The Listener Survey Toolkit
Chapter 5
How long can the survey be?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview
Why Conduct a Listener or Member Survey
Research Myths and Misconceptions
Building the Survey
Survey Methodology
Survey Questions
Processing the Data
Data Analysis and Reporting
Applying the Survey Results
Station Service and Support for the Listener Survey Toolkit
Sample Questions
The best length for a survey is determined not only by the information you want to obtain, but also by the group that is being tested. For example, a survey of members might consist of as many as 200 questions, but a general survey of listeners should be considerably shorter. The more closely a person is aligned with the station, the more likely they will be to take the time to complete a lengthy survey. The average listener may not be as patient or interested.

Some general guidelines for survey length:

Phone surveys should be no more than 15 minutes in length, and that includes the time that the interviewer needs to ask the questions, and that the listener needs to think and respond. Remember to put yourself in the place of the person responding to the survey. This will be their first and only exposure to the survey. It will take them longer to absorb the questions and decide on answers than it takes you in rehearsal. So allow adequate time. A survey should be rehearsed and timed before it is administered in order to have an accurate reading on the total time of the survey. Act the survey out with a member of your staff who is not familiar with the survey to time and test it. This is also good method of finding and rephrasing any questions that might be unclear.

For mail surveys, the length of the survey is determined by a number of variables including the design of the survey. The design (how it looks, how many pages it is) contributes to the psychological or perceived length of the survey. Appearance can make a survey seem longer or shorter. Those that appear to be long may not have as strong a response rate. Be sure that the type size in a survey is large enough to be read easily.

The length of the survey is also determined by the style of the questions being asked. For example, it is quicker to answer a set of fifteen questions about a station's programs, each of which use an identical, numerical scale, then it is to answer fifteen separate questions, with different responses, on the same subject. Mailed surveys should also be pretested for length and accuracy. It is advisable to test a rough draft with members of the staff who are not connected to programming or development. This allows you to develop a sense of the ease or difficulty of the survey. The survey should be tested for flow, length, and accuracy. This helps to identify poorly worded or awkward questions.

While there is no hard and fast rule, it is suggested that a mail survey be no longer than 15 minutes to complete. This will encourage a higher rate of return.

Remember that with surveys there is a tradeoff of length versus response. In general, the shorter the survey, the more responses you will receive. Many stations have the tendency to want to ask every programming and development question that they can think of rather than focusing the survey on several important priorities.

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