You want to know what your customers and prospective customers are thinking. You and every other company out there. So you send out a survey asking them their preferences. You and every other company out there.

How can you make sure as many users as possible will actually take the time to fill out your survey? And that if they do, it will actually tell you what you need to know? Here, from TheNextWeb, is a guide ^[1] to creating effective surveys that users might actually complete.

Among the tips:

• Test the survey to see how long it takes to complete. If you don’t keep it short, you’ll lose people.
• Make sure the questions flow logically from one to the next. A user who stops to wonder why you’re asking something may also wander away.
• Tell users exactly how you’ll use the data. They may be more willing to take the time to reply if they know their thoughts will go into your next round of improvements.

Get the full list at TheNextWeb ^[1].