More Survey Report Writing

We left off the last article with mention that you should address survey methodologies. This is important. Unless you explain how you went about conducting your survey, future readers that may not know how your survey was conducted will not know how to replicate it.

This is especially important for issues regarding how you found your sample, or your exclusion criteria. If you used a convenience sample, for example, and then someone follows up on your research with a more traditional research sample, the results are almost always going to be completely different and it may not represent any change in the feelings or experiences of your customers. Ask yourself "if someone needed to know how I conducted my research, what would I need to tell them?"

Either at this point or after the analysis, you should discuss any problems that arose when you tried to collect your data. If you found you accidentally worded a question wrong, or you experienced a significant survey drop rate, these would all be examples of items that would be worth mentioning because they affect the quality of the data.

Finally it's time to share the results of the survey. Traditionally you do not attempt to explain what the numbers mean yet. Instead, provide graphs and charts that explain the answers to your data collection, your numerical analysis, and so on.

Attractive graphs and charts are useful though, and make sure it's clear what they're explaining, otherwise you may lose the audience. Only when you've provided all of the statistics do you go into their meaning. Again, consider it a part of survey research best practices to always supply honest answers.

If you didn't get the results you expected, say so. If the results you received weren't statistically significant and therefore you were unable to draw conclusions, say so. Most companies, especially, take the results section of these reports as an opportunity to try to make the company sound stronger, regardless of what the data says.

But it's better if you don't fall in that trap, because good research and analysis begets more good research and analysis, and only if you're sharing meaningful results can you rightfully expect the follow up to make sense to the general public. Go on to explain how your survey results matched your objectives, including what you did see, what you didn't see, what can be improved, what is improving, etc. We'll continue this in the next article.