Five mistakes to avoid for genuine consumer feedback

Honesty is the best policy, especially in the world of market research. When survey respondents bend the truth, flat-out lie or simply choose not to answer a question, your survey results become unreliable. This can lead to misguided business decisions that derail your brand.

As a general rule, survey design has a big impact on whether respondents offer truthful answers. When market researchers embrace empathetic survey design – an approach in which respondents’ perspectives and feelings are prioritised – they foster trust and encourage honesty. When they don’t, they risk alienating respondents, increasing disengagement and compromising the overall quality of the data.

In this article, we explore five common mistakes market researchers make when designing surveys. In avoiding these pitfalls, you can encourage genuine feedback and collect richer, more meaningful insights that will help drive confident data-driven business decisions.

Mistake 1: Making the survey too long

The adult attention span is waning. Over the past few decades, we have trained our brains to jump from task to task. We may check our email, watch an Instagram reel, like a friend’s post on Facebook and text our boss all in the span of 60 seconds. As a result, our ability to concentrate can be less than that of a goldfish.

This is bad news for market researchers. If you design a survey that is too long – our research says any longer than 12 minutes may be too long – respondents often lose interest. They may extend less effort in reading and answering questions or even drop out early.

All this is to say, if you want high-quality data, you must keep things short and sweet. You can do this by only asking the questions you really need to be answered, opting for iconography instead of long, text-only lists, and using skip-logic to provide a personalised survey experience.

Incorporating connected data into your analysis after the fact is another way of capturing the information you need while asking fewer questions. Connected data combines information from surveys with other data sets, such as demographic information, purchase behaviour, consumer segments or media consumption. This allows you to ask behavioural questions that truly matter.

Mistake 2: Asking judgmental questions

As a marketer, you want to know everything there is to know about your target audience so you can create the right products and market them effectively. However, the pursuit of this knowledge should be approached with caution when asking invasive or overly personal questions.

Some of the most frequently asked survey questions, unfortunately, include implicit judgement, such as ‘What is your income?’ and ‘What is your employment status?’, or even ‘How old are you?’ By inquiring about employment status, we assume that working is a societal norm, inadvertently overlooking and undervaluing other lifestyles or responsibilities. This can lead respondents to feel pressured to misrepresent their circumstances, through embellishments or downplaying the truth, resulting in unreliable data.

However, demographic information like income and employment is crucial for analysis. Instead of eliminating these questions, consider rephrasing them to reduce the emphasis on hierarchical characteristics.

For example, when inquiring about education, instead of asking ‘What is your highest level of educational attainment?’ you might ask ‘What did you do after leaving secondary school?’ This approach is more conversational and accommodates a range of pathways. A follow-up question can be asked afterwards for further elaboration in a more empathetic manner, and in fact can result in more honest answers.

Kantar has run experiments testing this method and has found that the empathetic approach produced response rates much closer to national population records.

Other topics that require careful handling include aspirations, such as exercise and recycling. Carefully framing these questions can help respondents feel safe enough to provide honest feedback rather than over-report based on societal expectations.

Mistake 3: Not designing for mobile devices

With mobile device usage becoming the norm, optimising surveys for mobile is increasingly important. Today, 56% of global online surveys are completed on mobile devices, and this percentage will only rise. This is why surveys that are merely mobile-compatible are no longer good enough. Surveys must now be fully optimised for mobile to foster reliable answers.

What does a mobile-optimised survey entail? With their smaller, portrait-oriented screens, mobile designs require a precise layout where every pixel is important, ensuring content is both concise and clear to fit the limited display space.

Mobile optimisation also takes into account the unique context of mobile usage, where respondents might be on the go or have shorter attention spans due to the reasons mentioned earlier. Therefore, surveys must load quickly, be easy to understand, and engaging enough to capture the participant’s attention despite numerous distractions.

Adopting a mobile-first strategy ensures surveys are accessible and user-friendly for all who are responding to them. It will not only boost engagement but also reduce survey dropout.

Mistake 4: Making the survey too boring

Let’s face it: completing a market research survey is never going to be as entertaining as scrolling through social media, playing a game or streaming TV. But it does need to be engaging enough to keep someone’s attention for the length of the experience.

To make your survey more exciting and engaging, consider shortening your questions, grouping similar questions together, and varying the question types. Even adding graphics like photos, videos and memes can make the survey less dull.

Gamification is another option. In the context of survey design, gamification involves leveraging techniques such as rewards, points, badges, progress bars and interactive challenges to keep respondents motivated from start to finish. By transforming the survey process into a more dynamic experience, gamification can reduce survey fatigue and improve the quality of responses.

Mistake 5: Ignoring diversity

One big oversight in survey design is failing to acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of respondents. When you ignore factors like age, gender, ethnicity and cultural context, you risk creating a survey that yields two-dimensional results at best and alienates certain groups at worst.

For example, using culturally specific idioms can confuse respondents from different backgrounds, resulting in misinterpretations of your questions. To mitigate this, consider implementing visual elements like icons or images, which can enhance understanding across diverse audiences. Additionally, using alternative question formats, such as max-diff or custom scales, can reduce cultural biases and lead to more accurate data collection.

Ultimately, an inclusive approach not only strengthens your survey’s reliability but also empowers your brand to make informed decisions that resonate with all segments of your market.

Learn more

Discover the principles of empathetic survey design, along with best practices and expert recommendations, by accessing Kantar’s guide, Unlocking Truth: 9 Ways to Get Real Feedback from Consumers.

Martha Espley is senior research director at Kantar Profiles.