Survey FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions About our Surveys

If you have any questions about our surveys or the survey process, please contact us.

Why use a customized survey and not an off-the-shelf questionnaire?

Unlike an off-the-shelf questionnaire, a customized survey enables you to:

  • Create your own questions to ask about things that you want to measure.
  • Speak directly to your organization, your employees, your customers, in your geographic area.
  • Collect only the information that you need in the ways that work most effectively for you.

An off-the-shelf survey forces you to use the questions someone else has designed and may or may not be applicable to your business, your employees, or your customers. There’s little value to using the same questionnaire that dozens of other companies have used to survey their clients or employees. You’re not them and everything about you, your business, employees, and clients is unique. Shouldn’t your survey be unique and specific as well?

Why use COD and not a Do-It-Yourself survey provider?

Customization, thoughtful question design, and detailed analysis, distinguish our surveys from the competition….

Expertise – Creative Organizational Design has:

  • Been conducting surveys for 30 years. We have helped companies like Loblaws (Zehrs, Dominion), FujiFilm, Choice Hotels and several municipalities, conduct surveys.
  • Worked with both very small and very large organizations.
  • The experience and knowledge to help you avoid common mistakes, ensure that you ask the “right” questions in the best way, and maximize the quality of the data you collect

Confidentiality – We can help you to:

  • Survey your employees or customers anonymously.
  • Enable them to respond openly, with confidence that they can tell you the truth without being identified or facing retaliation.
  • Encourage increased participation.
  • Avoid any bias that may result from analysing the results internally.

Speed – We can:

  • Usually complete a survey within a 6-8 week window.
  • Conduct your survey online, eliminating paper printing, distribution, collection costs.
  • Let you do what you do best while we handle the grunt work.
  • Get you the information that you need quickly.

Results – Creative Organizational Design provides you with:

  • Help resolving issues surrounding pre-survey communication, guarantees of anonymity, incentive programs and post-survey communications to respondents.
  • Detailed, easy-to-read results.
  • A comprehensive report which outlines all of the findings.
  • Clear charts and tables that detail the responses.
  • Identifying areas of concern.
  • Recommending how to address them.

What's involved in setting up a survey for my company?

  1. We meet with your management team to:
    • Explain the process.
    • Discuss the kinds of issues you want to explore.
    • Review the expected outcomes and expectations.
    • Establish lines of communication between us and your firm.
    • Set a timetable.
  2. Design the first draft of a questionnaire.
  3. Refine the draft questionnaire.
  4. Advise you on a distribution process that will ensure a maximum response rate.
  5. Assist with setting up incentive programs.
  6. Administer the survey.
  7. Collect the data.
  8. Score all responses.
  9. Analyze the results.
  10. Prepare a comprehensive, written report including the results, our interpretation of them, and our specific recommendations. Provide the data to you on disc and in hard copy.
  11. Interpret the results for your management team. Our services also include advice on letters to be sent out with the survey, how to distribute the findings and results, and what actions ought to be taken following the survey.

How long will it take?

Usually about 6-8 weeks from start to finish. Please refer to the process outlined above…

  • Parts 1-5: approx. 2-3 weeks.
  • Part 6-7: approx. 2 weeks.
  • Parts 8-10: approx. 2 weeks.
  • Part 11: post survey meetings, can be scheduled at your convenience.

How do you maintain confidentiality?

All of our surveys are anonymous. Unless respondents choose to identify themselves, neither you nor we have any way of determining who completed any particular survey – in either Web-based or traditional paper-and-pencil surveys.

Our data collection software will not record any individual’s name, ID number, computer station, location, IP Address, email address, etc. Surveys work best when they are 100% anonymous. Ours are.

What will the survey cost?

Our surveys are always highly customized; as a result, so is the pricing. Please contact us with your specific needs and we’ll be happy to provide you with an accurate quotation.

Our surveys are customized to meet each client’s specific requirements. We have prepared a basic survey package, which includes all the normally requested and required components that would be expected in any survey. We allow for complete customization of a set number of demographic identifiers and questions, provide any kind of response format desired (choose all, rank order, fill-in-the-blank, etc.), and include the administration, analysis and reporting all at one low cost. Additional questions, analysis, post-survey meetings, etc. can be added for a small additional fee.

We know that some do-it-yourself solutions may cost less, however, they also require that you do all the work yourself. Creative Organizational Design can save you time, avoid bad questionnaire design, do all the work, provide you with our expertise and return results more quickly than most organizations can do so on their own.

Couldn't I just create my own survey?

Yes, you can. However, it’s usually faster and more cost effective to hire an expert to create the survey for you. Creating your own survey requires using your employees’ valuable time to complete the work, and learning how to design and evaluate it effectively and efficiently. Most people can do their own home repairs, but we’ve all seen these types of projects go awry or end up becoming unexpectedly problematic. We have worked for many clients who’ve conducted their own surveys before asking us to do it for them.

Designing and administering an effective survey can be complicated. There are many variables to be considered and many ways to contaminate the data through poor question design, distribution, collection, or analysis methods. We have over 30 years of experience in survey design and analysis. It is far more effective to hire us, and allow us to make you look good by capitalizing on our expertise while you focus your energy on doing what you do best and leave the grunt work to us.

Your customers and employees want to tell you what they think. All you have to do is ask!

Interested in learning more?

We look forward to hearing from you!

Sign Up For Our Newsletter and Get a Free eBook: Searching for Superstars

Your subscription includes access to our newsletter, with additional tips and sales! We respect your privacy; we will not share your details with anyone.