Solutions

How to conduct Surveys?

surveySwift differentiates surveys between 'controlled surveys' and 'speculative surveys'.

Controlled Surveys

Controlled surveys those that are sent to pre-selected panels of customers, employees or other target groups that are known in advance, both in terms of numbers and selection criteria. They are delivered to respondents within invitation e-mails. Controlled surveys addresses specific issues and are terminated after a period of time or when the required number of responses has been received. Controlled surveys may be repeated periodically to establish trends and to generate data for performance indicators.

Speculative Surveys

Speculative surveys are those for which the target population is unknown. Such surveys are embedded into websites. The sponsor of the survey has no influence over who will respond, or how many replies will be received or the timescale over which they will be received. Speculative surveys are used, typically, to elicit what visitors think of the website - design, content, navigation, etc. They tend to be continuous surveys.

Incentives

It is essential to offer incentives to encourage people to complete surveys. Often these are an entry into prize draws or vouchers off next purchases but there are many other imaginative ways to offer incentives.

The Survey Process using surveySwift

The survey process comprises the following sequence of steps:

1. Define the objective - what is the question or problem?
2. Determine the type of survey - controlled or speculative?
3. For controlled surveys, determine the sources from which the panels will be built.
4. Specify the criteria for selecting panellists and define quotas within each criterion.
5. Build the questionnaires, being sure that the structure, wording and content of the questions will elicit the right kind of responses, consistent with the objectives, and be free from bias.
6. Compose the invitation and follow-up reminder e-mails for a controlled survey.
7. If a speculative survey, determine how best to incorporate it in the website.
8. Decide on the timing and duration of the survey.
9. Launch the survey.
10. Analyse and interpret the data.
11. Produce reports, conclusions and recommendations.
12. Agree upon the actions to be taken.
13. Implement the actions.
14. Establish the performance indicators by which such actions will be measured.
15. Repeat the exercise periodically, update the performance indicators and measure the trends. Take appropriate management action.

Note that the process is not complete until the information obtained from the survey has been acted upon. Information that is not put to good use is a waste of the time, effort and cost of obtaining it!

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