Survey Report Best Practices

We last left off talking about the results section of the survey report. From here we'll move on to the discussion section.

Both traditional research and market research can benefit from a discussion section to the report. The discussion section helps anyone that reads the report really understand it, because it focuses on all of the things that the data "means" to the company. In the discussion section you can go over what the results mean for the future of your company and whether they are encouraging or not.

You can explain whether you believe the data to be representative, or explain if you don't. You can also discuss future research, including research that is going to spawn from there and research that is going to be repeated in the future (as is the case with customer satisfaction). Much of this depends on the type of study, of course.

If this was a study of employee satisfaction, for example, it would be a good idea to emphasize what you are hearing from the employees, what you are going to do to make them more satisfied, etc. If it's a discussion of customer buying habits, then perhaps you can explain what you believe effects these habits and where your research will take you to discover the accuracy of your statement.

Finally, you can end with a conclusion, summarizing the paper so that anyone reading it can simply skip to the bottom to understand what the purpose of the paper was and where you're taking it.

Your survey report should also be well formatted and attractive, because it is an extension of your company. Good formatting helps to ensure that the paper looks interesting and is valued, instead of cheaply put together. Survey reports are more valuable than people realize, and companies can use them for a variety of purposes.

They can and should often be distributed to employees so that everyone can see what the company has discovered in their research. They can be saved and handed out to partners or investors, or they can even be provided to customers. Some companies use these reports as incentives to customers for filling out the survey.

Regardless, creating an easy to read and understand survey report is valuable for a variety of reasons. Analyzing data and drawing conclusions is important, but your company will often need to show others the results of their surveys either now or in the future, and a report provides an easy to understand way of disseminating that information.