusions.

You can complement your quantitative research data with qualitative data when you need deeper insights into motivations, opinions and attitudes.

Related reading: Quantitative vs. qualitative research

Collecting survey data isn’t just about asking questions, but rather creating a process that ensures answers are accurate, relevant and easy to analyse. Here’s a step-by-step guide to collecting data from different types of surveys.

Begin by identifying your goals for data collection via a survey. Determine what insights you seek, such as customer satisfaction, product feedback or employee engagement. Your objectives will guide nearly every other decision you make in the survey data collection process.

Survey design is a science, but you don’t need to be a research scientist to do it. Here are our top survey best practices:

Finally, test your survey with a small sample group before sharing it with your wider audience.

The next step is to decide who will take your survey. Are you looking to survey customers, community members or employees? If you are targeting multiple groups, consider segmenting your audiences into smaller groups to compare results later.

Related reading: How-to demographic segmentation guide

Next, choose a survey distribution channel that will best reach your target audience. Think about your audience’s preferences and the nature of your survey when deciding on the most suitable channel. The most popular survey methods include:

It’s important to include a clear call to action explaining why respondents should take the survey and how long it will take to complete.

Tracking completion rates helps you spot where people drop out and improves future survey designs. Monitoring responses in real time also ensures your survey works properly on all devices. If responses are low or unbalanced, you can adjust your distribution strategy. 

Export your responses to a central database for future analysis. Anonymise the data if needed to protect respondent privacy, and back up your data to prevent accidental loss. Clean your dataset by removing incomplete or duplicate entries. For deeper insights, consider segmenting your results by demographics.

There are a few best practices for survey data collection you should keep in mind. We’ll outline them below:

The simplest way to get started using surveys to collect data is with premade templates. SurveyMonkey offers 400+ survey templates that you can customise to meet the needs of your research.

One of the best things about starting with a template is that it provides questions to start with. You can save time and effort by creating your survey with a premade template and customising it. 

If you have a question you want to ask but aren’t sure quite how to word it, check out our question bank. This searchable library of questions is constantly updated and includes thousands of commonly asked questions in dozens of categories.

Here are just a few options from our extensive collection of templates.

The Net Promoter Score (NPS®) Survey Template measures customer loyalty by asking just one key question: How likely are you to recommend our product or service to a friend or colleague? Respondents give their answer on a scale from 0 to 10. These responses are then grouped into detractors, passives and promoters to assess your customers’ loyalty towards your brand.

Use the Customer Effort Score (CES) Survey Template to collect feedback on a specific issue or customer experience. This survey identifies how easy or difficult a particular task was compared to a customer’s expectations. The data gathered can reveal gaps in customer support and help enhance the overall customer experience.

The Market Research Survey Template helps you gather valuable feedback from your target audience.

With this survey template, you can discover what people like and dislike about a product or service. Prepare for a successful product launch by listening to the views of your ideal customers. 

Use the Product Feedback Survey Template to gather insights from consumers on new or existing products.

Easily collect information about a product’s design, features and purpose from your customers. These insights help you create products that people truly want. Product surveys let consumers share their opinions on specific products so businesses can determine what improvements to make. 

Our Customer Satisfaction Survey Template provides a foundation for researching customer satisfaction.

To collect customer satisfaction data, you’ll need to use a mix of question types. For example, the Likert scale, open-ended and nominal questions are commonly included in these surveys. When you use our template, these question types are already built in and ready for you to customise to your research needs.

Whenever you want to understand more about your target audience’s needs and wants, marketing surveys are your go-to tool. We also provide templates to help you get started with different types of marketing research. Here are a few examples.

These are just a small sample of the marketing survey templates we offer. All are fully customisable, from adding your logo to uploading images and editing questions to suit your brand persona.

Do you need insight into how your employees feel about working for your company? Start with our Employee Satisfaction Survey Template. Gather data on employees’ views of meaningful work, job challenge, stress levels and other key factors.

To build on the insights from your employee satisfaction survey, you can supplement your data with an Employee Benefits Survey or a Work Environment Survey.

Once you’ve collected your survey data, it’s time to analyse and organise your findings so you can present them to stakeholders and take action. Luckily, SurveyMonkey includes built-in analytics tools to help you uncover trends, patterns and insights you can use to improve your business.

With SurveyMonkey, you can view and analyse your data at any point during the collection process. Just head to your dashboard, find your study and click Analyse.

Our default Analyse view is Question Summaries. This gives you an overview of your data at the question level. You can customise how each question’s data is displayed by adjusting charts, formats, colours and labels.

The next analysis view is Insights and Data Trends. The Insights section gives you totals like response count, completion rate, average time to complete the survey and the most frequently skipped question. The Trends section displays responses by the hour for both the whole survey and individual questions. You can also customise this data display.

Individual Responses give you another way to view your data, showing how participants accessed the survey, their start and finish times, time spent, IP address and how each person answered every question.

Rules let you break down and focus on specific subsets of your data. This way, you can analyse your results in the most meaningful way possible.

You can use:

Use multiple rules together to focus on the data you want to analyse.

There are several options for each rule type, so choose the one that best suits the data analysis you’re conducting.

Download your summary, all responses, individual responses or export charts for offline use. This can include further analysis of raw data, printing or using it in a physical presentation.

Survey data collection is essential for making informed decisions. Now that you know how to collect data effectively with surveys, it’s time to get started. Gather all types of data, including qualitative and quantitative, to gain valuable insights for your organisation. By following our best practices, you’ll be able to launch successful surveys and analyse your data with confidence.  

Start by selecting one of our many free survey templates and customising it to suit your needs. Find the plan that works best for you, and start collecting data today with SurveyMonkey. 

NPS, Net Promoter and Net Promoter Score are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.