How the rating questions are calculated and which are included in the summary charts
When you use one of Extellio's standard rating questions, there's a lot happening "behind the scenes". In this article, we'll explain the rating question and why they are presented the way they are.
How are the rating questions calculated?
The standard rating questions are all on a scale of 1 to 5, but they are presented with word in the surveys. Instead of asking "How would you rate our navigation on a scale from 1 to 5?" we ask "How would you rate our navigation?" with 5 options ranging from "Very poor" to "Very good". There's no right or wrong here. If you prefer to use numbers, then use the numbers instead.
Although the standard rating questions have worded options, each option is given a value. The option "Very poor" has the value "1", and the option "Very good" has the value "5". When looking at your data, the ratings are presented as the average score, and is somewhere between 1 and 5. That means that regardless of number or word options, the ratings are calculated the same way.
If you are curious about which rating scores are good, you can check out this article.
Which questions are included in the summary chart?
First of all, if you are unfamiliar with the summary chart under "Ratings", when looking at your survey data, this is the chart referred to:
In the summary chart, you will see your rating question summarized into categories, but you will also get the average rating for your website.
However, the summary chart will not include all your rating questions. The only ratings questions that are included in the summary chart are those that have industry benchmarks. Apart from the overall rating question (how the respondents would rate the website as a whole), the ratings questions belong to three main categories: Navigation, Content, and Design. For each of these, there are also subcategories. For Navigation, the subcategories are Search, Menu, and Product finder. For Content, the subcategories are Product information and Contact information. For Design, the subcategory is Visual impression. We have standard questions for each category, and subcategory, for you to choose from.
If you rating question does not belong to any of the categories above, it will not be included in the summary chart.
If you want to know if your questions are connected to any of the categories, you can check the survey editor. When viewing your content, the KPI-questions connected to the categories will have a gauge icon to the right with the specific question category. Note that the category names in the survey editor are more precise, which is why the names differ from the summary chart.
Apart from the average rating, the summary chart is also great for the industry comparison. When you've toggled on the industry benchmark, the industry will be added to the chart like this:
Although you are able to see the industry benchmarks for each rating question too, you are only able to see the average rating for the industry in the summary chart.
To use or not to use or standard rating questions
Although there are benefits from using our standard rating questions, such as the industry benchmarks and the summary chart, which questions you use should always match the purpose of the survey. There is no use in having our standard question for the content if you won't use the data. When deciding which rating questions to have in your survey, start by determining the purpose of the survey. Then, based on the purpose, you decide which, and how specific, questions to use.
A tip for the rating questions is to avoid changing them over the years. Rating questions are a good tool for seeing how the website is performing, and you therefore want the questions to be consistent. That way, you'll be able to have the trend for several years (if your survey is active for that long). However, if you want to have very specific rating questions for shorter periods of time, you can compensate for that by having 1 general and consistent question which will give you the average trend, and change the others as needed.