Learning about your customers and market cost effectively through online surveys

 

The use of online surveys as a primary research tool is on the rise, and their popularity may be accredited to the convenience and cost – effectiveness they offer.

Many Sri Lankan companies have in the recent past resorted to online surveys in order to gather data about the likes and dislikes of their target audience.

Online Surveys may be simply typed and circulated via email, but lately, many companies are seen to use survey tools. Survey Monkey, Survey Gizmo, Constant Contact are a few popular survey tools.

In conducting an online survey the following steps are followed.

• Identify the key question/s that need to be answered
• Draft the questions. Questions for online surveys may be of several types.
• Dichotomous Questions (Yes/No type)
• Multiple Choice Questions where multiple answers are possible
• Multiple Choice Questions where only a single answer are possible
• Drop Down Menus
• Check Box Questions
• Rank Scaling Questions (eg: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree)
• Differential Questions (eg: rank these from 1- 10, where 1 is the most attractive and 10 is the least)
• Open-ended questions
• Demographics

A good survey would have a mix of the above types of questions, From an analytical perspective, open-ended questions may be hard to analyse, but may also give good insights from the respondent which another type of question wouldn’t.

• Have a clear idea of the logic of the survey so that the branching patterns could be set accordingly. (for eg: If a respondent says “Yes” where do they go next?)
• Test the survey several times with several respondents. Also, it is important to time the survey, testing it with the longest branch.
• Publish the survey
• Circulate it using online platforms: email, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Facebook Ads, Online PR etc.
• Analyse the survey comprehensively with the use of analytical tools charts, graphs and statistics and come to conclusions.

BQu Services conducted an online survey in March 2013, titled “Domestic Holiday Planning Survey, Sri Lanka – March 2013” where we surveyed Sri Lankans on their booking patterns for domestic holidays, focussing on their inclination towards online booking. The survey results can be viewed here.

Read our blog article on “How to make your online survey a success” for tips on building a good online survey.

Contact us on +94112585660 to learn more on how we have helped clients in Business Analysis related areas.

Created: April 7th, 2014