What best strategies will you use to minimize response bias in data collection?

Data collection

Data collection is the process of collecting and analyzing information on relevant variables in a predetermined, methodical way so that one can respond to specific research questions, test hypotheses, and assess results.

Data collection is the procedure of collecting, measuring, and analyzing accurate insights for research using standard validated techniques.

Put simply, data collection is the process of gathering information for a specific purpose. It can be used to answer research questions, make informed business decisions, or improve products and services.

To collect data, we must first identify what information we need and how we will collect it. We can also evaluate a hypothesis based on collected data. In most cases, data collection is the primary and most important step for research. The approach to data collection is different for different fields of study, depending on the required information.

How to avoid bias in data collection? 

Depending on the flow of survey questions, the participant may feel inclined to think in a certain direction. Influencing people to behave or develop an opinion the way you want. 

This can affect the quality of the data. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the survey creator to ensure that the participants are not influenced by any kind of bias and to extract an honest opinion from them. 

Unbiased responses will ensure the accuracy of the data and, in turn, ensure the good quality of marketing research insights. Randomization of questions eliminates discrepancies in  data collection method  and eliminates bias.

Randomization is a technique used to overcome order bias, which is generated from the order of response options. Respondents tend to favor options at the beginning and end of a list because they stick in memory.

The selection of respondents’ first answers is likely based on the need to save time. Question randomization solves this problem by presenting the respondent with questions at random. 

Data is the main ingredient for making appropriate decisions. The quality of these plays a fundamental role; they can produce gains or losses of money and opportunities. Companies must be very sure of the quality of the data they use. With technological advancements, improving data quality is easily accessible.

That is why our function will help you filter out bad, duplicate or repetitive data and move forward only with good data. Now, everyone can take online surveys without worrying about the quality of the information, as that is our goal. They only have to focus on identifying the business segments that need to stand out, promote strategies, by meeting their objectives. 

How survey data quality control works

With our survey data quality tool you will have access to high-quality information, as it is developed with the vision of self-diagnosing and marking bad or repeated information without human intervention. 

Since the tool can access each response, you have full control to find duplicate values, spikes, and spoofing to present only good quality data.

With the survey data quality tool we can provide you with information that is characterized by: 

• Be accurate:  Regardless of the number of respondents who responded to the survey, from what location and from what device.
• Be complete:  Mark missing, duplicate, copied and repetitive data; Therefore, what is presented is complete data.
• Be standardized:  Errors are avoided by standardizing each response in a correct format, especially when the data sets are numerous.
• Is trustworthy:  Survey responses always come from credible sources, but when they are not, they are flagged for removal from the data set.
• Timely:  The survey, data quality tool will always present you with accurately interpreted data collected from multiple devices.

Currently, the survey data quality tool is used to check and mark the quality of information in  open-ended questions . 

The platform can flag erroneous data in two ways: 

When answering with a single word : This happens when the respondent is expected to be brief but answers the question with a single word. The tool is designed to flag all responses that contain less than or equal to three characters.

When duplicating text in answers:  Also works for open questions and flags duplicate answers. Here the first original answer is preserved and subsequent answers are marked as duplicates.

Putting together a survey is an exciting task. From conceptualizing, to designing and sending it and then waiting to receive the responses. Many times it is this last part that is the most exciting, hence the importance of analyzing and interpreting the results of a survey.

Something that is particularly exciting is the moment when you can observe the information collected from the survey, see the ideas they offer that will help you and your organization or business in an impressive way to make informed decisions.

For example, let’s say you sent out a  customer satisfaction survey  and received responses from respondents. After that, what you expect is to share the results of the survey with the people who make the decisions. So the question is, how do you actually do it?

Before you can start sending  survey reports  to key people, have you analyzed the survey result? First, what you always have to do is understand how you should analyze the results.

Steps to carry out an analysis and interpretation of survey results

Research:  if you planned your survey well, it means that you already know what its objective is. Once you have the purpose of your survey in mind, what you have to do is formulate the questions that will give you the answers you are looking for.

The  survey questions  are the most important part. You must always choose very carefully the questions you will use. Once you have the questions formulated and your survey is ready to meet its objective, you just have to launch your survey.

Something that is also very important is choosing an effective means of distributing the survey. Online surveys are just a click away. Furthermore, they are easy to answer and the results can be tabulated systematically. And then, once you have received the results of your survey, what you have to do is analyze the results.

A survey tabulator is responsible for counting and organizing the data obtained in the application. This tool covers operations related to achieving numerical results that are connected to the object of study.

Tabulating information is one of the most complicated processes to carry out during the investigation, since it is necessary to have a tool that helps prepare it, otherwise it is done manually.

The survey tabulator is responsible for ordering the information and counting the times that some characteristics appear and determining the amounts of the data, a very important value to obtain the conclusion of the investigation.

Ways to tabulate a survey

A survey tabulator can work in the following ways:

Manual tabulation:  A manual survey tabulator allows the data obtained in the surveys to be added to the tables. For this, tools such as Excel are used, which allows you to create tables and equations that should make the job of recording data easier. However, this tool is not recommended for the following reasons:

• There may be data transfer errors
• Data may be lost
• False results due to human errors
• Complication in data architecture
• Confusion and difficulty interpreting data

Automatic tabulation:  This method is the most effective for data analysis, as it offers more complete results in infographics, personalized qualitative and quantitative reports, and cross tables.

Other advantages of automatic tabulation are:

• It is less expensive
• Results are obtained faster
• Calculations are more precise
• Connecting the results

We share with you some features of a survey generator.

Types of survey tabulators

A survey tabulator can perform the following types of analysis:

Frequency tables:  It is a very easy way to group data. These tables indicate the number of people who were surveyed and who provided each possible answer to the questions asked.

Cross tabulations:  Allows data analysis to be more understandable. Your job is to examine the answers to one question and relate it to the answers to others. Learn how to perform a crosstab analysis.

Do you think choosing a survey generator is difficult? Not at all. We will help you select the best one for your next data collection project.

There are many tools on the software market to create a survey and conduct market research. With each of them, you can create surveys, distribute them, and analyze the results.

Some of the best online survey builders offer sophisticated design features, while others offer various distribution methods. Some of them offer a wide range of reports and analysis.

Read on if you’ve tried free versions of several survey programs and want to be sure you select the best survey builder.

7 Key Elements of a Survey Builder

Here are the 7 main components you should take into account when selecting the best survey generator:

Intuitive design

This principle applies to all software. The layout should be such that the user does not have to put too much effort in locating things. Text, icons, and navigation should be intuitive in nature. The easier the software is to use, the more successful it is.

For example, some applications only have icon buttons. While some of the icons for composing a message or sending an email may be commonly known, sometimes the user may need to spend some time figuring out the correct icon. If there is also a text label, it would be much easier for users.