Some survey companies can provide comparative benchmarking data from their other customers. Be cautious about using external normative comparisons for benchmarking your survey results. There is a very high probability that comparison of your survey results with survey benchmarking data from other companies will result in invalid comparisons due to many possible reasons including different industry, different products and services, different customers and employees, different customer/employee demographics, different business strategies and plans, surveys done at different points in time, reflecting different economic conditions, and survey questions worded differently and/or in different order.

Only ask demographic questions that will provide useful information that you can take action on. Employee surveys should identify department, location if your company has more than one location, and possibly other information such as gender, age range, race, years of service with your organization, etc. Likewise, customer surveys should include questions that identify demographic information about business customers or consumers being surveyed.