How To Create A Survey In Google Forms?

How to create a survey in Google Forms is a popular question because when it comes to creating forms and surveys, Google Forms is a popular choice.

Did you know that a whopping 188,000,000 emails are sent every minute?

It’s a staggering number. But let’s focus on one aspect of this email frenzy – surveys.

Many emails are surveys sent to gather customer and employee feedback, product reviews, market research, and more.

Why?

Because a good chunk of these emails is surveys sent to collect information on customer & employee feedback, product reviews, market research, and much more. And google forms play a significant role here!

Quick, free, and simple.

That’s what we hear the most about surveys created using Google Forms. And if “How to create a survey in Google Forms?” is the question, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll answer this while also exploring the must-have features of an online survey tool, and why you should know about SurveySparrow, too.

But up first, let’s see how to create a survey using Google Forms.

How To Create A Survey In Google Forms?

We’ve discussed the features that make Google Forms a popular online survey tool. So now, with no further delay, let’s jump into the step-by-step survey creation process using Google Forms. It’s super easy, and you’ll surely love it.

The Start

• As we enter our Google Drive, it shows the “New+” feature, and after clicking on it, a range of blocks opens up.
• When clicking on “More,” present after Google Docs, sheets, and slides, you see Google Forms.
• Click on it, and an untitled form opens up where a description can be added.

Adding Questions

• Under the description space, you see untitled questions that are automated according to the question type, i.e., multiple-choice, open-ended, etc.
• A question can be dragged anywhere by the six dots present beside the question.
• When clicking on “multiple choice” beside the question, as you can see, a range of choices opens up – short answer, paragraph, multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdown, file upload, linear scale, multiple choice grid, checkbox grid, date, and time.

• Depending on the questions selected, they get automated. For example, if the question is “What is your hometown?”, it gets automated to ‘Short answer’. So, make sure you select the right question type from here.

Options To Create Google Forms

Different options appear on the right side of the questions, which include:

• Add question- Used for adding a question.
• Import question- Used for repurposing the question.
• Add title and description- Used to add a new section with only a description.
• Add image- Used to add an image related to the asked question.
• Add video Used to add video as a reference to the question.
• Add section- Used to break long forms into different sections and parts.

Now, on the top right corner, an icon for customization is present where four options are available:

• Header- Used to upload an image to make the form more attractive.
• Theme color- Used to add different colors resonating with the theme of the form.
• Background color- Used to add a background color to the form/survey based on your brand’s logo and color preference.
• Font style- Used to choose the desired font for your form’s questions, options, and answers.

Form Settings

Besides ‘Customize’, the icon for ‘Preview’ is present. It lets:

• You create an exact copy of the Google form with a URL in a new tab.
• You create a live link for the form.
• Your respondents get to the ‘Submit’ icon after filling out the form.

Besides this, the ‘Settings’ icon presents three options- General, Presentation, and Quizzes.

• In ‘General’, an individual’s email address can be saved. The number of responses can be limited to one, and editing & summarizing after submitting can be enabled or disabled.
• In ‘Presentation’, the order of questions can be shuffled, and the link to submit other responses can be enabled or disabled. From here, a confirmation message can also be written, like “Thank you for your response” to your survey respondents.
• In ‘Quizzes’, the questions can be turned into a quiz. The respondents also come to see missed questions, correct answers, and point values.

Now, in the ‘Responses’ section, you can:

• See the number of responses to every question as a summary.
• On choosing ‘Question’ here, we can see individual responses to the particular question.
• On choosing ‘Individuals’, every response is monitored.
• A toggle for accepting responses is present too, which limits the responses in the form when turned off.

The Sending Process

After preparing the form, it’s ready to be sent out for response collection. So, when we hit ‘Send’, three options appear:

• Email- In email, individual emails are selected to send the form, along with a subject and a message.
• Link- With this option, a link to the form can be generated and shortened to send out to the survey respondents.
• Embed HTML- Here, a URL is generated that can be put on a webpage to make Google Forms so responders visiting the website can take the survey (form).

The Must-Have Features Of An Online Survey Tool!

Now that you know what Google Forms brings and how to create a survey, let’s discuss the essential features an online survey tool should have. It’s time to let the cat out of the bag.

Question Types

Any survey that gets the right result has one thing in common. They all come with different questions that pique the survey respondent’s interest and make them wanna answer. Whether long or short, questions can be presented correctly using the right type. MCQs, Likert scale, open-ended, rating, and scale-based questions. Those are a few of the most popular question types in your surveys.

But does your online survey tool offer all these types? Google Forms certainly doesn’t.

Conditional Branching

Advanced conditional branching or skip logic plays a key role in giving a smooth survey experience to respondents. Because it removes questions that are irrelevant for a respondent based on their previous responses. This brings quality data, as respondents are asked questions that apply to them, which ultimately improves their motivation to take the survey and answer promptly.

Anonymous Surveys

Sometimes, there are situations where the survey respondents do not want to reveal their identity. A good example of this is employee feedback surveys, where the employees are reluctant to reveal their identity if you’re expecting them to give honest answers.

In that scenario, it is best to let them stay anonymous, which is exactly why your online survey tool should have the anonymity feature in its arsenal. Especially in the post-pandemic world, where people are quite sensitive about their privacy and are skeptical in revealing their identity.

Multiple User Collaboration

Password sharing, multiple licensing, and several authentications might sound like a great thing, but in reality, these increase the friction for all stakeholders and might cause confusion about who’s doing what.

We think collaboration should be allowed while conducting online surveys, but it should be done in a restricted manner, so the leader or manager can control proceedings and give the right access to the right team members.

Top-notch Customer Support

Right after seeing the features of an online survey tool, this is the next thing you should do because you don’t want to face troubles alone in the middle of a survey campaign! Plus, there’s a good chance you might need customer support’s help to use all the features properly. So, don’t compromise here. Go for the tool with the best customer support. You’ll never regret your decision.

As for Google Forms, you gotta mail them the issue, and their team gets back to you, primarily through email. And that, too, after 24 hours. Not cool!

Data Security

Just like customer support, this is a feature you can’t compromise with. The security of your customer’s data is essential if you want the survey campaigns to succeed. While choosing your online survey tool, you gotta keep this in mind. So, ensure the survey tool encrypts the respondent data and builds processes around it to keep it secure.

Why Are Google Forms Popular?

People and companies like to use Google Forms a lot, that’s for sure. But why? What brings Google Forms its popularity? It’s crucial to talk about this before jumping onto anything else. So, get yourself a cup of coffee (if you haven’t already!), and we’re all set to start.

Auto-completion of Answers

Google Forms comes with an autocomplete feature, where the answers get autocompleted with the help of predictive analytics. This feature is available in over 14 languages, including Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, to name a few. And it’s easily one of its most popular features.

Ease of Use

Google Forms is the easiest online survey tool to use. No doubts here. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing survey tool, but for ease of use, it’s fantastic!

Pre-built Templates

Google Forms comes with templates that can be used by anyone and everyone without needing any coding experience. Even those new to online surveys can get the hang of it with these templates.

Work request forms, feedback forms, order forms, and event registration forms are some of the most common templates available here.

All you need to do is select a template, add the customization options you need, input survey questions, and you’re ready. Simple and effective. What say?

The Google Ecosystem

If your business uses G Suite, navigating and using the entire suite of products, including Google Forms becomes effortless. Every product in this suite is connected to the other one, so the information-sharing and storing process is seamless and quick.

Collaboration

One of the best features of Google Forms is adding changes, suggestions, and comments in real time. So, if you’re working with a team for a survey, where every member is a stakeholder, exchanging information becomes a cakewalk with Google Forms.

Skip Logic

If you wish to give survey respondents the option of skipping unrelated questions, Google Forms lets you do that with their skip logic condition. It’s great to have respondents from various segments answering questions that resonate with them, giving you small but highly focused data. Using Google Forms’ skip logic feature is a way to do that.

Unlimited Surveys and Respondents

One of the coolest features of Google Forms is letting survey-takers conduct unlimited surveys for unlimited respondents. For companies working on a tight survey budget, Google Forms is definitely a lifesaver!

Massive Integration Options

No matter what you do, Google Forms has the integrations you need. You get all the integration options from MailChimp to Hubspot to Slack with Google Forms.

Completely Free!

Well, this is the feature that makes Google Forms truly famous. It’s completely free! Yes, conducting online surveys using Google Forms would cost you exactly $0.

If you wish to use G Suite, the price starts at $6/user/month, which is dirt-cheap compared to the quality and features of the products there.

What About SurveySparrow? What Are Their Features?

Well, the features mentioned above, along with much more! That’s what makes SurveySparrow one of the best online survey tools available. And you don’t need to search on your browser to find all its top features; we’re doing that here. All you gotta do is keep reading.

Omni-channel Management Platform

One of the most applauded features of SurveySparrow is its omni-channel experience management platform. Using this, businesses collect data by sending surveys on multiple channels, social media, or emails. Once the responses are collected, they analyze and store the final data in this management platform.

• Social media share for Facebook and Twitter.
• Unique and easily trackable weblinks.
• Fully configurable SMS surveys
• Automation capabilities for recurring email surveys.
• QR codes for quick access.
• Data is stored in a unified and easy-to-access manner.

This and so much more is what you get with SurveySparrow’s management platform. Impressed, aren’t you?

Try SurveySparrow for Omni-channel Experience Management Platform

With SurveySparrow, you can create online surveys for free and explore all the features. So, go ahead and start your trial today!

Superb White-labeling

For every business, their brand identity is essential. Why? Because it matters to their customers. Customers love to associate with a brand with a unique voice and identity in the market. And that’s looking to empower customers in more ways than just selling their products & services. SurveySparrow understands that, so they’ve built their white-labeling feature with time and dedication.

As a business, you can customize everything, from the URL to the brand logo, subject, and body of your surveys, easily using this feature. So, go ahead and check out the feature yourself. You’ll not be disappointed.

The Built-in NPS module

“Will customers talk about us in front of their friends?”

“Are we getting word-of-mouth referrals?”

“Are the customers spreading positive news about us?”

If, as a leader, you’re asking these questions, you and your teams need to conduct NPS surveys. SurveySparrow would help you do that with its hugely impressive built-in Net Promoter Score (NPS) module. With this, you’ll see who’re the Promoters, Passives, and Detractors for your brand.

Now, promoters are someone who’s spreading positive news about your brand, and you want them to grow. Conducting NPS surveys would be the first step towards that. These surveys would let you know who your Detractors are and you can assign a representative for them to check if their customer experience is improving. All this is super easy and quick with SurveySparrow’s NPS module.

Offline Surveys

SurveySparrow stands out from the rest with its offline surveys feature. They empower teams to collect data from anywhere and anytime without having an active internet. So, when you’re using this feature, conduct as many offline surveys as you want, connect multiple devices, and uniformly store this data. Sweet!

360 Degree Employee Assessment

Focusing on customers shouldn’t mean you forget employees. Because they’re the ones responsible for keeping customers happy, which means, as a leader, you need to keep them happy too.

This is where SurveySaprrow’s 360-degree assessment comes in.

As with this feature, you get to upload all employee information in one go, invite them for an employee 360 evaluation with a single click, and get custom reports showing their strengths and weaknesses with a dedicated development plan.

Simply put, the 360-degree assessment module helps your employees grow while keeping them satisfied. After which, they’ll take care of your company’s growth!

Integrations

Using SurveySparrow as your online survey software, get integration options with marketing tools like Hubspot, Mailchimp, Marketo, Eloqua, CleverReach, and more. It lets you integrate with tools like C-Connect, FreshDesk, and Jitbit Helpdesk for your customer support functions.

If you want to integrate SurveySparrow with productivity, email, analytics, and management tools, contact them and it’ll be done in no time.

Accessibility & Control

Every feature of SurveySparrow is designed to promote accessibility and ease of use. As a leader or manager, you can set up sub-accounts under a single account for your teams. You can view surveys easily in these sub-accounts and folders; everything remains smooth and hassle-free.

That’s All From Us

How to create a survey in Google Forms? From selecting the template to sending the surveys, you know all about Google Forms and the survey creation process. Google Forms has its limitations, no doubt. But for teachers, graduate students, and small businesses, the ability to conduct free surveys to gain valuable information is priceless. And that’s what brings the popularity of Google Forms.

You can use a Google Forms alternative like SurveySparrow for more features and advanced analytics. And you already know why that would be the right choice!

We hope this detailed guide helps you build surveys that get the intended result. And we’re here if you need help with your surveys or even want to talk.

Happy surveying!

Kate Williams

Content Marketer at SurveySparrow