Research Etiquette & Survey Manners: A Market Researcher's Guide to Human-Centered Data Collection
15 years of market research has taught me that good data starts with good manners
After a decade and a half in market research, I've seen every survey sin imaginable. Despite endless best practice guides and methodology discussions, our industry continues to make the same fundamental mistakes that turn what should be meaningful conversations and data collection points into tedious, impersonal interrogations. Lately I’ve been working with a long time client, new-to-me teammates, that needed some coaching on this kind of survey etiquette. Antiqued perspectives from people not regularly involved in research nor keeping up with industry trends and dialogue.
So let’s take some time to talk about what I will refer to as Survey Manners - not just best practices, but the courtesies and considerations that separate amateur hour from professional data collection. These aren't revolutionary concepts, but they're principles I'm adamant about because I still see teams getting them wrong, even in 2025. While we may not be able to fix every client’s survey that comes our way, know that we try to best serve our research participants with experiences that will be as painless as we can manage.
The Human Behind the Data Point
1. Professional Doesn't Have to Mean Sterile
We've somehow convinced ourselves that "professional" survey language must sound like it was written by a compliance officer having a particularly bad day. The result? Surveys that drain the life out of respondents before they've answered question three. Even surveys that might ‘technically’ be 8 minutes long feel like 30 because of the monotonous tone from page to page.
The Problem: "Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statement regarding your satisfaction with the aforementioned product experience."
The Solution: "How did you feel about your experience with [product/service/event]?"
Your survey should sound like it was written by a human, for humans. Yes, maintain professionalism. No, don't sacrifice personality. The perfect survey voice strikes a balance between being engaging and courteous without sounding like a customer service chatbot circa 2003. When you write boring questions, expect flat results in the data. Participants don’t have the attention spans (for one) nor do they care as much about the data as we do. They are doing us a favor, let’s make it worth their while using language that has good pacing.
Remember: ideally there's a real person on the other side of that screen, probably squeezing your survey between emails or while their coffee gets cold. Respect their humanity with language that acknowledges yours. Let’s be frank: while they are unlikely to look forward to surveys, they can still provide a positive reality break.
And STOP using the word please in every question.
2. Don't Ask What You Don't Need
This should be survey design 101, yet I regularly see 25-question surveys where half the questions serve no clear purpose beyond "it might be interesting to know." Every question you include is asking for a piece of someone's time and mental energy. Make it count.
Before including any question, ask yourself:
How will this specific data point influence a decision?
Do I already have this information elsewhere?
Am I asking this because it's important, or because it's easy?
The Reality Check: If you can't articulate exactly how you'll use the data from a question, cut it. Your respondents (and your completion rates) will thank you. Also keep in mind the value of survey skip logic opportunities. While some programs are more sophisticated than others, many have basic options available to filter questions and the survey path based on previous responses. USE THEM! (And read point 4!)
Somewhat related - make sure your questions per page are related to each other, IMHO you should avoid asking single questions on single pages to reduce the total pages of the survey and group like questions together. This helps keeping someone’s attention on topic and relevant.
3. Stop Sneaking in Open-Ended Questions
I get it - open-ended responses feel rich and insightful. But here's the harsh reality: most teams abuse text boxes, turning clean quantitative studies into messy mixed-method nightmares. In data cleaning mode, you could end up discarding 50% or more of your responses because of poorly planned open-ends. If you find yourself with open end scope creep you might not actually be as ready for quant as you think you are. There are loads of other data methods being under utilized, especially on the social media front. The challenge is everyone prefers primary data as often as possible and secondary data is considered second-rate. This puts the research participant on the receiving end of a bad research design, a lose-lose situation.
Every open-ended question should serve a specific, strategic purpose. If you're adding them because you're curious or "just in case," stop. Learn the value of proper qualitative methods and keep your methodologies distinct. Your data quality will thank you.
4. Skip Logic Is Your Friend (And Your Respondent's)
Don't ask what you don't need to know, and definitely don't ask irrelevant questions just because they're in your template. Smart skip patterns and survey logic aren't just technical niceties - they're basic courtesy. I also see this as a reoccurring theme with open -ends, where the prompts are similar enough someone is liable to say “see previous answers” or “I already answered this” - it feels like punishment to the participant and with every repeated question, you lose their trust and down goes your data quality with it.
If someone tells you they don't drive, don't spend the next five questions asking about their car preferences. Use branching logic to create personalized survey paths that respect your respondents' time and attention. If someone says they don’t do a certain kind of marketing analytic method - don’t ask them to dive deeper into those method’s nuances. In these situations, people may not have properly or with due diligence considered the right qualifying aspects earlier in the survey experience - wasting their time, your time, and worst, wasting budget dollars.
5. Guide the Journey with Progress Indicators
We love hopping from topic to topic because it meets our research needs, yet we rarely consider the jarring experience this creates for respondents. One moment they're rating breakfast cereals, the next they're deep in demographic questions, then suddenly back to brand preferences.
Use progress bars, section headers, and transitional statements to guide people through your survey. A simple "Now let's talk about your shopping habits" can prevent topic whiplash and keep engagement high. If you're using complex branching that makes progress tracking impossible, find creative alternatives like "Part 2 of 3" or realistic time estimates.
6. Design for Thumbs, Not Mice
Mobile optimization isn't just about responsive design - it's about understanding the mobile mindset. Your respondents are likely multitasking, possibly on a crowded train or waiting in line, with limited patience for complex interactions.
Those giant matrix questions that look fine on your desktop monitor? They're torture on a phone screen. If you're having trouble quality-checking your own survey on mobile, it's probably not designed correctly. Count the clicks, consider the cognitive load, and remember that autocorrect can turn open-ended responses into comedy gold (or data disasters).
Every team I work with underestimates how many questions are actually being asked and the actual real-time being spent on surveys. A large part of this is due to manifesting a survey from a Word document into the live survey instrument often changes the way questions are written and perceived. Too few people pre-test their surveys with outside audiences for genuine feedback. Many will “soft launch” which only tracks data metrics, not the actual experience.
7. The Mirror Test: Would YOU Answer This?
Before launching any survey, ask yourself honestly: would you complete this if it landed in your inbox? Not because it's your job, not because you're being paid to review it, but as a regular person with a regular day and regular priorities?
If the answer is no, your respondents probably feel the same way. This simple reality check can save you from countless design mistakes.
We forget, often, that marketing research studies now have to be marketed themselves. We never view ourselves as sales or advertisers, but every single minute we’re competing with countless other survey and data requests. How do we hook people in, and how we keep them for an entire survey sitting, needs to be reimagined broadly to optimize performance.
8. Compensation That Reflects Reality
Here's an uncomfortable truth: the industry complains about data farms and poor panel quality while simultaneously refusing to pay fair compensation for people's time and insights when it comes to survey work. You can't have it both ways. They want $50 insight for $2 a piece.
If you want quality responses from engaged participants, provide tangible value. This doesn't always mean cash - sometimes it's early access to products, meaningful insights about the research outcomes, or simply the assurance that their input will drive real decisions. But it has to be something real, something valuable, something that acknowledges the gift of their time.
The reality is every single person, from the stay at home parent, to the college student, to the working professional - all value their time investments in very different points of view than they did a decade ago. Lots of factors are at play, the gig economy, social media influencing, inflation - there’s not a single answer as to why it’s changed but the outcome is the same: time is precious, why should they give you any of it?
9. Communicate Every Exit
Nothing says "we don't value you" quite like a survey that just... ends. Whether someone completes your survey, gets disqualified, or drops out halfway through, they deserve to know what happened and why.
Craft proper send-off messages for every scenario. Explain disqualifications kindly and briefly. Thank completers meaningfully. Even for drop-outs, a simple "Thanks for your time, unfortunately we’re at capacity" (or similar) shows basic respect. If an old link is clicked, what does the closed note say? These sudden-death survey experiences are jarring and unprofessional - and they damage your brand's reputation for future research.
Why Survey Manners Matter
Good survey manners aren't just about being polite - they're about getting better data. Engaged respondents give more thoughtful answers. Respected participants are more likely to complete your survey and participate in future research. Clear questions yield cleaner data that requires less post-processing.
Most importantly, survey manners acknowledge that market research is fundamentally about human connection. We're not just collecting data points; we're gathering insights from real people with real opinions, real time constraints, and real lives happening beyond our questionnaires.
After 15 years in this business, I'm convinced that the best researchers aren't just the ones with the most sophisticated methodologies - they're the ones who never forget that behind every data point is a person who chose to help us understand the world a little better.
The least we can do is ask nicely.
