Designing a Survey Questionnaire: Best Practices and Recommendations

Part A
The purpose of this research is to get a clear understanding of the aspects like dining experience,
authenticity perception, empathy, and servicescape of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne.
Questionnaire
Please read all the instructions before answering the questions.
Instructions
 Answer all the questions in the best way possible.
 All questions should contain only one response.
 Tick where applicable.
Part 1
1. Are you a frequent hotel visitor? (Yes/No)
2. Do you frequent boutique restaurants elsewhere apart from Melbourne? (Yes/No).
3. Have you visited any of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne in the past month?
(Yes/No).
4. How would you rate the dining experience in any of the boutique restaurants you last
visited in Melbourne? (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory).
5. How would you rate the servicescape of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne?
(Excellent/Poor).
6. Did you encounter any issues with the service providers at any boutique restaurant in
Melbourne? (Yes/No).
7. Are the service providers of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne empathetic? (Yes/No).

8. Would you visit the boutique restaurants in Melbourne again? (Yes/No).
9. How would you rate boutique restaurant investment in Melbourne? (Good/Bad).
10. Would you invest in boutique restaurant business if given a chance to? (Yes/No).
Part 2
11. List five (5) names of the boutique restaurants you have visited in Melbourne in the past
three months
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12. Briefly explain the reception you received in the last boutique restaurant you visited in
Melbourne.
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13. Did you encounter any issues with service provision in any of the boutique restaurants in
Melbourne? Explain briefly.
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14. Would you recommend any of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne to a first-time
visitor in Melbourne? Why?
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15. Briefly explain the nature business of the boutique restaurants in Melbourne.
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The heart of any survey lies in its questionnaire. The results of a survey rely essentially on the
questionnaire that cursives this conversation (regardless of how the conversation is arbitrated for
example, by a computer or an interview). To reduce errors in the responses, questionnaires
should be designed concurrently with the best practices (Bradley 2016, p. 377).
Recommendations on best practices arise from common lore and experience, on the one hand,
and procedural research on the other.

Many methodology books have provided several versions of conventional wisdom on best
question design (Geuens and De Pelsmacker 2017, p. 85). From the research conducted, we
found the most valued guidance in the common wisdom may be summarized as follows:
 Use of familiar and simple words avoiding slang, jargon, and technical terms.
 Use of simple grammar.
 Avoidance of terms with ambiguous meanings, that is, aiming for terms that all
respondents will deduce in a similar way.
 Striving for terms that are concrete and specific as contrary to abstract and general.
 Making response choices mutually exclusive and exhaustive.
 Avoidance of loaded or leading questions that steer respondents to a response.
 Avoidance of double-barreled questions by asking on one thing at a time.
 Avoidance of questions with double or single negations.
Additionally, conventional wisdom likewise has advice on how to optimize the order of
questions which comprises of the following:
 First questions must be pleasant and easy to answer and must establish rapport between
the researcher and the respondent.
 Questions at the beginning of the questionnaire must explicitly address the subject of the
survey, as it was outlined to the respondent before the interview.
 Questions should be classified according to the respective topics.
 Questions on similar topics have to progress from general to specific.
 Questions on subtle topics that may make respondents uncomfortable must be put at the
last part of the questionnaire; and