Introduction to a B2B survey questionnaire

If you're like most people in business, you've probably wondered if the time, money, and effort that goes into creating a survey is worth it. After all, what's the point of collecting data if you can't use it? Whether your goal is to measure customer satisfaction or to understand how employees feel about their role at work, a survey works for both! A well-designed B2B survey questionnaire can be one of your most valuable tools for making decisions based on hard facts. You can use a B2B survey questionnaire rather than just gut feelings or guesswork.

That said, not all surveys are created equal—and not all surveys yield usable results. If you want yours to be effective and efficient (not to mention actually helpful), follow these tips from our experts:

Structuring a B2B survey questionnaire

Let’s take a look at some tips to structure your survey, if you are new to market research.

1. Determine the purpose of the survey

The first step in structuring a B2B survey questionnaire is to determine the purpose of your survey. You should also establish what you want to learn from it. Use a B2B survey questionnaire to gather information about your audience, brand, and product.

If you’re looking for feedback on customer service or the quality of products and services, ask open-ended questions that allow people to provide detailed answers. For example: “What do you like about our customer service?”

If you want more quantitative results (i.e., more than just “good” vs bad), then consider asking closed questions. Ask these questions with five options for response — but be sure each option has enough detail so respondents don't feel like they're forced into making an overly simplistic choice. For instance,  consider using “extremely satisfied" and "extremely dissatisfied". For example: “How satisfied are you with our customer service? 1) Extremely satisfied; 2) Very satisfied; 3) Somewhat satisfied; 4) Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; 5) Very dissatisfied."

Researchers often use a Likert scale in their B2B survey questionnaires. For more information, check out Britannica’s article on Likert Scales.

2. Determine who will receive the B2B survey questionnaire

The next step in structuring a B2B survey is to determine who will receive the survey.

The target audience for your B2B survey questionnaire is important. This is because it helps you determine how many respondents there will be. It also helps you determine what kind of data you’ll get back from them. There are several factors that go into determining this:

• Who will take it? Do they have access to the internet? Do they have time? Are they willing to spend their free time answering questions while sitting at work?
• Who can take it? Is there an age limit on participants for your survey (for example, an 18+ age requirement)? Will all employees have access to participate in this particular survey? What is the geographical location of where most people live who will be taking your surveys? For instance, do most people live within a certain radius from where you operate?
• How quickly do you need responses from these potential respondents—and how much effort should go into getting those responses as soon as possible? You can compare this to waiting when more information has been collected. Or other steps have been taken toward collecting actual data through interviews or focus groups etc.

Especially, in today’s climate businesses must take into account data privacy laws and stay up to date with them. For instance, Britain recently announced that it was going to replace GDPR with its own laws. Check out the article by Reuters here.

3. Determine how much time you want to spend on the survey and data analysis

Once you've decided what your survey is for and who you want to send it to, the next step is to determine how much time you want to spend on the survey. The amount of time spent on analysing data will depend on the complexity of your question set and the number of responses received. The more complicated your questions are, the longer it will take for people to fill out your survey. Additionally, this can be a big factor in deciding what type of survey is right for you.

If an analysis isn't a huge concern for you right now, but gathering valuable information from clients or customers is high on your list, then opt for something that's quick and easy. However, ensure that it still provides some insight into customer satisfaction levels. If, however, being able to dive deep into data analysis is important enough that it justifies sacrificing speedier results from an uncomplicated tool then one option would be using an online form builder such as Google Forms. This is so that every participant receives their own unique link. You can do this rather than having everyone submit answers directly from one central location. In this case, others might see responses before you've had time to get them sorted through properly without having any privacy concerns. These concerns include anyone else seeing their responses before submitting their own responses.

For information on how customer satisfaction can drive value for your business, read this post by SalesForce UK. The post describes some measures of satisfaction and how you can use them to grow your business.

4. Figure out what information you need to collect to achieve your goals

Before you begin to create your B2B survey questionnaire, it's important to figure out what information you need to collect. This will help you determine how long the survey should be and whether it should include a demographic section or not.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What is the purpose of this survey? (This will help guide which b2b survey questions you should focus on.) For example, if your goal is to identify areas where customers would like more information on a particular topic, then it makes sense for your first question to be "What additional topics would you like us to cover?". However, if your goal is simply getting data on customer satisfaction levels with current products and services offered by your company, then asking this type of question in an open-ended format might not make sense. This is because there may not be enough information from which 100% accurate results can be derived.
• What is my target audience? It's important for every researcher who designs B2B surveys because knowing who exactly they're targeting allows them

‍5. Choose which type of  B2B survey questionnaire will work best for your brand

There are a number of different types of B2B surveys. So, you should choose the one that will work best for your brand.

• Online surveys: If you want to collect data from online users, an online survey is the way to go. It’s quick and easy for respondents to complete. However, it may not be as effective when it comes to getting a wide range of responses. The reason behind this is that many people won’t respond unless they have time.
• Phone interviews: You can call up potential customers on the phone at any time during the day or night; this method allows you access to an unlimited number of respondents in a short amount of time without having to pay per participant like with other methods such as focus groups. However, some people may feel uncomfortable sharing their private information over the phone so there could be a low response rate.  To avoid this,  give them another option (such as an email address) in addition to their contact information during the signup process).

6. Create clear questions with limited options to choose from

• Ask only what you need to know. This is because respondents don't become interested while answering surveys.
• Ask one question at a time so your respondents don't get confused.
• Use simple language, avoiding jargon and abbreviations wherever possible. This will make it easier for respondents to read and understand your questions, thus increasing the likelihood of high response rates. If a respondent doesn't know what an abbreviation means or has trouble understanding a question's meaning, they may decide not to continue the survey and instead return it incomplete or not at all (which will affect your data quality).
• Ask for specific information rather than general answers (e.g., "What is your age?" instead of "How old are you?").

7. Proofread, proofread, proofread

Make sure to read the survey out loud to yourself and have a friend or colleague proofread it as well. A fresh pair of eyes will help you catch any mistakes, as they are much more likely to notice typos than you are! If you can't find anyone who will proofread your survey for free (or if they're too busy), there are plenty of online tools that make it easy for you to check for any mistakes in your text before sending it off. It doesn't take long at all and saves time later on. The best way to avoid mistakes is by doing things right from the start!

Use these tips to make sure your B2B survey questionnaire will yield usable results

Now that you're ready to start surveying your customers, here are some tips for ensuring that your survey yields useable results:

• Make sure you have a clear goal in mind for the survey. What do you hope to learn from it? If you don't know what information is important, how can it be possible for others to tell where they should prioritise their efforts?
• Make sure the recipients of the survey understand why they're receiving it and what will happen with their answers. Is this a one-time event or part of an ongoing campaign? Have they participated before? Are there any specific topics they should expect to be asked about so they can prepare their responses ahead of time? This way, not only will these questions feel less overwhelming when presented during completion (thereby decreasing dropout rates), but also because people often provide more complete answers when they understand why those answers are needed rather than just being told: "because we said so."
• Choose which platform best fits the needs at hand; whether that's paper forms or online surveys. This depends upon who's going to receive them as well as how long each response period needs to be open (if applicable). A good rule of thumb is using whatever method makes sense given the cost factors involved. These cost factors include implementing such methods throughout entire enterprise-level organisations; this could mean sending out paper forms instead if mass distribution across multiple locations would prove too costly otherwise due to postage costs alone.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the success of your B2B survey questionnaire depends on how much time and effort you put into designing and planning. By taking into account all of these factors, you can make sure that the results will be accurate and useful for improving your business strategy.

If you’re looking for more information, check out our guide on how to help run your first B2B survey. We, at GrapeData, are here to help you with your data collection needs. Just drop us a line at sales@grape-data.com to know more about us!