Time Frames in Survey Questions

One of the risks you run with your data collection is collecting data that has been influenced incorrectly by the question itself. If the question is unclear or has inexact language, it is possible that you will get results that are not indicative of the respondent’s true feelings. This often occurs when the language you use to indicate time is too vague.

Consider how all of the following sentences could affect a thought process, even though they are all asking about the same thing (with examples of how a customer may view the questions beneath it): Will you purchase this product within the next month? “No, I will not.” Will you purchase this product? “I don’t know. If I do, probably not for a while” Do you think you may purchase this product soon? “Maybe. I might purchase it in the next six months or so.” Do you think you might purchase this product? “Sure, I will probably consider it someday.” Do you think you could purchase this product? “Of course.

I don’t really want it, but it looks interesting.” All of these are asking the same thing, yet the language leaves for different interpretations. Depending on which one you choose, you might get very different results.

If you look at the above examples, the only one that receives an exact answer is the one with a time frame directly within the question. Asked if the person would purchase the product within the next month yielded a more direct answer since the answer would generally be more black and white.

On the other hand, any doubt in the time frame can lead to doubt for the participant. If enough participants do not answer the question with the time frame you had imagined when you create the question, you are going to get a range of responses that do not necessarily indicate the information you were hoping to analyze. When you want to do research that allows you to draw important conclusions, you need to take the time to make sure that the question is asking exactly what you expect it to answer.

In many cases this involves coming up with a survey question that has a specific time frame, in order to ensure that the person has as little doubt as possible when they answer the question.