3 Fundamental Tips for a Well Designed Survey

August 29, 2012 Leave a comment

Surveys are beneficial within research marketing, but the benefits are limited by how well the questionnaires are constructed and whether or not the questions are clearly understood by respondents. If you’re operating on a budget, there are even online tools that allow the creation of free online surveys, or customer satisfaction surveys. Whatever the types of survey questions your online questionnaire includes, here are some important tips for all research marketing surveys.

1. Clearly communicate the goals of your survey.

Sure, it can be confusing or overwhelming when you begin designing a survey questionnaire, but don’t give in to the temptation to just state the questions you have in mind and then blindly launch the survey. Take time to consider why you want to initiate the web survey in the first place. Is it a customer satisfaction survey? What sort of answers to your online questionnaire questions are you hoping to receive? What are you going to do with the acquired data? How exactly will this web survey help your company or your customers.

Be as specific as possible when developing and reviewing your survey goals. This thorough examination of your survey objectives may seem optional when designing an online questionnaire, but it will save you time and energy when formulating the survey’s questions. Without clearly defined objectives, questions can become convoluted and confusing, leading to answers

2. Design questions that are easy to read and easy to answer.

In order to keep respondents engaged and understanding, make survey questions short and simple. If questions are long and complex, you run the risk of your web survey’s participants misunderstanding the question and providing inaccurate feedback. Simple questions help participants to easily understand what information you’re after and answer comprehensively. Question formats should be easy to answer, so that respondents going through the survey aren’t inconvenienced or distracted. We see survey participants providing generic answers or clicking options blindly, just to get through an overly long web survey. For the most accurate results, questions have to be understood and as simply answered as possible.

Remember, along with keeping questions understandable, choose questionnaire questions with your goals in mind. This will ensure that each question received will give you the kind of feedback you desired to gather with your research marketing survey.

3. Use Simple Terms and Consistent Phrasing

Whatever terms, phrases and questions you use within the survey, make sure they are understood by your target audience. Keep in mind that just because you know a lot of the terms in your research marketing niche, there’s a good chance your survey’s respondents aren’t familiar with many of the terms. Be sure to avoid technical phrasing and whatever terms you choose, use them consistently throughout the online questionnaire to minimize any possible confusion.

Be as specific as you can when you make survey questions, as this will help evade any confusion regarding word choices. Vague words, like “rarely” or “sometimes”, can create uncertainty, since participants might have their own definitions as to what these words mean. Utilize unambiguous words and terms, like “less than twice a day” to keep answers precise and consistent.

Create Free Web Surveys with SurveyTool and Get Some Research Marketing Practice

If you’re still unclear on what type of survey questions you need or how to begin, try creating free online surveys online on SurveyTool. Our survey design software is intuitive and easy to pick right up, even if it’s your first time. If you feel like you don’t know where to begin, check out our survey templates – we have over 40 different types of industries represented amongst our online questionnaires and you’re bound to find inspiration. Designing free online surveys with SurveyTool will help you become familiar with survey creation so when your business needs some research marketing done, you’ll be ready to start!

Filed under Education Survey Tagged with , , , ,

Facebook Surveys – Feedback from your fans!

August 22, 2012 Leave a comment

Facebook Surveys: Take Advantage of Valuable Feedback from Your Company’s Fans

Facebook Surveys from Surveytool.com

Facebook offers companies who utilize social media the unique opportunity to gather valuable feedback straight from their most valuable assets – their customers.

Getting feedback from clients used to require going through contact lists and stopping customers at the door to conduct customer surveys. Often these research invitations were an unwelcome imposition and would often create more problems than the resulting survey data was worth. Thankfully Facebook pages and the fans they gather have provided a platform for open dialogue and brand appreciation communities, making customer surveys a simple, effective process, as long as companies are aware of the valuable resource at their social media door.

Facebook Fans are Valuable Resources for a Company

Research published in the Harvard Business Review found that Facebook fans can be a valuable asset to business. A customer survey was conducted amongst Facebook fans of a Houston based cafe chain named Dessert Gallery and over a 3 month period with over 1,700 responses, it was discovered that the Facebook fans benefitted the company in many ways. The fans had a 14% higher emotional attachment towards Dessert Gallery’s brand and maintained 41% greater loyalty to the cafe than other customers. And the effects weren’t just psychological – Facebook fans tended to frequent the store more and would also spend a greater amount of money. Dessert Gallery’s Facebook survey found that their fans made 36% more visits to their stores, spent 45% more of their dining budget at the cafes and spent 33% more in general at Dessert Gallery’s stores. Made 36 percent more visits to DG’s stores each month. Dessert Gallery isn’t an isolated case when it comes to committed fans – brands managing their social media well find that their clients and customers often become more involved and loyal.

Facebook Fans Provide More Informed Survey Data for Business Development

When using an online survey generator to gather data from a target sample, a researcher usually has to specify what population is being targeted in order to ensure that the information gathered is informed and relevant. Becoming a Facebook fan usually requires prior knowledge of a company and it’s products, as well as an interest in its performance and contributions. Because of these factors, Facebook fans are both the target market and built-in survey sample that the company can utilize in market research. A company’s Facebook fans have a lot to offer the business, including:

  • A greater product awareness
  • Familiarity with brand campaigns
  • Accessibility for market research
  • Willing involvement in customer surveys
  • Interested in company’s success

Becoming a Facebook fan indicates interest and knowledge of a brand and Facebook surveys are an effective, simple way to utilize this resource for survey data.

What sort of Information can a Facebook Survey Provide?

It’s clear that a company’s Facebook fans are a treasure trove of customer survey data, but what sort of information can they provide for business development? Really this is limited only by the imagination of the company researchers who are creating the surveys. NPR conducted a survey on their Facebook page to learn more about their fans. Over 40,000 of NPR fans responded to their Facebook survey resulting in a lot of data discovered about these followers:

“About three of every four respondents (76%) listen to NPR on the radio. The majority of respondents – 55% – listen to between one and three hours of NPR on air each day. In comparison, the average NPR listener  listens to 4.25 hours per week. Almost one in five respondents (18.6%) uses the NPR News iPhone app, while 5% use our Android app, and 2.5% our iPad app. Just under three in ten (28.5%) listen to NPR podcasts. Interestingly, fewer than 1 in 10 (8.4%) follow NPR on Twitter, which was somewhat unexpected, given how NPR actually has more than twice as many fans on Twitter than we do on Facebook. This suggests that these communities are more mutually exclusive than we assumed. They consume lots of news online – but are more inclined to consume NPR content on Facebook than other news sources. About three of every five respondents (60.7%) said they get most or all of their news online. Almost three-quarters (74.6%) agree that Facebook is a major way in which they receive news and information from NPR. In contrast, just half of them (51%) agree that Facebook is a major way for them to receive information from news organizations in general.”

Clearly lots of useful information was discovered in the NPR Facebook survey data, making the process a success for their target audience research. Results like this can be achieved by a company in any industry, like customer service, restaurants, tech providers and and product based companies.

SurveyTool Provides an Online Survey Generator for Facebook Surveys

SurveyTool offers a lot of online features that can assist companies with creating survey questionnaires, launching Facebook surveys, gathering responses and interpreting data. Visit www.surveytool.com and discover all the resources we place at your disposal allowing you to take advantage of your social media platform and conduct a Facebook survey. All that you need to bring is a Facebook page and some fans and we’ll do the rest!

Filed under Customer Satisfaction, Social Media Tagged with , , , ,

Satisfaction Surveys Turn Customer Complaints Into Opportunities

August 15, 2012 Leave a comment

Customer service survey from SurveyToolWhile some companies might assume that “no news is good news,” the best attitude to have regarding feedback is that criticism from the customer is an opportunity to improve. Refining client service processes doesn’t just benefit the customer – companies that work hard to gather, study and apply their findings from customer complaints often find that investors and employees are happier as well. Utilizing satisfaction surveys and treating complaints as ideas for improvement rewards a company with a better understanding of their target market and guidance for further business development.

Great Customer Service Offers High Rewards

How does a better customer service experience benefit the business as well as the customer? Market studies find that companies who consistently provide their customers with excellent service experiences are rewarded by both consumers and investors. Watermark Consulting, a customer experience consultancy, conducted a study on the ROI of customer experience and found that great customer service offers even better rewards:

“The customer experience Leaders are clearly enjoying the many benefits of consumer loyalty.  They see higher revenues from better retention, greater wallet share, lower price sensitivity and positive word-of-mouth.  They see lower expenses from reduced acquisition costs, fewer complaints, and the less intense service requirements of happy, satisfied, long-term clients.”

Obviously, most companies will be quick to say yes, good customer service pays off. Yet time and again people have service experience horror stories, tales of being ripped off and made to jump through numerous hoops. If providing the customer with excellent service is common sense, then how come a good customer service experience is often hard to find?

Communication is Often Limited Between the Customer and Business

The cause of poor customer service can often be found in faulty communication between a business and its consumers. A company might assume that its client services have been fine-tuned and are functioning as desired, but often the customers feel differently. An accepted protocol might seem perfect in theory, but once it’s put into practice and applied to a customer experience, there might be some glitches that can cause problems. If clients feel that they have been mistreated or felt a service experience was lacking, it is often difficult for them to find an outlet to express their disapproval. All their opinions and suggestions go to waste and often all that arises from a bad customer service experience is the permanent loss of a valuable customer.

Improve Communication Using Customer Satisfaction Surveys

If a consumer has a bad experience, how can communication be improved so that their customer complaints can be heard and resolved? The hero of the day for customer complaints is online surveys! An online survey offers a disgruntled customer the opportunity to voice complaints. Satisfaction surveys not only collect information from consumers, it also exhibits a company’s desire to hear their customers’ opinions and proves their commitment to valuing the thoughts of their clients. With a satisfaction survey that focuses on a specific survey sample, companies can stay up-to-date with their target market and be proactive when customer complaints are received.

Find Opportunities in Customer Complaints with SurveyTool’s Online Surveys

SurveyTool offers free online surveys for businesses wanting to track customer complaints . There are plenty of resources that make it easy and quick for a company to launch a survey campaign:

  • Customer services survey templates that are customizable and can incorporate a company’s brand.
  • Automated launching of surveys, so that businesses can schedule regular customer satisfaction surveys, keeping the process simple and effective and gathering up-to-date information regularly.
  • Built in database of respondents, so that companies needing information quickly can specify a survey sample and get prompt responses straight from their target audience.
  • Utilization of existing contact lists, so businesses can send out links to online surveys to customers using previously gathered email addresses.
  • Easy embedding of an online survey to websites, allowing companies to host satisfaction surveys for their clients directly on their own sites.

If you’re interested in discovering the rewards of providing excellent customer service, check out SurveyTool’s online surveys and treat customer complaints as business improvement opportunities!

Filed under Customer Satisfaction Tagged with , , , ,

Marketing Research Survey Opportunities for Small Businesses on a Tight Budget

August 8, 2012 Leave a comment

Don’t have an inhouse marketing research department? No worries, SurveyTool’s survey questionnaires can be utilized by businesses regardless of size or budget.

Small Business Market Research Survey on a budget.

The needs and desires of a population are constantly shifting and changing. Companies who don’t keep the finger on the pulse of their target market can easily find themselves out of touch and producing services and products that aren’t appealing, don’t sell, and create loss. To maintain market awareness, businesses need to treat their customers not only as potential buyers, but also as vital sources of marketing research. Conducting frequent surveys and research samples is already a practice for businesses with a large marketing budget, but the practice can be adopted by all companies desiring to keep in touch with their market. Knowing what customers want and meeting their needs is a basic principle for all companies. By taking advantage of surveys, smaller companies can use their customers instead of hiring researchers and decreasing their hard-won profits.

Small Businesses Can Benefit From SurveyTool

All businesses can benefit from conducting marketing research surveys, large and small. Regardless of size or budget, all companies can benefit from surveys since SurveyTool offers a free, online, professional survey creation program. Using SurveyTool’s free survey creation software, companies can produce excellent market research studies that are customizable and polished. SurveyTool makes the entire survey process simpler and faster, by supplying users with an intuitive interface and automating many survey processes like gathering responses, converting information into organized data and then presenting the findings in a professional format. Completing the survey process allows a company to gain a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between their products and customers and utilize that information to produce better services and increase profits.

SurveyTool is Simple and Easy and Provides a High ROI

Initiating a survey among a research sample doesn’t have to be frustrating or worrisome for small businesses who are limited by time and budget. Gathering enough responses for a survey questionnaire is easy, since SurveyTool instant access to your target market with a built-in database of respondents. All you have to do is know your target audience, choose who you’d like to have complete the survey and then SurveyTool does the sample research, survey launch, and data compilation for you! In fact, users found that launching a survey with SurveyTool was 60% faster than launching Survey Monkey surveys. Rest assured, SurveyTool helps make the marketing research survey process simple, quick, and effective.

How SurveyTool Can Help Businesses with Research

SurveyTool offers a lot of features that are advantageous to small businesses, like free online survey creation, an easy to use survey program, and simple drag-and-drop interface. Other business-friendly tools include:

  • Largest online database of survey respondents for survey sample, simple and quick gathering of information, and accurate use of sample research.
  • Survey questionnaire templates, designed by marketing research professionals, for easier and faster design and launch of surveys.
  • Intuitive, easy-to-use survey questionnaire design software.
  • Automatic conversion of word documents to survey questionnaire upon uploading, so if a company has already designed a survey on their computer they can easily transfer it to SurveyTool’s online survey software.
  • Ability to set the amount of responses and choose preferred respondent demographic for streamlined information gathering from specific sample research.
  • Contact lists can be imported and survey questionnaires can be automatically emailed so businesses can utilize pre-established contact lists and conduct surveys within their own environment.
  • Automatic data analysis and display of gathered information in charts and graphs, helping companies present polished survey results in time for product and service launches and research deadlines.

Small Businesses Can Use SurveyTool for Free!

Understanding that businesses of all sizes are careful to maintain profits and keep to tight budgets, we offer SurveyTool’s survey creation program and resources to users for free. And when we say free, we mean that you will not ever run into any unexpected costs and you will have access to some of our best features without needing to worry about any unexpected demands. If you’re interested in using SurveyTool for marketing research, regardless of your business size, please visit our site and feel free to contact us with any questions!

Filed under Customer Satisfaction Tagged with , , , ,

5 Strategies for Encouraging Survey Participation

August 1, 2012 Leave a comment

If you’re just beginning to launch a survey or have been struggling to attract survey respondents, we’d love to offer these tips from the free online survey resource SurveyTool.

How to increase survey participation, and raise engagement.

1. Choose survey questionnaire and answer formats wisely

Some survey questionnaires are quick and easy to answer, since the questions and answers are simple and quickly read. Other surveys might require more in-depth information, leading to questions that ask for greater details and the answers that are elaborate. If you’re curious to see which presidential candidate is the most popular amongst your community, a quick poll with a short question and a few multiple choice options will encourage better survey engagement. If you’re wanting to find out which university in town offers the best college experience, it might be best to encourage respondents to answer in their own words with fill-in-the-blank answer spaces. Editing is absolutely crucial to encouraging survey participation – make sure you include only the questions that are absolutely necessary. The whole point of your survey is to gather information from respondents and if the length or level of survey engagement is discouraging people from taking the time, then you need to edit the survey in order to improve your chances of gathering data.

2. Know your survey sample and target a relevant audience

A survey sample is your selection from a target audience that you choose as your survey participants. To ensure that as many people as possible from your survey sample take your questionnaire and hand in valuable information, you need to make sure that you conduct the survey in a setting convenient to the survey sample. If a Costco manager wanted to know if their members enjoy the freshly-made pizza offered at the food court, then it makes sense that the target survey sample for this survey would be shoppers sitting in the food court eating the actual pizza. The manager could wander the warehouse floor and ask random shoppers for their opinions regarding the pizza, but those shoppers aren’t likely to be as interested in responding to the survey since their focus is on knocking out their shopping lists and there is no guarantee they’ve even eaten at the food court before. Limiting the survey to the food court and asking questions amongst people who are clearly familiar with the pizza and who have the time and inclination to offer their opinion will enable the manager a higher rate of survey participation and more valuable information.

3. Make the survey as convenient to take as possible

Just because you have a very clear idea of who your survey sample includes and how you are going to get information from them doesn’t mean you can convince them to respond to your survey. It is for this reason that you should make the process as simple and convenient to them as possible. Depending on the information you want to gather with your survey, find a venue that enables your survey respondents the time and place to answer in ways that you desire. If you’re surveying students, set up in their school at a spot where students hang out during free time. If an employee satisfaction survey is in order, allow the employees to take the survey at a time they feel is acceptable, so that no important work is interrupted…and don’t issue a mandatory survey during leisure time, as you’ll end up with a lot of unsatisfied employee responses. Remember, respondents are doing you a favor by taking time out of their own schedule to answer your survey, so be considerate and polite, making the survey experience as enjoyable and convenient as possible for your survey sample.

4. Choose a high-traffic venue…

Surveying the general public at random isn’t the most effective route to take when wanting to encourage survey engagement. We’ve all seen the unlucky types who walk around malls with clipboards or chase down shoppers outside a busy storefront. Even if you’re smart and set up close to some girl scouts selling cookies or offer an incentive, you still might not be able to reach many people or control the survey sample. However, this tactic can sometimes pay off and earn you participants, typically if you’re staging a survey event where people know you (school, neighborhood, fitness club, etc.) and are willing to give you a bit of their time.

5. …or just use SurveyTool’s online database of participants

The largest online database of pre-profiled and categorized survey respondents is available to SurveyTool users. The benefits of using this online database are many, including:

  • Survey participants are already profiled and categorized, enabling users to quickly and easily choose their survey sample.
  • The database is accessible to all SurveyTool users, both paid and free online survey memberships.
  • These participants are available and prompt, enabling feedback to be quickly returned to SurveyTool users.
  • Thorough, well-thought out responses are rewarded, ensuring that users receive information that can be as detailed as required.
  • Users can specify how many responses they would like, allowing them to stay in control of the amount and quality of gathered data.
  • Data gathering, email distribution, downloading and custom thank you messages are all automated, enabling the user to spend their time on what matters.

Need more info on how to find participants for a survey?

Feel free to contact us if you need any help with attracting survey participants and gathering information from your survey sample. SurveyTool is a valuable free online survey resource for many industries like business development, product research, customer service and academic studies. We’d love to help you meet your survey goals!

Filed under Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction Tagged with , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.