Survey vs. Questionnaire: What’s the Difference?

Businesses have many tools at their disposal for gathering audience feedback. Surveys and questionnaires are two of these methods. These two terms are often used interchangeably, leading to a degree of confusion. However, they are different not just in terminology but also differ in their applications and overall purposes.

Many people wonder about the key distinctions between surveys and questionnaires when it comes to data collection. This discussion aims to clear up any confusion between these two related topics.

You’ll discover how surveys and questionnaires differ and how each serves unique purposes. This information will help you choose the best methods for collecting customer and audience feedback.

We’ll also look at several tools to help you create questionnaires and gather and examine crucial survey data.

Table of Contents:

1. Differences Between Surveys and Questionnaires
2. What is a Survey?
3. What is a Questionnaire?
4. Surveys vs. Questionnaires: Differences & Similarities
5. How to Choose Between a Survey and a Questionnaire?
6. Creating Questionnaire in Google Forms to Gather Survey Data
7. Examining Survey and Questionnaire Data
8. Wrap Up

Let’s get started.

Surveys vs. Questionnaires

A questionnaire refers to a written series of questions, whereas a survey encompasses not only the set of questions but also the entire process of gathering, consolidating, and examining the responses derived from those questions.

The conversation of survey versus questionnaire is tricky because these two concepts are very close in meaning.

Many people even use the two terms interchangeably. In many cases, they are not wrong to do so.

What is a Survey?

Survey Definition:

Surveys are a broader term. By some definitions, “survey” includes every step, from building questionnaires to analyzing the results.

In other words, it is a research method involving creating questionnaires to extract insights from a desired audience. The goal is to form a collective understanding of how the audience thinks and feels about certain topics.

Many survey approaches aim to acquire both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative side gives general sentiments, while the quantitative side puts numbers behind those intangible emotions. Longitudinal surveys, in particular, track these metrics over time to provide deeper insights into how sentiments and behaviors evolve.

What is a Questionnaire?

Questionnaire Definition:

Questionnaires are a sheet of paper or digital form that asks a series of questions. In audience feedback collection, these forms ask a series of questions pertaining to a business and its strategies.

Thus, questionnaires are a widespread research tool. You can ask closed or open-ended questions for a survey to gather extensive data regarding various topics.

There are several types of insights you can acquire through questionnaires. For example, you can learn audience demographics, buying behaviors, preferences, perceptions, etc.

All these details help businesses refine their strategies to achieve more significant results.

Given the definitions explained above, you start to understand the close connection surveys vs. questionnaires share.

Surveys vs. Questionnaires: Differences & Similarities

The most significant difference between the two is that questionnaires are research tools, while surveys are a type of research method.

As a research method, surveys include multiple steps. You have to design the study, set a goal, collect data, tabulate the responses, analyze the results, etc.

Questionnaires are more direct instruments that ask specific things from the audience to gather intel. Surveys are less specific and include various instruments and tools to gather and analyze audience data.

Most types of surveys include a questionnaire. However, a questionnaire isn’t always used for a survey. In other words, questionnaires are often a part of the survey process, but not exclusively.

Survey vs. Questionnaire: Main Differences

Some other differences between questionnaires and surveys in data collection include the following:

• Time: You can create and send questionnaires very quickly. Surveys require more planning, preparation, and time. When you need fast answers, a questionnaire is a great solution.
• Cost: Similarly, questionnaires are inexpensive. Using a tool like Google Forms, you can create and send one for absolutely free. While you can conduct surveys for free, too, they are more likely to cost you.
• Scope: Questionnaires have a direct focus and ask a set of questions that pertain to this objective. Surveys also have a goal. But, they cast a wider net. This means they may use multiple questionnaires to capture the desired audience insights.

In short, questionnaires are not surveys themselves, but they do play a part in collecting survey data. It’s the questions you ask the target audience to acquire your survey data.

How to Choose Between a Survey and a Questionnaire?

You should use questionnaires and surveys often. These research tools and methods are irreplaceable for extracting audience insights.

The knowledge you gain through survey research is information you can’t acquire elsewhere. For example, you can only know what your customers are thinking or feeling by using questionnaires to ask.

Consumers are often the target of surveys and questionnaires. After all, these individuals are vital to the success of your company. Gathering intel from them can help you craft better strategies and offerings.

Utilizing both survey and questionnaire examples can help you gather valuable insights from your employees. These types of questionnaires can reveal internal issues and provide suggestions for improving your business.

No matter what audience you’re surveying, it’s important to know that these insights are ever-changing. People’s attitudes and perceptions shift and change over time. This is why it is crucial to create different types of surveys and questionnaires continuously.

Creating Questionnaire in Google Forms to Gather Survey Data

The central role questionnaires play in survey data collection is critical to understand. That said, learning how to create different types of questionnaires is even more valuable.

For this pursuit, we recommend Google Forms. This free online survey creator by Google helps you make, send, and analyze survey questionnaires.

Not only is the Google survey tool free, but it is also incredibly user-friendly and easy to use. To begin using Google Forms, you can find it under the apps menu on any Google page.

You can also search Google Forms by name with the Google search engine.

Your next step to begin making questionnaires and surveys for data collection is to choose a template. You can opt to create a blank questionnaire with Google Forms instead.

Google Forms has some notable features when creating different types of questionnaires. You can easily add and remove questions, edit how you ask questions, make some answers required, and more.

When crafting your surveys and questionnaires, be mindful of how you balance open-ended and closed questions. Here’s an example of a closed-ended question:

The best types of surveys use both question types because they provide qualitative and quantitative data.

After finalizing your surveys or questionnaires, be sure to distribute them to your target audience! Click the purple “Send” button to begin sharing your form with others.

The Google survey maker gives you a few options for sharing your various types of questionnaires. You can send them by direct link or email. You can also share directly on Facebook or Twitter.

Google Forms free tool offers a basic overview of your response data. However, you may want to export the results from Google Forms to Google Sheets or Excel for deeper analysis.

Thankfully, the Google Forms free online survey tool makes it very easy to do this. Under the Responses tab, you can click the “Link to Sheets” link.

You’ll be able to create a new spreadsheet for the data or select an existing one.

For Excel users, the process is a little longer, but still very easy. Instead of clicking “Link to Sheets,” you’ll choose the three vertical dots next to it.

This creates a dropdown menu with the option to download your responses as a .csv file.

Choose the location on your device for the file download to go. Then, open up Excel, import the .csv file, and presto! Now your data is exported from Google Forms to Excel!

Examining Survey and Questionnaire Data

With your results in the Excel environment, it is time to begin analyzing your survey research. This is the pivot table point where raw data becomes actionable insights.

In other words, it’s the stage where you find meaning behind your survey responses. This crucial stage isn’t as easy as the other steps.

The difficulty only increases the more survey responses you have. If your survey research methods have been extremely prosperous, you have heaps of data to analyze. This creates a more substantial challenge.

Your survey research spreadsheet may quickly span hundreds to thousands of rows. That’s far too much information to analyze with raw numbers alone.

Excel charts and graphs are the best tools for resolving complexity in analysis. It’s the classic expression, ”˜a picture is worth a thousand words. In data visualization, a chart is worth tens of thousands of numbers.

How to Install ChartExpo in Microsoft Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click on the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps”.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click on “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click on the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Let’s say you want to do a customer satisfaction survey. First, let’s have a look at the questions that you have asked customers:

• Do you find your work meaningful?
• Do you have access to the necessary resources to perform your job effectively?
• Have you received adequate support for your role?
• Are you satisfied with your current level of compensation and benefits?

Below are the responses (feedback) that are associated with each question:

1. No
2. Yes

Once your data is ready in Excel it may look like below table:

Timestamp	Do you find your work meaningful?	Do you have access to the necessary resources to perform your job effectively?	Have you received adequate support for your role?	Are you satisfied with your current level of compensation and benefits?
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	No	No	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	No	No
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	No	No	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	No	No	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10-13-2023 17:47:33	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once ChartExpo is loaded. Click on “Likert Scale Chart” from the list of charts.

• Click the “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• When you click on Create Chart From Selection you have to manually map responses with numbers. The Likert Scale Chart has this arrangement:
  • No = 1
  • Yes = 2

• Once all set click on Create Chart.

• As this feedback data has 2 scale responses, the default scale for this chart is set as 5 scale in ChartExpo.
• You can click on “Settings” on the top bar and then from the Chart Setting Property window, expand “Scale Type” select scale “2” from the drop-down list, and click on the “Apply” button.

• The Likert Scale Chart will look as follows.

• If you want to have the title of chart, click on Edit Chart, as shown in the above image.
• To change the title of the chart, click on the pencil icon that is available very next to Chart Header.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable the Show option. Give the appropriate title of your chart and click on Apply button.

• Let’s say you want to add text responses instead of numbers against every emoji.
• Click on the pencil icon next to the respective emoji, expand the “Label” properties, and write the required text. After that click on the “Apply All” button.
• For saving changes click on Save Changes. This will persist the changes.

• Your final chart will look like the as below.

Insights

• 75% employees indicated that their work is meaningful, 25% employees indicated that their work is meaningful.
• 80% employees indicated that they have access to the necessary resources to perform their job, 20% employees indicated that they don’t have access to the necessary resources to perform their job.
• 75% employees indicated that they have adequate support for their role, 25% employees said that they don’t have adequate support for their role.
• For 85% employees indicated that they satisfied with their current level of compensation and benefits, 15% employees said that they dissatisfied with their current level of compensation and benefits.

Overall view, 79% of respondents indicated they are satisfied with the state of work. But 21% of respondents indicated they are dissatisfied with the state of work.

The following video will help you to visualize employee satisfaction survey and questionnaire data in Microsoft Excel.

FAQs:

What is the difference between a survey and research?

Surveys are a type of research method. Yet, not all research requires a survey. For example, a scientist researching bird migration patterns isn’t going to conduct any surveys or questionnaires.

In this respect, all surveys are done for research purposes, but not all research involves surveying audiences.

What are questionnaires and surveys in research?

Questionnaires and surveys both fall under the umbrella of research. Various types of surveys assist your research objectives directly. Meanwhile, the different types of questionnaires you create support those survey efforts.

Both questionnaires and surveys aim to understand key audiences. These tools and methods extract feedback from these individuals. These responses reveal valuable intel you can use to improve your strategies.

Wrap Up

Survey vs. questionnaire is a curious topic and it’s easy to get confused about the differences between the two. The good news is you’re rarely incorrect in using these two terms interchangeably.

Most surveys include questionnaires and many types of questionnaires are designed for surveying audiences.

This means that the objective of both surveys and questionnaires is to learn about a target audience. In business, this is often your customers or employees.

Google Forms is an excellent tool for creating both surveys and questionnaires, offering flexibility and ease of use. It is free and contains many powerful features.

Since Google Forms collects questionnaire responses digitally, you can begin analyzing results immediately.

If the data from your surveys and questionnaire examples piles up, we recommend using ChartExpo alongside your Excel or Google Sheets analysis.

This tool gives you access to several charts designed to visualize survey data. For instance, the Likert Scale Chart enables you to understand rating scale questionnaires much faster than comparing raw scores.

The speed of visual analysis ensures you can respond to audience attitudes efficiently. You won’t let negative sentiments fester and grow. Similarly, you’ll be able to capitalize on positive audience trends quicker than competitors.

Getting to know your audiences is a crucial and powerful business strategy. Begin with Google Forms for creating surveys or questionnaires, and conclude with ChartExpo for insightful data visualization!