Surveys are close to every business owner’s heart. The reason is pretty obvious, because surveys have proven to be the best and most commonly used data collection strategy.
Small as well as large business owners focus on conducting surveys using survey software from the beginning of the product development (to know customer needs), through the product development (to get the ideas and insights) till the post product delivery phase (to get customer satisfaction).
There are primarily two ways of conducting surveys – online surveys and offline surveys. It is quite given that online surveys surely stand above offline surveys when it comes to cost and time efficiency. Online surveys are conducted over various social media channels and emails. There are different types of surveys like customer experience surveys, employee experience surveys, market research surveys which are implemented using market research software etc.
But it all comes down to just one thing – how well do you frame your online survey. We are here with some effective tips on how to create an efficient online survey, so that the next time you wish to have an online survey, you will have a guide in front of you.
1. Keep it short and simple
Average time that the audience can stick to a survey is 5 – 10 minutes. After that they start to lose interest in responding to the questions. This gives us a minimum 5 to maximum 20 minutes window to get the customers to interact effectively with your survey. Pushing it too far than that and making the survey too complex to answer can frustrate the customer. This is also important during CATI Surveys as customers wouldn’t like to spend too much time on call.
2. Simple questions
Don’t expect your audience to be good at everything. They might not understand the meaning of complex technical words or might not have a deep knowledge of your brand. Frame questions in such a way which will make it easy for the audience to understand and answer.
3. Grouping the questions
Make it clear which question is going to be about what topic. And group them together depending on the similar topics. This makes it simple for the audience to respond to the survey in a consistent flow without hopping on different topic from time to time.
4. Make the move in the end
When a customer is engaged in your survey for at least 10 minutes, he/she tends to open up towards its end. Place your sensitive questions related to their age, income, or any such personal info in the end. By doing this, they are more likely to answer them without hesitation.
5. No irrelevant questions
DO NOT include questions out of the topic. We cannot stress this enough. Try to keep the focus of your survey on the same topic. Respondents are likely to get irritated or uninterested after facing questions that are not relevant to the topic. If you want to cover several topics, conduct several surveys focusing on each of them.
6. Grant data security
Let your audience know that their personal information is safe with you. People tend to be insecure about how their data is being used by the company. Assure them of data security and try to invest more in the same. This factor holds a lot of company value in the eyes of the customers.
7. Design matters
Apart from efficient questions, what also matters is the design of your survey. Pay attention to choosing the layout of the survey which can attract maximum customer attention. Having eye-catching colours, fonts, layout and doodles also make up for the design of the survey. Include the brand logo on the top of the page where it is visible.
8. Images and videos to connect
People seem to remember images and videos through photographic memory. Include images or videos that are taken from the previous surveys to see if they remember about it or not. If not, this practice will refresh their memory about the same.
9. Mock surveys
Run your surveys with your colleagues, friends before you send them out to the actual audience. Doing so will bring out all the shortcomings in your survey and you can keep updating it until you get to the last final surveys.