How to Pilot test a survey?

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:

• Understand what a pilot survey is & why it is important to run pilot testing.
• Identify the advantages & disadvantages of pilot surveys.
• Create better surveys with the insights gained from running pilot surveys.

1. What is a Pilot Survey?

Pilot surveys are usually conducted before conducting the main survey. It is a “dry run” before the main survey.

The same set of questions asked in the main survey is asked in the Pilot survey. Some pilot surveys include a few feedback questions after the main questionnaire.

Conducting pilot surveys on a large audience group is not necessary. Conducting pilot surveys on even a smaller group of people would be sufficient. It is used to find areas of improvement.

The pilot survey is used not only to assess the main survey's weaknesses but also its strengths.

Pilot surveys are inexpensive and easy to run compared to the main survey. Conducting a survey on a large group involves time, money, and effort. Conducting a survey on a small group of people (maybe around 10) can be easy and inexpensive.

2. Why is Pilot Testing important in Surveys?

Pilot testing is an essential step in the survey development process.

By pilot testing, you can identify and address potential issues that could impact the accuracy of your survey responses. Additionally, pilot testing provides an opportunity to measure respondent satisfaction, ensuring that your survey is user-friendly and engaging.

If surveys do not ask the right questions and do not collect enough responses, your survey can be a total failure.

Every aspect of your survey **can be improved with pilot surveys. Pilot testing surveys can be helpful in achieving the below.

• Write better survey questions.
• Increase your survey responses.
• Improve the quality of response data.

Are you responsible for creating surveys in your organization? Do you want to make sure that the surveys you run are successful? Not sure how to create efficient surveys? Then you need to run pilot surveys.

2. Advantages Of Pilot Survey

There are real good advantages of running a pilot testing survey.

The main advantage of running a pilot survey is that it helps detect elements of the survey that have a negative impact. Detecting negative elements early can be highly beneficial because the main survey can be rectified accordingly.

The pilot survey can help you identify the survey's bad design. The flawed design of the survey can be detected from the unwillingness of the respondents to take the survey. The bad design can be changed accordingly to give a better design to the main survey.

Most people would have encountered surveys with questions that are difficult to understand. When questions are challenging to understand, the response rate will be poor. Most people will not complete the survey. The survey will result in a total failure. Such poorly asked questions can be easily detected from the Pilot survey.

Running surveys costs money. Money loss if the main survey becomes a total failure. No company can afford to lose out on a poorly created survey. Running Pilot surveys can help you identify survey flaws at a very early stage and thus help the survey creator save financial resources.

3. Disadvantages Of Pilot Survey

Although a Pilot survey has advantages, it also has its share of disadvantages.

The success of a pilot survey is not a sure indicator that the main survey will be a success. The response rate of pilot surveys is not a direct indicator of the response rate of the main survey. Since you are conducting the pilot surveys on a smaller audience group, it does not guarantee large-scale survey success.

The Pilot survey can make inaccurate predictions at times. Keep this in mind before running your main survey.

4. Types Of Pilot Survey

The External pilot survey is carried out with audiences who are not part of your main survey. External surveys can be conducted with your friends, relatives, and co-workers. You can test the instructions and questions with the external pilot survey.

The Internal pilot survey is a preliminary study that precedes your main study. The results of the internal pilot survey are included in your main study, and your respondents are considered the first participants. When your internal pilot surveys reveal something really wrong with your survey, it will not be considered for your study.

The Participatory pilot survey is carried out on people who know they are a part of the pilot survey. Because the respondents understand it is not the main study, you can ask questions about the pilot study. You can ask questions like the difficulty of the survey questions or the time to complete them.

The Undeclared pilot survey is conducted on people who don’t realize they are part of a pilot study. The participants focus on the content rather than the design of the survey. The results of the undeclared pilot survey can very well predict the main survey results because they are carried out undeclared.

5. Sample Questions For Your Pilot Surveys

Below, you will find a few questions that can be a part of your Pilot Survey Questionnaire.

• How was the opening of the survey?
• How long did it take to complete the survey?
• How difficult was it to answer survey questions?
• Were there any terms or words you did not understand?
• Did you like the design of the survey?
• Did you like answering the survey?
• Were you engaged till the completion of the survey?

Ask similar questions to get the most out of the Pilot Survey.

Test Your Knowledge

Key Takeaways

• Pilot Testing allows you to identify and address potential issues.
• Pilot Testing is inexpensive and easy to run compared to the main survey.
• A Successful Pilot Survey is not a sure indicator of the main survey's success.

Congratulations! You have completed this lesson.