Format

Choosing the right format and delivery method for your feedback form will have a profound effect on how often you actually get it back filled out.

Personally, I like to use an Adobe PDF form because it’s easy for the client to use: simple, portable, compatible across platforms and distributable both online or off. If you don’t have a copy of Acrobat, you can use OpenOffice Writer to create PDF forms instead. An HTML form is a good alternative, though if you don’t have any HTML experience it might be more difficult to put one together. As a final option, be ready and willing to call and conduct your survey on the phone directly with a stakeholder, since this may be the only way to ensure you get some kind of feedback.

Question Composition

As for the questions you ask, you may first want to decide how many you’re going to use. For the sake of ease of use I generally ask between 10 and 20 questions, depending on the length and type of engagement. You don’t want to use too many, since you risk exasperating your client, but if you use too few, your results won’t be very meaningful.

The nature and wording of each question will also determine how meaningful the answers are. The most important thing to consider when composing your questions is to consider how you might act based on the answers you receive. If, for example, you ask, “Was the project I delivered what you anticipated receiving upon completion?” with the client answering on a scale of one to five, the answers will be meaningless without additional questions. Regardless of whether you score high or low, you won’t know how to change your practice based upon those results.

It’s better to ask more specific questions like, “How satisfied were you with any pre-project materials received?” since this points to a specific area that you can act to improve. As a rule of thumb, ask yourself what you would do following a positive or negative response to each question you come up with. If you can’t come up with anything, then it’s probably not a good question.

Breaking your questions up into categories (with subheadings) is also a good idea, as it will focus your client and, again, help make your results more meaningful. You also might want to ask for a general measure of satisfaction for the project as a whole, just to see if your client’s micro and macro observations are consistent.

Finally, always leave space for extra comments, context for answers given, etc. Whether or not it gets used, respondents will appreciate the opportunity to speak outside of your prescribed boundaries.

Scale

Form design is one area where you don’t want to get too far off the beaten track, because it’s a genre that people are already very much acquainted with. You can use that familiarity to your advantage. Using the typical answer scale of scores from one to five, for instance, will give your respondents instant, easy access, because it’s something they’ve seen in many different forms before.

Of course, that still leaves choices about how to use that scale. Personally, I use the one to five scale differently depending on what kind of feedback I’m looking for. If I want something that I will be using as a reference for future engagements, for instance, I might orient the numbers from highest to lowest, which seems to encourage people to choose higher numbers overall. If I want more criticism, because I’m using the survey results primarily for internal, professional development purposes, I’ll use the reverse tactic and order the numbers from lowest to highest.

Designing a good feedback form is not easy, and you’ll no doubt encounter many competing opinions on how best to do it. A good tip, though, is to always offer some kind of incentive to fill out the form, whether it be a discount on the client’s invoice, some kind of free service like a client-sector specific research report, or a charitable donation. Believe me, feedback is well worth the investment.

How do you gather client feedback?

Try the forums. For anyone who works on the web, the free forums at W3Schools are terrific for getting speedy responses from people who know what they’re talking about. There is a “General” forum for questions of any type, but most of the popular forums are on web development and design topics. You’ll find forums on HTML, JavaScript, using Flash and other multimedia tools online, and more. Also, as I’ve written before, the free tutorials at W3Schools’ home page are really outstanding.

Protonic.com. I’ve found many good answers to my tech questions at protonic.com. It’s populated by a large community of volunteers who answer questions, and answers usually come back quite quickly, although you sometimes have to wait a few hours for a question to be “picked up” by the community. You can ask questions on anything from HTML to what hardware to buy and get good responses.

You must log in and provide a valid email address to ask a question. The service is completely free.

Open source questions? If you use any open source applications, from Firefox, to the GIMP graphics application, to Linux, to many more titles, you can always ask a question at OStatic. Just log in and click on “Question” in the toolbar above the OStatic blog to type your question in. OStatic is partly a blog, but also a database-driven site with an active community of open source users. Usually, they provide excellent answers to questions on open source apps and platforms.

Hit the help desk. At AskMeHelpDesk, you can get free answers to tech questions. The site houses many categories for questions, and not all of them are on technology topics, but there are many experts available who can answer questions on everything form web development to smartphones.

Weegy. Recently, I wrote a post about Weegy, which is a human expert-driven search site. I’ve asked many complex technology-related questions of the experts there, and the free answers are often very good. At the site, you post a question and wait for an expert to claim it. Usually, answers come back very quickly.

While the answers you get from these resources will usually be high quality, it’s important to fact-check them. Using Google, you can usually establish the accuracy or inaccuracy of any given answer. You can also post the same question in multiple forums and compare the answers you get.

What free resouces do you turn to when you have a tech question?

1. As part of your preparation, search out previous interviews the guest has done. Look for topics “the guest really likes to talk about,” advises Miller, and the topics that “fall flat.” The goal: To find a balance between what your audience wants to hear and also what the guest wants to talk about.

2. Create a list of 10 questions to ask the guest. Next, ask a fan of the guest to put together 10 questions. “Then combine them to come up with a list of 10 burning questions,” she says. The goal: To ask the questions your listeners or readers would want to ask.

3. Ask open-ended questions. Don’t pose questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. As Miller explains, “You’re looking for stories and surprises.” The goal: To get your guest to tell a story.

Potential lead-ins include: “Why did you decide to…” “What was the biggest reason you…” “When did you realize that…” “Where were you when…” “What experience did you draw on for…” “Tell me about…”

4. Let your research show in the way you pose your questions. As an example, Miller cited an interview Fresh Air’s Terry Gross did with Johnny Cash in 1997, in which she said, “When you got to Memphis, Elvis Presley had already recorded, ‘That’s All Right.’ Sam Phillips had produced him for his records, Sun Records. You called Sam Phillips and asked him for an audition. Did it take a lot of nerve to make that phone call?” The goal: To absorb the facts of your subject’s background and find ways to drill down to make the topics come alive.

5. If your guest wants to see the list of questions beforehand, politely decline. Miller suggests in such cases sending general topic areas. (I’ve found this approach to satisfy even the most intractable of PR people.) The goal: To avoid having the interview sound like it’s being read from a script.

6. The day before the interview, send an email reminder with four key pieces of information: a) Confirm the scope of the interview; b) Confirm the date and time, including the time zone; c) Clarify the procedure — you’re going to call on Skype; you’re going to call their land line; d) Confirm that they will be on a land line — no cell phone or cordless phone. (This latter point is less important for non-broadcast interviews.) The goal: To avoid simple and obvious glitches.

7. Start the interview with softball questions. Ask their name, title, courtesy questions about how the flight was, or what their role in the company is. The goal: To get your guest warmed up.

8. Don’t stick to the list of questions you’ve created. Here, advises Miller, “Shut up and listen.” Has somebody just mentioned that they have a favorite tool they like to use in a given instance? Respond, “Really? Tell me more!” The goal: To get examples and anecdotes that will engage listeners and readers.

9. Don’t assume you’re the only one in the world who doesn’t understand something your guest is talking about. If your interview subject is using “corporate-speak,” said Miller, “ask again. ‘Explain it to me like I’m five, or explain it to me like I’m your mother’” The goal: To have the guest explain the concept until you can understand it. Your readers will appreciate the effort.

You can download an outline of Miller’s entire presentation here.

Do you have a favorite interview story or tip to share?