Questionnaires are written documents that record responses to a set of pre-determined questions. The same questions are asked of all respondents (unless respondents skip specific questions for which they do not qualify). Questionnaires can have different forms of distribution:

• Mail (you mail it to people and ask them to return it - usually in pre-paid envelopes)
• Telephone
• Face-to-face (eg: at a local supermarket, door-to-door)
• Email (eg: some council websites have interactive pages. For more information see our section on e-consultation

A questionnaire may be targeted at a specific group (eg: users of a facility or service) or the general population.

A sample (the people you interview) for a questionnaire can be random (ie: you do not know who people are) or targeted (ie: identified users of a service).

Questionnaires are excellent in the following situations:

• When you require statistically significant responses.
• When you require feedback from a large group of people in a short time-frame.
• When you have a limited budget (eg: if you arrange your own mail-out process).
• When you require some straight-forward responses on an issue (yes/no information).
• When you are interested in "rating" a service or program provided by your council and tracking this rating over time.

Time is dependent on the sample size, form of distribution and who is doing the work (you or a specialist market research agency). A specialist agency could turn around a 300-sample survey in three to four weeks.

When you mail out a questionnaire, you will need to have a couple of weeks "turn-around" just for people to complete it and send it back (which does not take into account the time needed for questionnaire design and analysis). Similarly with email, you will need to leave time for people to complete the questionnaire and return it.

Telephone and face-to-face questionnaires are quicker as the surveys are undertaken on the spot.

Some market research or statistical skills are an advantage if you are going to undertake the survey design and data analysis internally.

If you are using an external specialist agency to undertake the work, standard project management skills are required.

The key steps in conducting a questionnaire are as follows:

1. Confirm objectives and outcomes
2. Develop questionnaire
3. Determine sample size
4. Prepare sample (mail-out, phone numbers etc)
5. Distribute questionnaire
6. Coding and editing of returned questionnaires
7. Data analysis
8. Report preparation
9. Report presentation
10. Feedback to participants.

Steps 2 to 10 (all or individual components) can be undertaken by a specialist agency if funds are available.

Specific tips about using a questionnaire follow.

Once you have completed an appropriate number of questionnaires (see sample size below), the respondents' answers must be recorded and collated by a central source (either manually or using a computer). Collation of data can be done internally (manually or using a PC-based data analysis package such as SPSS) or externally (paying a specialist market research agency).

A questionnaire will have two types of questions. These are referred to as "open-ended" questions or "closed" questions.

Open-ended questions are used when you want detailed descriptions of respondents' feelings about a matter or when you don't have any preconceived ideas of what type of responses people may have. Closed questions are used when you have a good idea of the types of responses you will get and you can make up your own code frame.

For an example of a questionnaire with both type of questions click here.

Questions 2, 3 and 4 are examples of closed questions.

Questions 6b and 11b are examples of open-ended questions.

Anyone can design a questionnaire with practice (so don't think that you will always have to use a specialist agency). Some tricks of the trade are:

• Learn from example - there are good questionnaires everywhere (on the internet, used by other councils, sent to you in the mail). Borrow the questions and the structures.
• Keep it simple and test it on a lot of people (a question may make sense to you but may be very confusing to others).

Sample sizes depend on a number of factors. Does it need to be statistically significant? Are you interested in interviewing all customers for a specific service? How much money is in my budget?

Some broad figures on sample sizes are as follows:

• Sample size of 400 (where universe is over 100,000) will have a margin of error of +/- 5%.
• Sample size of 100 (where universe is over 100,000) will have a margin of error of +/- 10%.

You can evaluate how successful your questionnaire has been by assessing the following:

• Number of returns
• Level of information provided (ie: detail of responses)
• Amount of useful data (ie: information you could use in future decision-making processes.)

• People (eg: community/councillors) seem to be more willing to accept/respond to survey results, as long as you can show a reasonable sample size.
• Questionnaires may be distributed to a broad sample of residents, not just the "usual suspects" who might regularly participate in public forums.
• Once you have a bit of experience designing questionnaires you can continue to use successful questionnaires and methodologies, reducing time and resources.
• Not too time consuming for respondents (i.e. they can complete at home in own time if a mail out)

• Can be confronting to undertake if you have little experience in the area and do not have any funds available for expert advice/support.
• They take a few weeks (minimum) to turn around.
• Self-completion formats are not as effective for older people, people with disabilities or people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, unless you provide surveys in other languages. In these circumstances, face-to-face surveys are better.
• The information you obtain will only be as good/useful as the questions asked.

questionnaires can be developed, compiled and analysed at a desk.

The distribution of the questionnaire requires desks/phones etc if you are going to employ people to conduct the interviews by telephone.

Sometimes an incentive may be used to encourage people to respond. This can be anything from a cash prize to a month's free use of the local sports centre.

The costs of conducting surveys have a number of key variables which make it difficult to provide estimates. These include:

• Whether the work is completed internally or specialist agencies/consultants are employed.
• The size of the sample.
• The length and complexity of the questionnaire.
• The format for distribution (ie: mail out/telephone etc)
• The number of "open-ended" compared with "closed" questions (open-ended questions need to be coded and edited for analysis).
• The existence of internal analysis packages (ie: SPSS).

For example, a 15-minute telephone survey with 300 people conducted by a specialist agency would cost over $10,000 (estimate only).

However, a mail-out questionnaire prepared and analysed in-house would only cost the staff time plus the stamps/self-addressed envelopes.

Key punching and data analysis undertaken by an external agency (you prepare the questionnaires and send them to the agency for analysis once completed) may only cost between $500 and $1000, depending on how many questionnaires and the complexity of the survey).

The survey was conducted in four library branches, the mobile library service, community houses and shopping centres in the shire. Library staff set up a table at the local community market and conducted the survey in a couple of local shopping centres. An article on the survey and how people could respond was in the September 2001 edition of Peninsula Wide, a paper distributed to all residents and property owners in the shire. The library web-site had an electronic version of the survey.

A six-page questionnaire was conducted, containing 15 questions on opening hours, services, purchasing priorities and improvement suggestions.

We planned to survey 1000 library users and non-users and 1,107 people completed the survey, including six electronically. Library staff helped about 60 people fill in the questions, spending about 15 minutes with each.

Respondents were from all areas of the shire, including 29 from outside the shire, and 86% were library users while 14% were not. Two-thirds of respondents were women and 58% were aged between 36 and 70.

This consultation built on a customer satisfaction survey held in November 2000 which showed an overall community satisfaction level of 98.3%.

The library team asked about areas where they thought the service could be improved. Specific questions covered:

• Opening hours - 68% want the library open on Mondays (when it is currently closed).
• Why people didn't use the library - three per cent said they were not aware of the library service and 8.6% were not aware of the mobile library.
• What was least popular about the current service - over 520 responses included concerns such as limited hours, an old, cramped and stuffy building and limited resources.
• What services could the library improve - 130 responses included opening earlier and extending the loan period.

Library staff were asked how future consultations with the community could be improved.

Suggestions included limiting the number of questions asked, making the survey easier so people could fill in their own or the survey being done entirely by interview. The review team also noted that there was little response from under-18- year-olds (only seven per cent) and that this age group would be targeted in future.

The survey was held over a month, which gave the community enough time to respond but did not disrupt the library service and staff for too long. Many people said they were delighted to be able to give comments.

Feedback on the findings of the survey was presented at the library branches and in the February 2002 edition of Peninsula Wide.