The Listener Survey Toolkit
Chapter 5
Deciding what you want to know

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
Beginning to put together a survey can be exciting, but more difficult than meets the eye. But there is an easy way to get started. Simply make a list of everything you'd like to know. Brainstorm. Ask yourself, "What would I like to know about our listeners?" It's best to do this over several sessions, so new ideas will come to mind. Don't try to be critical or edit your thoughts too much yet. Think of everything you can. Some people like to do this in their computer; others prefer to make notes on a legal pad.

Once you've accumulated a critical mass of questions, it's time to start prioritizing. We suggest two approaches. First, using your main list of questions, use a "funnel" approach. Ask yourself:

  • If I knew the answer to this question, what could I do with this information?
  • What action could the station take from having this knowledge, and would our actions be significant?

Some survey questions are asked in order to gain indirect knowledge. For example, you may not necessarily want to know the age ranges of your members. However, you may want to categorize answers to other questions by age group, so you ask an age classification question.

Of course, you can accelerate this process of question selection by looking at the sample questions included with the Toolkit.

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