Whether your bank surveys are for employees or customers, you can’t just jot down some questions for them to answer. In order for you to gain and analyze the correct data, you need to think it through. The first step is to jot down your research question/objective. Once you have decided why you’re conducting this survey then you can work through the questions.
You might have multiple questions already in mind, but do you know how they should be formatted? Depending on how they’re formatted will help you gain more accurate numbers to analyze. Let’s go through the three main types of questions for surveys.
Open-Ended Questions
This question format is pretty self-explanatory, this is when you allow the respondent to write in their answer. This is a great option if you want to learn each respondent’s opinion on a topic. For example, you could ask them why or why would they not recommend your bank to others. This allows them to give thorough feedback that you may not have been able to get with a multiple-choice question.
Categorical Questions
Categorical questions are when you give an accompanying list of answers along with your question. This could range from multiple-choice, dual-choice, or “select all that apply” questions. This is a good option if you’re looking for direct answers. For example, this would work well with demographic questions or other questions about the bank. One question could be, “Which bank branch did you visit?” with the answer choices listing the branches.
Metric Questions
Metric questions have to do with numbers. The respondent needs to think in terms of amounts, numbers or levels for the question. For example, a metric question would be: “How many times a week do you come into a branch?” If the answer choices are numbers then that is a metric question. Another type of metic question are scales where you rate a statement from one to ten.
Now this where we dive a little bit deeper. There are two types of metric questions: Natural and Synthetic. Natural is when the answer choices are numbers and you don’t have to explain what those numbers mean. Referring back to the previous question, if you were to ask how many times a week the respondent goes into the bank, the answer choices would be: 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. You wouldn’t have to explain what each of those numbers mean because the respondent knows based on the question.
Synthetic is when you have to explain what the number choices mean. If given a scale, and the question is, “How would you rate your banking experience?” you would have to explain that 1 means “poor,” 3 means “neutral” and 5 means “great.”
What Can I Do With This Information?
Now that you know the types of research questions, you can plan out how you want to format your questions. By being fully informed on the different ways you can write a question, you’ll be able to get the most out of your data once you analyze it. Although it may seem intimidating at first, once you do a couple in different formats it’ll come to you easily!
Although using surveys is a great way to improve your customer service and employee performance, another great option are field experiments. Check out my latest blog post to learn how this type of strategy can help your bank!
