Running a survey is easy. Running a survey that provides valuable, actionable feedback is hard. You have to have some secret formula, a complicated algorithm, multiple on-staff data gurus, and dozens of questions across multiple pages to get the data your organization needs.

Or do you?

Crafting a great survey doesn't have to be difficult at all.

People make it hard because they think there's some secret to a great formula. Well, there's not.

There are three.

When crafting your next survey, remember these three simple secrets of surveys that almost everyone misses:

1. Know What You Want to Know

So you know you should be running regular surveys to gather valuable feedback. But how do you make sure that the feedback is valuable?

Modern survey tools make it incredibly easy to gather large quantities of data quickly. That makes it tempting to throw surveys out into the wild just because you can, or to hold surveys for no real reason.

Insights in Marketing recommends that before you hold any survey, ask yourself: "What's the point?" You need a clear objective, and should focus only on that objective, they recommend.

SurveyMonkey notes that you should ask yourself how you'll use the data you collect, and what decisions you hope to impact with your survey.

Decide on these answers before you begin crafting a survey.

2. It's Not Just What You Ask, But How You Ask

Now that you have a reason for having a survey, you have to decide what questions you're going to ask. But more importantly, determine how you're going to ask them.

Qualtrics has some important advice for crafting your questions: You need to keep your questions short and sweet, ask direct questions, and only ask one question at a time.

Whenever you can, use closed-ended questions, says SurveyMonkey. Ask questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no," or with a multiple choice or qualitative answer.

Open-ended questions, where you have a comment box for the respondent to fill in with their thoughts, can be great for getting the feel of somebody, but are terrible for providing data points that you can act on.

One recommendation that any survey professional would recommend is to keep the surveys short. Keep the survey to just a few questions to increase the chances of your respondents finishing them. If you have a lot of data you want to collect, run more surveys that are shorter in length, rather than fewer long ones.

3. Keep Them Anonymous

It's not that difficult to encourage someone to take a survey. People want to help make their experiences better when receiving a service, and see surveys as a concrete way to do that. But there can be one factor that prevents someone from being completely open and honest when they're taking a survey: Anonymity.

SurveyTown notes that anonymous surveys lend themselves to honest feedback.

Anonymous surveys also lead to higher response rates and more accurate data, says Best Companies Group.

This can be especially important when the survey taker is dependent on the survey giver for food or shelter or safety. Allowing true anonymity when taking a survey also leads to overall feelings of trust and a feeling of respect for the survey taker.

Remember the Secrets to a Great Survey

Keep these three secrets in mind:

• Know what you need to know before you build your survey
• Keep your questions simple closed-ended, and your surveys short
• And keep your surveys anonymous

And your surveys will return the data you need to improve, and your clients or employees will know that their opinions matter.

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