During market research projects there can be sources of error on both sides (see blog last week). For you we have a checklist as an orientation guide you can test for quality with. For the checklist’s guidelines are the standard you can demand. 

 Conception:

• Did you go enough effort and time of developing the questionnaire?
• Was the target clearly formulated?
• Are the targets and questions listed in a succession of priority?
• Have hypotheses been formulated?
• Can the hypotheses be sufficiently approved or rejected by the project?
• Is the method appropriate for answering the main question?
• Is the target group defined clearly and unambiguously?
• Is the target group reachable so that you can get sufficient answers?
• Do the respondents have an incentive to particpate in the survey?

Questionnaire:

• Have the questionnaire been tested?
• Is the questionnaire short and interesting enough so that the respondents will not discontinue the survey because of the questionnaire’s length?
• Is the questionnaire comprehensible for all respondents?
• Is the questionnaire acceptable to all respondents (taboo issues, private questions, etc.)?
• Are there any technical terms that have to be explicated?
• Has the questionnaire a kind of dramaturgy and thematic structure?
• Has the questionnaire a "warm-up" question in the beginning?
• Has the questionnaire needless questions?
• Has the questionnaire leading questions?

 Realisation:

• Do you have the appropriate interviewers (native speakers, know how of the branchof trade)?
• Have the interviewers been trained?
• Do the interviewers have accurate written instructions whose compliance is controlled?
• Have the respondents accurately been selected?
• Are there enough potential respondents contacts?
• Is there a continous feedback about the survey’s advancement?
• Do you have the feeling that problems during the survey are not enough communicated?

Evaluation:

• Have the data been debugged (nonsense answering respondents should be carried out of the analysis)?
• Have every question been answered?
• Are there only frequency counts and midpoints or also coherences and impacts (e.g. correlations analyses)?
• Do you understand all conducted analyses?
• Are all data visualised sufficiently and in a professional manner?
• Are there in every chart informations about the sample size?
• Do you have detailed information about the sample size’s composition?
• Are the results representative?
• Is there a management summary subsuming the most important results?
• Is there an explanation what the results mean for your company?
• Are there recommendations being derived from the results?

Implementation: 

• Are there precise points that can be implementated?
• Are the results applied into the practice?
• Are there any responsible persons for the implementation?
• Is there a timetable for the implementation?
• Does the market research conductor keep in touch with your company?
• Are any implementation workshops in the planning stages?
• Does the market research conductor have the know how and the manpower to organise the workshops?
• Is the implementation`s advancement supervised?

Source: http://www.markt-studie.de/studien/mafoprojekt.php 
Author: Mag. Holger Sicking