Online Survey Tips & Advice

Let’s say you want to ask 1,000 people that represent the US population a question – whether a particular brand of toothpaste will sell, or which car color they prefer – so you go to a panel company to buy sample for your study.

How can you be sure that your sample is of good quality, that people are responding honestly, that they are in the US, and that their responses are trustworthy enough to guide potentially expensive decisions? That’s where SurveyMonkey’s TrueSample comes in.

TrueSample is a comprehensive data quality solution – it helps make sure that the answers you get are of the highest quality by approaching the problem from all angles.

How does it do that? Let’s think about the two primary things that can affect the quality of data from interviews taken by people – the people themselves and the interview design.

Do you want to make your business better? One of the simplest ways to improve your business—and your sales—is to find out what your customers really think about your company. While it might be tough to hear about problems they have or things you’re not doing well, you need to know the truth in order to make changes. There are more ways than ever to survey your customers. Here are some ideas to get you started.

In person: If you have a business where you interact with customers, like a restaurant or retail store, surveying is as simple as talking to them and asking how you’re doing. If you regularly interact with customers, you’ll get a feel for what they like and don’t like.

Paper surveys: The next step up from talking to your customers in-store is placing paper survey forms or cards at the point of purchase, whether that’s at the cash register or with the check at a restaurant.

Online surveys are a great tool to learn useful information about your customers, friends, donors, or whoever. Your survey can provide you with all sorts of insights about what you're doing well, what needs work,and what people are thinking and feeling. In order for it to do so, however, you have to make sure you create a good, methodologically sound, survey. Here at Zoomerang, we want you to have the best, most reliable survey results possible, so we put together these 3 tips for trustworthy results.

1.    Define One Objective
It’s important to be clear with yourself about the objective (yes, that’s right just one) you’re trying to accomplish by sending your survey. If you don’t even know what your goal is, it’s going to be awfully tough to accomplish it. And if your respondents don’t know what you’re really asking them because you tried to pack everything you ever wanted to know into one survey, they’re going to have a hard time telling you what you want to know. Make it easy on them. Choose one, well-defined objective.

Leaders in the research industry met in New York on January 26th to kick off the Foundations of Quality 2 (FOQ2) initiative, the most ambitious Research on Research project ever attempted. The initiative, which met at the Advertising Research Foundation, has attracted leading thinkers from all across the industry to reduce marketers’ risk in decisions made based on online survey research.

Last year, we decided to give back to 3 non-profits for their good work in our community. We created a survey and let you vote on who should win $3,000 for their charity. You all really came out strong in support of your favorite causes, but at the end of the day Phantom Regiment came out on top with 10,839 votes! Congratulations!

We had a few questions for the winners. Read what they said here:

1. First things first. What are you planning to do with the money?

Well we always have a "wish list" of items or services that we can't budget for yet. I'm going to put this money towards something on the wish list. Not sure exactly which one just yet - we have everything from a new vehicle for the organization to iPads to help our educational team. There are a few items that we could cross off the list now with this donation though. 


2. How was your experience mobilizing your followers to vote? What worked, what didn’t?

The below post was written by Dorian, a SurveyMonkey customer, for the SurveyMonkey blog. But it’s just so cute that I had to post it here too. Since Zoomerang and SurveyMonkey are part of the same team now, it seemed appropriate.

A bit of background. Dorian is a 10-year-old who co-created Zibkids, a super cool startup which teaches kids about business and even empowers them to start their own. He uses SurveyMonkey to get feedback about how kids were using ZibKids and how it could be improved.

All of this is very cool in and of itself, but there’s an extra reason I’m posting it here. For those of you in the Bay Area, Dorian will be hosting a workshop in the Innovation Lab at the Children’s Creative Museum on Saturday January 28 and Saturday February 11. Stop by to check it out and give a fellow survey-maker your support!

Now Dorian’s post:

Is it worth it?

We have a new feature out that our product guys are really excited about. It’s a simple addition, but our customers have been asking for it for some time now.

The illusive feature in question? The “Add Explain” button is one more option in your multiple-choice question toolbox. It gives you the power to ask not just what your respondents think in one easy-to-answer, multiple-choice question, but also why they think it. It does this by providing a box that asks them to do just that: explain.

Let’s just say, for example, that I want to know who your favorite Simpsons character is. I’m including answer choices other than Ned Flanders (it wouldn’t be a very good survey if I didn’t), but to me the answer is so obvious it’s hard to understand why anyone would choose otherwise.

In comes the Explain feature to the rescue. Just click the “Add Explain” button under “Question Settings,” and up pops a box that prompts them to do just that. Clearer responses are that simple.

Just select this:

These days we have lots of platforms to share content (blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc) and almost as many people telling us that successful marketing depends on that content. The missing link in this fabulous equation is the time, energy, and ideas to create the content itself. It can be a daunting task, but we have 5 simple sources of content creation to make your life easier.

Picture Mania

I recently read an article by Rieva Lesonsky that piqued my interest. Rieva suggested that increasing diversity in the work place is the best thing you can do for the success of your business.

Rieva’s article is based on more than a half-baked hunch. She formulated her ideas based off of a study that was done by Kristyn Scott, a Ryerson University Professor. Professor Scott found that the commitment to diversity must be real and deep, not just for show. She also suggests that our definition of diversity must be broad, including ethnicity, age, level of experience, and educational background, among other things.

Scott suggests that if these things are actively implemented on a meaningful level, they can have a real, positive impact on a business’s success.

2012 is a year full of transitions. Here at Zoomerang, we’re evolving into SurveyMonkeys. But the changes aren’t just happening here. All around the world, technology is changing the way we do business, organizations are quickly becoming social, and the world seems smaller and more complicated all the time. Clearly, some flexibility and restructuring is in order if you (and we) are going to handle all these transitions gracefully and successfully.

It can seem overwhelming, but these transitions can actually be great catalysts for much needed change and growth. With just a little bit of planning, you can make 2012 your best year yet. Here are some ways you can use online surveys to help you manage the changes effectively.

1. Planning Survey