Before diving right into the topic of questionnaire design, we would first like to set the stage by describing our overall philosophy to research. We believe that a good researcher, and indeed a good research user, should be a diver who plunges beneath the surface of the information gleaned from customers. Of course, the realities of time and budget constraints often dictate how deeply we can dive and what equipment we require. Sometimes we need a mouthpiece and mask to skim the surface; other times we’ll become deep sea divers with full scuba equipment. However, it’s imperative before asking your customers a single question that you ask yourself many questions. This leads to the most important part of the research process. Our focus in this article is on customers, those purchasers of products with whom we already have a relationship. They could be business customers or consumers.