Have you ever been browsing a merchant website and a popup appeared asking you for feedback? Or have you received an email following a purchase asking you to fill out a survey about your experience? I do almost weekly.

Having needed to collect feedback in the past, I understand both how hard it is to get people to fill out surveys and how valuable direct user feedback is to improving the user experience. Thus, I’m more likely to fill out a survey than most.

Today, I got an email from BestBuy asking me for feedback on my in-store pickup experience. I clicked thru the link and was awarded with the following:

A whopping 40 questions each needing an overly granular 1-10 rating. When I saw this survey, I immediately lost motivation.

This brings me to my three rules for effective online surveying. I’m not a marketing veteran but I have conducted a few online surveys in my day. Also note that I’m not suggesting that these rules are going to boggle your mind. However, since most surveys I am presented with don’t adhere to these rules, I think they’re worth reiterating.

Keep it short - Seriously, this is so obvious but it shocks me how few surveys are truly concise. Some surveys are honest saying up front that it will take 15 minutes to complete. Others are less scrupulous and say it will take 5 when it really will take 15. Either way, keep the survey to 5 minutes or under and hope that your users can complete it in 2-3 minutes.

Start and end with the easy questions - If a user is stumped by your first question, they’ll abandon. An easy question will get them in a groove and help their brain recall more details about their experience. Conversely, by the end of the survey - particularly if the survey is longish - the user’s attention is waning. They’re nearing the end of the mental commitment they originally made to your survey.

Keep the answer choices simple and meaningful - Why do 1-10 when 1-5 will suffice? Mix up the answer choices as well. It will make taking the survey a little less monotonous and keep the user’s attention. Qualify the answer choices with text descriptions to make numerical ratings more comparable between users. e.g. “5 - I will definitely visit X.com next time I am shopping for a computer product. 1 - Even if X.com had the lowest price, I would buy elsewhere” . Keeping your survey short will make adding text descriptions not such a time consuming step.