Why conducting a survey?

You can collect information about the behaviors, needs, and opinions using surveys.
Surveys can be used to find out attitudes and reactions, to measure client satisfaction, to gauge opinions about various issues, and to add credibility to your research.
Surveys are a primary source of information -- that is, you directly ask someone for a response to a question, rather than using any secondary sources like written records.

You can use surveys to measure ideas or opinions about community issues related to your initiative.
For example, you may want to know how many people use your services, what users think about your services, what new users expect from your services, and whether users are satisfied with what you provide.

Deciding whether to conduct a survey

There are advantages in doing surveys, but you should consider whether a survey will be the best way of obtaining the information you need. 
Even though surveys are a useful method of gathering information, they are not the only way. 
You need to decide whether a survey will produce the information you need. 
The information you need may be obtained through other means, such as informal unstructured conversation that takes place in the course of another activity; census figures; meeting with people in the community; interviews; or observation.
Don't forget to clearly identify the goal and purpose of your survey (see page 4).