The body of a report should concentrate on succinctly explaining the survey’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations. It should not clutter the basic text with reproductions of the questionnaire elements. Often, however, on the top of a plot or table, the analyst will quote the question that produced the data shown. An excellent practice. The appendix to the report serves as the typical repository for the questionnaire.
As an exemplar, Greentarget and the Zeughauser Group lays out in the Appendix to their 2022 DEI survey not only the exact question asked but also a graphic that shows the distribution of answers.
During the eight years that I conducted the world’s largest benchmark survey of law departments, I proudly listed in the Appendix the names of all the participating companies. (Actually, if they requested anonymity, I did not disclose their name, but few disallowed the listing.) I believed strongly that if other companies could see who is in their industry it could persuade them to take the survey (I produced three or four surveys a year, so later in the year potential participants could examine who was already in).
If your survey is lengthy, so long that it might deter some invitees from taking part, consider doing a two-step survey. The first survey gathers most of the data you would like to have; for those who respond to it, you send them a shorter survey that drills down on some points or adds the additional questions.
Once someone has invested the time to submit a completed survey, they are revealed to believe that the topic and findings are worth their effort.
Assuming you have amassed enough respondents to your survey, consider inviting them to attend a webinar. You can also leverage webinars to build your participant base by publicizing the webinar more broadly (although you can’t open the gates if you plan to share findings that people only deserve to get if they take part in the survey, such as compensation data). Even if someone has not completed the survey in time for the report and findings you discuss in the webinar, someone who attends will get to know you and your services from the webinar and thereport you send afterwards.
Disclosure: I am a consultant who makes my living by selling my services to those who conduct surveys. Despite that challenge to my objectivity on the topic of consultants, I will presumptuously press on to address what I have experienced to be the pros and cons of retaining a consultant as a member of a survey project team. Being bullish on trained consultants, I will begin with benefits from retaining an experienced consultant.