Working with bad surveys

I kepp getting these really bad surveys to carry out over the phone to test out brand recongition and overall branding (after advertising etc). But I can tell the questions are ambiguous and confuse people and the survey is tedious and way too long, it is mean to take less than ten minutes but is normal more like 15 because they are not thinking about how people really behave in conversation. This cannot be providing good information and so feels like a total waste of my time.

I am torn between wanting to say something about this and maybe **** off my supervisor who writes the surveys despite having no training at all in this area (which I do have)--or just modify them in delivery myself to try and get the best reponses I can. I mean some questions are so confusing I don't know what they are actually asking for! Currently I get people dropping out and as we try and retest anyone who has done it before is likely to refuse...

Any ideas about what I could do?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rattitude

Any ideas about what I could do?

That's a difficult one since it's your boss writing the surveys. I think I'd maybe mention it, but say that the customers seem to be having trouble understanding. I don't think I'd say anything about my agreeing... that may be enough for a change.

Do you think he'd be open to seeing an example of one question you've rewritten to start with and hopefully go from there?

I definitely know what you mean about bad surveys, because I've been on the other end of them, once for a cause I was very interested in, which was a feasibility study for a credit union.

Working with bad surveys

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