Sample Survey Templates
- Employee Surveys
- Web-based Surveys
- Social Media Surveys
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- Brand Loyalty Surveys
- Many others…
Choosing the Right Questions for your Survey
The quality of your survey is only as good as the quality of the questions you ask. You must be careful to choose the types of questions that are most appropriate for your needs. You should also put some thought into how to order your questions in a way that flows smoothly and makes the most sense for your respondents. Finally, develop a template free of “loaded” questions that may skew the results and fail to provide the sound, objective data you are seeking. The questions you choose should be based largely on the target population, survey sample size, and other factors. Here are some things to keep in mind as you decide which questions to include:- How will you or your organization utilize the answers to the questions?
- How do you plan to analyze or interpret the responses to the questions? For example, will you be using a Likert scale or similar rating scale to gauge responses, or will you be using a different methodology?
- How many questions do you believe you need to obtain the desired data?
- Is each question you are considering for inclusion truly needed?
- Will the respondents feel comfortable honestly answering each question?
- Is each question worded clearly, objectively, and without bias?
- Are the questions ordered in a way that may cause the respondents to draw certain conclusions? If so, you may want to consider changing the order.
- If you are using multiple-choice questions, are there enough choices for the respondents to provide the most accurate answers?
Free Survey Examples
Businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and other types of entities use surveys to get to know and better understand their target population. There are three general types of surveys that are commonly employed – see examples of each below.Factual
These consist of mostly demographic information on a target audience such as age, gender, income level, etc. Questions are preplanned and pre-structured in design, and the information is considered conclusive. The main purpose of factual surveys is to gather information about the facts and features of people’s lives, rather than asking for thoughts, feelings, or opinions. These surveys are often used by government agencies to collect data on a population, so they can make informed decisions on important issues like where to build new roads and bridges, where to plan new housing projects, and how to draw up districts for elected representatives.Descriptive (Attitude)
This is the most common survey type and is used in a variety of settings. Like factual surveys, a descriptive survey is also preplanned and pre-structured in design so the responses can be statistically inferable. The main purpose of descriptive surveys is to ask respondents for their views and opinions on a certain set of topics and/or issues. In the business world, they are a preferred structure for employee surveys and customer surveys. For example, if a business employs a descriptive customer satisfaction survey using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method, and it produces an average score of 9 or 10, they know they have satisfied customers.Employee Training Survey
Here workers are required to undergo refresher training on a number of topics each year, including equal opportunity, sexual harassment prevention and ethics. This survey form is designed to gauge how interesting the material was and how well it was presented by its instructors. |
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Training Satisfaction Survey
This training satisfaction survey is made by a company who provides training on hazardous materials to government agencies, first responders and employees of storage facilities that maintain these substances. They recently gave a training session to a volunteer fire department, and would like to evaluate the effectiveness of that program. |
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Training Effectiveness Survey
This training effectiveness survey is being given by the general manager of a hotel to an employee of the housekeeping department. She has just completed new hire training, and the manager would like to know whether or not the instruction that was given adequately prepared her to do her job. |
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Product Development Survey
Happy Feet, a shoe manufacturer, has just developed a new athletic shoe for men, and has asked a few active fitness professionals to wear this shoe for 30 days in order to evaluate its comfort. The trial period has now ran out, and participants are being asked about their experience. |
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Internal Customer Service Survey
This internal customer service survey sample is asking for feedback as to how well the parts department of this dealership responds to requests for the parts needed to repair customers’ vehicles. |
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Employee Wellness Survey
This employee wellness survey example is being taken by workers at Little Ones Preschool. The owners of this preschool want to identify issues that could cause employees to miss work so that they can sponsor health improvement programs if needed. |
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Employee Satisfaction Survey
In this sample, several new employees have recently been added to the team due to expanded operations, and executives would like to know whether or not these workers are happy in their job so that they can avoid a high turnover rate in the near future. |
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Employee Opinion Survey
This employee opinion survey sample is being administered to employees of Titles Inc., a company that processes vehicle and mobile home titles. The company provides this survey annually to all of its workers so they can detect any problems with employee morale early on and take steps to rectify the situation. |
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Employee Motivation Survey
American City government would like to know whether government employees are motivated to serve the public, since having workers who are not motivated could reflect poorly on mayor's administration. |
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Employee Morale Survey
This employee morale survey is designed to assess how satisfied current employees are with their working conditions in an effort to reduce the turnover rate. After reviewing the answers, a survey report template detailing some recommended changes will be provided to the upper management. |
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Employee Feedback Survey
This employee feedback survey example is being taken by workers at River City Broadcasting, a company that manages several television and radio stations. These workers directly support on-air personalities; however, in recent months, there has been a dramatic increase in absenteeism, thereby leading to poor quality broadcasts in several instances. The survey here addresses these issues and more. |
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Employee Engagement Survey
A major law firm Brown, Smith and Jones LLC, gives this form template to all paralegals and administrative assistants. The senior partners of this firm would like to know whether these employees are putting forth their best effort while at work, as their performance directly affects their ability to adequately represent their clients. The survey will help in determining this information. |
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Employee Communication Survey
J.D. Advertising has recently been hired to conduct a major advertising campaign on behalf of a prestigious national company, and therefore needs to make sure that the flow of communication within the company is not lacking in any way. Workers are taking this employee communication survey anonymously, as asking them to provide personally identifying information could result in them being less than forthcoming with their answers. |
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Explanatory
This survey type is most often used to test a theory or hypothesis, or to form a new theory on a given topic. Explanatory surveys employ open-ended questions to allow respondents to provide valuable feedback and insights, which can be very useful in discovering new ideas for developing a new product, improving a product or service, or improving the efficiency of an organization. By allowing respondents to explain the answers in their own words, researchers gain higher quality information that can help draw attention to important and often overlooked areas that may need to be addressed.Social Media Survey
The owner of a dry cleaning business who uses social media to inform existing customers of upcoming specials is wondering whether social media could be effective in drawing new customers in. This social media survey is given to customers who come into her facility to find out if social media could be an effective marketing channel for her business. |
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Restaurant Customer Service Survey
In this sample, the management team of a restaurant is administering this survey in order to find out how happy customers are with their services. There will be a drop box for patrons to put surveys in, and one survey participant will be chosen at random to receive a free meal. |
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Product Satisfaction Survey
The owner of a beauty salon who also makes her own shampoo for sale to her customers is the creator of this product satisfaction survey. The shampoo has been available for some time; however, sales of it have recently dropped. As a result, the shop owner wants to make sure the quality of her shampoo is still good and she hopes to eliminate quality as a factor in declining sales. |
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Product Development Survey
Happy Feet, a shoe manufacturer, has just developed a new athletic shoe for men, and has asked a few active fitness professionals to wear this shoe for 30 days in order to evaluate its comfort. The trial period has now ran out, and participants are being asked about their experience. |
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Online Shopping Survey
A jewelry retailer has recently launched a new website, and sales managers are interested in learning how user-friendly it is so that modifications can be made if needed. This web survey can be taken anonymously and is completely voluntary. Those who wish to participate would simply click a button on the shop’s homepage in order to be directed to the survey, which would take between three and five minutes to complete. |
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New Hire Survey
The new hire free survey template is intended to assess how efficiently workers were trained on material handling equipment as well as determine if adequate information was put out concerning policies and procedures. It is being given to everyone in the training group, and filling it out is mandatory. |
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Mental Health Survey
In this sample, a psychiatric nurse is giving this mental health survey to a patient who has just arrived at a mental health clinic. This individual claims to be suffering from depression, and cites a number of different factors as the cause of this. |
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Job Satisfaction Survey
This job satisfaction survey is being given by the Human Resources department of a manufacturing facility. This factory has openings in several different departments, and plans to do some hiring soon. The purpose of this form is to determine whether or not certain employees might benefit from transferring departments in order to fill these positions before hiring from the outside begins. |
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Job Analysis Survey
This job analysis survey is being given by the office manager of an insurance agency to all of the workers within the company in order to determine how well each person’s job description matches what they actually do. The purpose of the job analysis survey sample is to determine whether or not outsourcing the firm’s accounts payable and receivable operations would be in their best interest. |
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Customer Feedback Survey
This sample survey comes from a lawn care company that is attempting to gauge its customer service and overall customer satisfaction regarding its accessibility. Customers are asked to list specific accessibility details that pertain to their most recent experiences and to offer their questions, comments and suggestions for superior customer service in the future. |
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Customer Experience Survey
This customer experience survey example is by Worldwide Communications Corp., a provider of Internet service for residential use. Customers who are experiencing difficulties connecting to the Internet often call their customer service hotline for assistance, and the company would like to know whether this experience is pleasant, or one that many people find frustrating. The survey is being sent by email to callers of the company’s toll-free number so that they can fill it out electronically. |
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Client Feedback Survey
This client feedback survey is given by the office manager of a new dental practice known as City Dental Clinic. It is given to each patient who visits the clinic within a month in an effort to determine whether or not the clinic is meeting his or her expectations. There is a drop box in the lobby of the clinic for clients to place the survey in once it has been completed. |
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360 Degree Feedback Survey
This 360-degree feedback survey is for a team leader in the production department of a manufacturing firm. It will be completed by workers underneath this team leader, department managers and other team leaders. This survey is given anonymously, and then the results are tallied and given to the team leader who is the subject of the evaluation. |
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Other
Many offline and online surveys do not fit neatly into one of these three categories. For example, you may need to collect factual and descriptive data, descriptive and explanatory data, or a combination of the three in the same survey. Our free customer satisfaction survey templates, employee survey templates, and other sample survey tools address numerous scenarios in which various types of questions are used.New Product Survey
In this sample, a company who makes writing instruments has recently released a new ink pen on the market, and is looking to see if it has been successful. The survey is being sent to customers who have recently purchased these pens in stores throughout the country, and participants have the ability to remain anonymous when taking it. |
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IT Customer Service Survey
IT company in this sample has recently performed some network upgrades that were intended to increase bandwidth and make downloading documents easier to do. Technicians who administer the survey are interested in finding out if they were successful at meeting this company’s needs as well as in learning whether their overall level of service was satisfactory. |
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Employee Exit Survey
Ms. Davis has been a long-time employee, and has recently given notice that she will be leaving her place of employment. The goal of this survey is to make sure that unsatisfactory conditions did not cause her to leave the company. Since the same questionnaire is given to all employees whenever they voluntarily terminate their employment, some of the questions may not pertain to every person. |
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Employee Benefits Survey
Big Box Distribution Corp., a retail warehouse that handles large volumes of merchandise for a nationwide retailer is being administered by Pay and Benefits Consulting Firm on behalf of Small Business Material Handling, a company that has operations similar to that of Big Box Distribution Corp. It is being given anonymously so that workers will feel comfortable discussing their benefits. |
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Employee Attitude Survey
Big Automotive Manufacturing, a factory that produces auto parts opened up just over a year ago, and the management team would like to know how well employees like their job and what their attitude about the company is in general. They want to obtain this information so they can predict future attrition rates. |
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