You’re almost there! You ran your survey and you wrote your report. Now there are just few quick loose ends to tie up:
- Follow up with survey respondents. When applicable, send a thank you note. If you promised respondents cash or gift cards, arrange the logistics of getting these incentives sent out. Be aware that certain types of gift cards charge an activation fee, so be sure to account for this in your budget. In addition, many surveys include follow-ups in the form of interviews with certain participants. This can expand into more in-depth research. Check out our Interview module on this website!
- Share your findings. Whether it be your professor, your boss, or other interested parties, you will want to share your findings with anyone who might benefit from seeing them. Be sure to include your full report, methodology, and if appropriate, your final data set.
- Save copies for your records. You never know when you might need to reference your survey findings or data again. Back up your data, keep everything together, and use lessons you learn in this project to help you conduct future research!
Personal Project
Once you wrap up the steps above, you can consider your survey a success — Congratulations!
Feel free to review this module from time to time as you run your survey, and check out other modules such as on Reliability and Validity, or other topics to continue to grow your social science research knowledge.
