Online surveys can be effective tools to spur company growth. Use this guide to learn how to design and distribute surveys for the greatest benefit.
Benefits of Online Surveys for Business
A huge benefit of online surveys is that they provide insight into customer thoughts, preferences, and behavior that is impossible to get anywhere else. However, those insights can be skewed if you do not choose a representative sample of the market you are interested in.
Insights about customers may be the most obvious benefit of online surveys, but it isn’t the only one. There are actually several others that can also be used to help spur business growth. For example, surveys show the public that your company is interested in hearing opinions. When you act on the information, it also helps build trust and consumer confidence in your behavior. These can prove incredibly valuable over time.
How To Create Effective Online Surveys
An effective survey will do several things. First, it will reach an audience that represents your target population group. This requires careful market research to identify groups whose insights are relevant to your company’s efforts. Keep in mind that you may want to appeal to a general audience in some cases, such as gauging a reaction to new branding.
Your survey must also be designed to elicit a response. After all, if you distribute thousands of surveys and only get 100 responses, the outcome is less than ideal. Your design can play a major role in this. For example, shorter surveys that can be completed in a few minutes are more likely to get a response than those that take more than five minutes. Questions should also be worded in such a way that they are easy to answer.
Set a timeframe for responses. This is your data collection phase. Let people know that responses received after the cutoff may not make it into a final analysis. This strategy can help encourage prompt attention and quick turnaround.
Finally, the surveys should be designed for the format you intend to use for distribution. In the case of online tools, simple backgrounds and clear fonts make them easily readable and uncluttered. Keep in mind that many people will use a mobile device to complete the survey, so it should also have a simplified mobile version.
Many online platforms are available to help you design professional-looking surveys. However, if creating and distributing your own surveys is too large of a project, consider using a professional agency to handle data collection and analysis. This will allow you to take advantage of all the benefits of online surveys without the hassle of creating and managing them.
What To Do With the Information You Gather
Just sitting on the information you get from online surveys defeats the purpose of using them. After all, a lot of time and effort went into the planning, creation, and distribution processes.
Compile the Results
Once you start getting results back, you want to sort it so that it can be analyzed. Many online survey platforms have built-in analysis tools to make this simple. However, you may still want to export the data for other purposes.
Responses can be categorized in several ways, such as according to the demographics of respondents or by answers to each question. As this happens, you may start to notice patterns, either overall or within subgroups of respondents.
Distribute Reports
Once the analysis is complete, compile the data and insights gained into a summary report. This should be distributed to key stakeholders. It is also a good idea to share this information directly with survey respondents and generally with customers through social channels. It shows them that you received their responses and are listening.
Act on the Insights Gained
Finally, act on the insights you have gained. This could mean very different things depending on what your survey measured. As you make changes, share why you are doing so with people so they can see that their opinions made a difference.
Online surveys are an effective tool for gathering insights about current, past, and potential customer preferences. Be sure to follow guidelines in design and delivery to maximize their results.
