Six Key Steps to a Better

Understanding
of your Survey Results
by Mark Lummas

Background

Step 1:
Sanity check! Take
the time to
validate the survey
results by carefully
reviewing the data.

Survey data analysis is a savvy investment for businesses interested

in gathering information about consumer trends. When gathered
and studied correctly, survey data gives your business a competitive
edge. At the same time, its not enough to simply gather data
without statistical methodology used to make a proper analysis or
access to established trending/reporting software.
If you are a business that has just received an SPSS file and are
ready to turn your data into actionable insights, here are six key
steps that will help you to better understand and utilize that survey
data.
Step 1: Validate the Data Received
The first step is to validate the data received. Are there unexpected
values in the completed survey? Are the results what you had
hoped for? If not, the first question to ask is: are there variables
that may have skewed the survey data? Did you ask the right
questions and were they specific enough? If the results appear
erroneous, its important to examine the survey questions again.
Proper survey analysis will help you answer these questions, and
give you the tools to understand the data received.
Survey studies try to measure the data from populations as a
whole. They measure defined characteristics by case. Each entry
into the sample is considered a CASE. The cases are usually broken
up by variables. VARIABLES are the characteristics studied
(including their descriptions.) Examples of variables include: sex,
age, marital status, eye color, etc. A well-constructed survey
question will focus on those variables that the client believes are
their primary focus.
A men's clothing store, for example, will find the income and
spending habits of men aged 30-45 more important than say, the
spending habits of unemployed teenage girls. Thats why survey
data often needs to be weighted to adjust for sampling quota

discrepancies. In our men's clothing store example, men aged 30-

45 would be considered of higher value than teenage girls, even if it
is Father's Day and they may be shoppers during that particular
season.

Step 2: Examine
the Frequency
Distribution of
each of the survey
questions.

Using proper survey writing techniques and survey analysis will

lessen the occurrence of unexpected or erroneous values. If the
survey is written and studied correctly, the information gathered in
a survey gives a business valuable data about their customers.
Step 2: Create a Frequency Distribution for all Survey Questions
The second step to better understanding survey data is to create a
frequency distribution for all survey questions. A frequency
distribution conveniently summarizes the data by counting the
responses of a given variable. These counts, or frequencies, are
called the frequency distribution and commonly include
percentages.
A frequency distribution can quickly reveal the number of
nonresponses or missing values, and the overall tendency and
shape of the distribution. A simple example of a frequency
distribution would be if you wanted to measure whether dogs or
cats were more popular in a certain location. You could survey a
random sample of 100 local pet owners to find out which (dogs or
cats) were more popular. If it was established that there were 53
dog owners and 47 cat owners, your frequency distribution would
be dog owners= 53 or 53% and cat owners= 47 or 47%.
A frequency distribution is important because it allows for the
variables to be studied alone or in comparison to differing variables.
Let us go back to our men's clothing example. It is great to have
gathered data from men with variables ranging from age, whether
they have a post-secondary degree, what their income bracket is,
whether they are married or single, etc., but if all that information
is not graphed or tabulated in such a way as to make sense of the
value of those variables, then the survey is little more than a list of
nonsensical data. Proper analysis makes good use of frequency
distributions for all survey questions.

Step 3: Identify Questions with Surprising Results that are Worth a
Closer Look
The third step is to identify any questions with surprising results
that are worth a second look. This is different than step one, in that

we are looking for unexpected findings generated from accurate

questions and data.

Step 3:
Do the frequency
distributions reveal
interesting results
requiring further
examination?

Step one seeks to identify discrepancies in the survey questions

themselves. If there are results to a question that are surprising, it
is relevant to draw a conclusion as to why the results are what they
are. It is important to initially figure out the likely cause of the
surprising answer. If when using survey analysis, the methodology
and data collection appears to be valid, the surprising result is
extremely useful data and speaks to the value surveys can provide.
Utilizing frequency distributions can uncover anomalies that
industries or researchers were completely unaware of before.
In our men's clothing survey analysis, if the data showed that 2% of

tie buyers were under 40 years old and 98% were over 40, this may
be an unexpected anomaly. If youve already concluded that the
survey data is accurate, this is a very relevant piece of information.
Future decisions for the mens clothing store may be much different
than those prior to studying the survey data. The goal of the survey
analyst is to draw such NEW conclusions through the use of the
survey analysis tools.

Step 4: Identify the Survey Questions that will be used as the
banners of your reports
We now have a basic feel for our data and we can turn our
attention to creating reports to communicate the results with
others. The next step entails defining the structure of your reports,
starting with the columns. A cross tabulation (or "crosstab") is a
table displaying survey results. It resembles a spreadsheet with
multiple rows and columns, typically where the rows are tabulated
survey responses and the columns are the groups of data youre
analyzing. Columns are also known as banners.
Typical banner points are demographic breakdowns such as
male/female within gender or age groupings, such as 18-24, 25-34,
35+. Other classification questions (as an example) could be
customer satisfaction levels. They say that a survey is only as good
as the questions it asks. So it is imperative that we give thought to
the way in which our team would most likely wish to break down
the data at the outset of the study, for example, by age categories,
gender etc. Consider what the key variables are for your business,
and then select the banners accordingly.

Step 4:
THINK about the
metrics most
important to your
business, then
define your report
BANNERS
accordingly.

With the key questions asked, it could now be said that the survey
data is only as good as the crosstabs reports that you run. If your
banners are composed to easily tabulate criteria which are critical
to your survey results, such as male/female respondents, then the
data will be useful. Each question should lend itself for use in a
column/banner, which is specific enough to allow for the tabulation
of a number of variables. Well drafted questions allow for
statistical analysis, and question validation with multiple variables.

Step 5: Create a Crosstab Report

The fifth step to better understanding survey data is to create your

cross tabulation reports. Now that you understand how to select
your banners, it should be easy to make sense of survey data by
placing variables in columns accordingly. Analytics will be placed
into data matrices. Crosstab reports need at least 3 fields of
information. A row fieldwhere each differing value appears in a
row. A column fieldwhere each differing variable appears in a
column. And finally, a data field that summarizes the data and
places it into intersecting rows and columns. A crosstab is an
important survey analysis tool because it creates grids that allow
for easy study of frequency distribution and statistical variation
among many fields.
As an example, lets say one variable was gender (male, female),
the second variable was right- or left-handedness and the third
variable was the number of people surveyed (in this case 100
people: 50 males and 50 females). What a crosstab will do is create
a rectangular spreadsheet that generates the data, say that out of
50 males, 41 are right-handed and 9 are left-handed; whereas in 50
females, 44 are right-handed and 6 are left-handed. A crosstab
would not only have columns summarizing the differences between
the genders, but also the combined number of right-handed people
(male and female) 85, versus 15 left-handed.

Step 6: Slice and Dice your Cross Tabulation Report
The sixth step is to slice and dice your cross tabulation report. It is
very important in survey analysis to gain an in-depth understanding
of the data contained in the crosstab report. The data, once
tabulated and in a grid is now easier to read and at your fingertips,
but it is also important to read the data correctly.
The crosstab is the heart of your survey data. It contains the
numbers and allows the surveyor to compare them among

Steps 5 & 6:
Create a series of
cross tab reports,
review the reports
and begin your
drill down
analysis of the
data.

variables. If studied thoroughly, the surveyor has a powerful tool

that can be used to predict sales, business trends, demographics
and areas of improvement important to the growth of your
business or project.
Survey data analysis doesnt need to be overwhelming. Its true
that given the sheer number of subjects asked, an unprepared
receiver of an SPSS data set representative of a survey project may
be confused by the mountain of data sitting in front of them.
mTAB believes that if the six steps - data validation, use of
frequency distribution, identifying/understanding surprising results,
defining business case appropriate column banners, creating
crosstab reports, and slicing and dicing the crosstab report are
followed then you be well on the way to gaining actionable
insight from the results of your survey projects.
A well-prepared and analyzed survey will give an organization a leg
up on the competition and a glimpse into the psyche of its
customers.

About the Author

Mark Lummas is the Director of Client Services at mTAB, a firm
specializing in data basing and analysis of survey research data.
Mark personally has over 15 years experience providing survey
analysis solutions for many of the worlds leading corporations.
You can contact Mark at mlummas@mtabsurveyanalysis.com.