Keep survey length under control. A survey should be only as long as it must be to collect essential information. A well-designed survey can be completed in less than ten minutes. More than that, and customers will either dump it or fill it out haphazardly, either of which can lead you to draw unwarranted conclusions from the responses you do manage to collect. Make the survey action-oriented.
Surveys are often full of thermometer questions.
Responses may suggest the existence of a problem, but provide too little information for you to understand the problem or recommend changes. If, instead, you ask about the accuracy of the order, the quality of the food, and the courteousness of the staff, you can use the responses you receive to plan a course of action. Use both open-ended and closed questions. Closed questions ask respondents to select from a set of fixed responses. Respondents can answer these questions quickly, and responses can be tabulated, summarized, graphed, charted, analyzed and reported.