“Surveys are so long; they take up a lot of our time.”
“Every time I make a purchase, I get spammed with a countless number of surveys.”
“They are filled with endless questions, one after the other. I’ll complete it later!”
This is what many survey respondents lament about surveys. Many people feel this way- That survey is dull, drab, and an absolute waste of time! Filling them out feels like a chore at best. We keep putting it off for another day, and finally, we forget about it. As people develop shorter attention spans, a survey seems to be the last thing that engages them.
A typical response rate for a survey is in the range of 5% – 30%. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Surveys can be engaging, conversational and can offer you a great experience. What matters is how we go about designing them, placing ourselves in the shoes of the survey taker.
Understanding what surveys are is the step in the right direction towards crafting more engaging surveys!
So, what are surveys? How do we go about creating surveys, and most importantly, what can we do to make the experience of taking surveys more interesting?
What Are Surveys?
A survey is a method of collecting data from a group of respondents. These surveys can have numerous purposes and can be carried out in many ways. Surveys are the foundation of research, and the data is collected in a standardized procedure to avoid bias.
Information is collected through a well-structured questionnaire and is an excellent source of insight for all sorts of fields ranging from media to social sciences. Survey data can be collected face-to-face, through telephone, offline surveys, and online surveys.
The benefits of online surveys
Many may ask what is surveys and its benefits. Surveys have a lot of benefits, such as being an excellent tool for gathering qualitative feedback. Moreover, it’s quick and easy to build. Some other advantages are:
Economical
Surveys are affordable. Online and Mobile Surveys have only a small cost per person when compared to administering an offline survey. Moreover, the number of respondents can range to thousands.
Substantial Insights
Surveys collect information from a sample and the results gathered are often extrapolated to a larger population. It is used to gain insights into their characteristics by choosing an accurate sample.
Anonymous
Most surveys are anonymous, allowing the candidates to give candid answers without the fear of being judged. This gives way to more accurate data, data that reflects the true opinion of the respondents. When compared to other forms of research tools, Surveys pave the way for detailed and open feedback.
Out of all the flexible modes in which a survey can be administered, online surveys are the most convenient and widely used. For the past decade, online surveys are the most popular form of a survey for companies to collect data. This data is then utilized to formulate strategies for their business models, improve customer service, and create more effective marketing strategies.
What are online surveys?
Online surveys are also referred to as Web Surveys or internet surveys, where surveys can be sent to respondents through the web, and they can also respond through the web. So, what are surveys, and how is its data utilized?
The data gained from Online Surveys can be used to gain feedback on products and services, enhance existing features, implement new marketing strategies, etc. One of the main reasons for the online survey’s popularity is its broad reach and ease of use. Respondents can take these online surveys at their own pace and convenience.
Pros of Online surveys
Accurate and Easy to Analyze:
The respondents often find an online survey easier to use than its counterparts. Traditional offline surveys require people to copy and enter all the collected data into a database. This leads to errors. In online surveys, the margin of errors is significantly reduced. Collected data are analyzed in real-time, and results can be inferred without any delay.
Wide Reach:
These days, internet access is widespread. Online surveys thus have a wider reach, and participants can respond at any time and place. Convenience and ease of usage also have a huge role to play in the popularity of online surveys.
Branding:
Online surveys have yet another advantage of branding. Organizations can stand apart by using their theme colors and logo in the surveys. Online Surveys can be customized to fit in with the company’s branding as this can help them connect better with their brand.
Ready to use templates:
Leading online survey tools have ready to use survey templates that researchers can choose from – these surveys are industry-specific and can help send out surveys quicker. It can save time and money!
How to conduct a survey
Surveys look simple enough, but for them to be truly effective, a lot of thought and planning needs to go behind them. Take time to ponder through the survey questions and how effective they will be before designing a survey.
Define your objective
What is your goal? What are you trying to uncover through this survey? What is surveys and its purpose? Your objective would be your cornerstone throughout drafting the survey. Without one, you would be left only with data, and insights from such data would do you no good.
Define an objective before crafting the survey- Are you trying to find out what your customers feel about your products’ latest features or Are you trying to gauge how employees feel at the workplace through an employee engagement survey? Choose your questions accordingly.
Select your target Audience:
The quality of your survey data would narrow down to the quality of your target audience. Only a relevant target audience can provide the quality data needed for your survey. It may include customers, employees, or certain people who are using your products. The next step is to determine your target audience’s sample size or size, i.e. the total number of respondents who would take your survey.
Choose the respondents with the proper demographic characteristics like age, gender, race, etc. These would vary along with the objective of the survey.
Diving into what is surveys and survey questions:
What are surveys and it’s most important feature, you ask? Its questions, of course! Surveys are comprised of questions, and the right type of questions are essential for its success. There are many ways to ask questions in surveys, and some of the most used types are:
- Entering a Text: Often quoted as the most reliable, text-based questions allow respondents to provide open-ended feedback. Including many of these types of questions in your survey can lead to fatigue, so it is advisable to limit their usage.
- Multiple choice: What are surveys without multiple-choice questions! Most common and most easy to use, they let users select one or more options from a list of answers. Single answer multiple-choice questions are the most common ones. A radio button can be used to select one answer out of many. On the contrary, multiple answer multiple-choice questions let respondents check off all the choices that apply to them.
One of the drawbacks of multiple-choice is that it forces respondents to limit their answers to those options. What if your respondents feel that none of the answer options applies to them. If they choose just an option, it might cause bias in your results. One way to solve this problem would be to include the “other” option at the end of all your options or a comment field to enter their answer.
- Rating Scale: Rating Scales questions showcases a scale of answers ranging from 1 to 10, or 0 to 100. The respondent can select their order of preference and choose a number that most accurately sums up their response. For Example, 1 refers to not likely, and 10 refers to most likely.
Net Promoter Score(NPS) is an excellent example of these types of survey questions.
- Matrix Table: Matrix types of questions are useful to collect multiple information in one single question. It’s a great way to condense your survey, but a word of caution- Extensive matrix tables can get complicated and are difficult to use on a mobile device.
- Likert Scale
Likert scale measures opinions on a variety of topics. The range of options starts from “Not at all likely” to “Extremely likely”. Likert scale questions work well for Employee feedback surveys that measure opinions on workplace satisfaction.
Other notable survey question types include slider, ranking, and dropdown questions.
Chatbot for websites
Consumers are looking for easier ways to communicate with companies. Gone are the days of calling a customer support executive waiting for them to understand your query. Chatbots are here to improve your customer service. They are nothing but programmed chat interfaces that can interact with a website visitor.
Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular year by year. Owing to the progress in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, chatbots are responsive and much smarter than their prototypes.
They are like assistants and guide you through a website. They are available 24X 7 and are programmed to answer website visitor’s queries. Feed them with a bunch of FAQ questions, and you are all set to go! By acting as a virtual assistant, suggesting product recommendations, and scheduling appointments at lightning speed, chatbots are adept at converting website visitors into potential customers that can be routed to your sales team.
Based on your requirements, you could either go for a simple chatbot that is pre-programmed with primary keywords or advanced chatbots based on AI, which ensures a basic understanding of language and communication.
Surveys play an essential role in your workplace. They are not limited to customer feedback and research. Ever heard of Employee 360 feedback surveys?
There’s no better way to Gain a full picture of your employees’ strengths and feedback than from Employee 360 feedback surveys. Instead of relying on just one or two opinions, 360-degree feedback factors in responses from their immediate reporting manager and their team members and various people who work with them in a workplace.
Rating them in multiple areas of development can help assess their skills in a balanced and well-rounded manner. It gives them insights into their performance in addition to how they are perceived within the organization.
Customer feedback surveys
What do customers think about your business and its services? Is it favorable? It is always beneficial to know what your customers think of you, and their feedback can help you further improve your business offerings. Understanding what are surveys role in establishing a great customer relationship is crucial for your business.
That’s where customer feedback surveys come in handy. There are numerous ways to understand if your customers are satisfied and rate their user experience. Here are some of the most common customer feedback surveys for the same:
1 Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT): Usually used for products and services, CSAT Surveys measure how satisfied customers are with what they have purchased. They would then be prompted to respond to a suitable option on the Likert scale.
The CSAT surveys could be sent out immediately after the interaction with your service so that the experience would be fresh in their minds to elicit honest feedback. A sudden negative score indicates an issue that might need immediate attention to.
2 Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS Surveys, on the other hand, lets customers rate how likely they are to recommend your product/service to their friends or colleagues. This is done on a scale of 1 to 10. Scores that range from 0 to 6 are detractors,7-8 are passives, 9-10 are promoters. If you have more promoters, then it means most of your customers are satisfied.
3 Customer Effort score (CES): The user experience with your products/services are of paramount importance. A critical aspect of user experience is how much effort it took for a customer to use your products. It includes a 5 point scale that ranges from 1 to 5.
4 Customer Exit Surveys: These surveys measure how well your services/products were able to meet your consumers’ expectations. Typically sent at the time of cancellation, it will give you the insights you need to understand why your customers left. This Valuable feedback will let you enhance your productivity and reduce the attrition rate of your business.
Are you looking for a perfect online survey software? There are tons of online survey software out there like Typeform, SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, to name a few. Out of this, Typeform is quite a popular tool, but it comes with its drawbacks as well. One of the most notable being that users of the basic tool experience a difficult user interface.
On the other hand, SurveySparrow, a Typeform alternative, has a wide array of survey templates to choose from, offering an engaging survey experience. With its chat interface, SurveySparrow can boost survey completion rates to 40%
SurveySparrow is a SurveyMonkey alternative that offers an intuitive survey experience at affordable prices.
Wrapping Up
Surveys come in a variety of formats, templates, and design. Creating useful surveys requires a great deal of planning and foresight. Choosing the right platform, making the survey short and easy to understand are some of the ways by which you can create a good survey. A good survey is the best way to get accurate feedback, which will do wonders for your business. Now that you understand what is surveys and their purpose in collecting feedback, you can utilize them as a strategic tool in giving your business that much needed competitive edge.
