For businesses, understanding what their customers are thinking is crucial. And what’s better than surveys to collect their genuine feedback? Surveys have become a popular tool to collect valuable data.
You have likely noticed the constant buzz around surveys—everyone seems to be talking about them. But what is a survey, and why is it so powerful? We hit the nail, right? Check out this blog to get answers to all your questions related to surveys.
What is a survey?
This seems like a simple question, doesn’t it? In general words, survey is a method that is used to collect information from people. From businesses to government, educational institutions to researchers, surveys are being used (by everyone and everywhere) to collect valuable data.
There are various types of surveys, such as telephonic surveys, paper surveys, in-person surveys, and more. However, the most common type of survey is online surveys.
Introduction to online surveys
Online surveys are basically surveys that are completed via the internet. These surveys are nothing but questionaries that the respondents need to fill in. With the help of online surveys, businesses (for the matter of fact even researchers) can ask different questions to gather the much-needed data.
For instance, if a company recently launched a new product and wants to know if the customers who bought it are satisfied, they can send surveys to collect genuine feedback.
Example: How satisfied are you with our recently launched product?
- Highly satisfied
- Satisfied
- Neutral
- Dissatisfied
- Highly dissatisfied
Benefits of online surveys
Compared to other types of surveys, online surveys are quite popular. And why is that? That’s because of the immense benefits of online surveys, which are listed below:
1. Ease of use
Nothing beats the ease of use of online surveys. They are relatively easy to create, conduct, and analyze the data. At present, there are plenty of survey software tools that offer prebuilt survey templates. All you have to do is customize the questions as per your requirements and click that ’send’ button. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? That’s because it is honestly simple.
2. Collect responses quickly
In this competitive market where the opinions of customers change in a breeze, gathering their genuine feedback quickly is quite important. Online surveys help you collect responses instantly (and analyze them as well). In the case of offline paper surveys, you have to distribute the surveys first and collect them, which honestly takes lots of time (and effort too).
3. Gather qualitative and quantitative data
With online surveys, you can collect both qualitative and quantitative data. If you want quantitative data, you can send surveys with closed-ended questions (customers have to choose from the predefined options). On the other hand, you can ask open-ended questions to gather qualitative data (there will be no predefined options, and customers need to write their opinions or thoughts.
4. Send surveys via different channels
One of the primary benefits of online surveys is multichannel management. Wondering what this is about? You can send the surveys via different channels, such as email, web, social media, personal links, and many more. This allows you to send surveys directly to where your customers are mostly active, which likely boosts response rates.
5. Anonymous responses
As people are increasingly prioritizing their privacy, you can send anonymous online survey links to your customers. What are these anonymous survey links? These surveys will not capture any customer data (be it name, contact info, etc.), they only record and store the responses. This is useful as there are some people who fear that their personal info might be misused or want to avoid spam calls/messages.
6. They are cost-effective
Compared to offline surveys, online surveys are indeed much cheaper. First, there is no need to print the surveys on paper. You do not need resources to distribute and collect survey responses, thereby saving you more money.
In the case of online surveys, all you have to do is buy the online survey software to create and send surveys online and analyze the responses. However, there are plenty of free online survey tools (a few paid tools offer free trials as well), so you do not have to spend even a single penny.
7. Easy to analyze
Well, here comes another major advantage of online surveys. These surveys are easy to analyze as all the responses are automatically stored online. Whenever someone completes a survey, you can see their feedback in the dashboard. If you are using survey software, you can get a detailed overview of responses (of course, advanced analytics as well).
Why should you use an online survey tool to create surveys?
You might have noticed that we mentioned online survey tools or software here (indeed several times). So, what is an online survey tool? It is a platform where you can create and send surveys and analyze responses. There are plenty of benefits of using online survey tools to create surveys, which are listed here:
1. Numerous survey templates
Online survey tools offer different types of survey templates. You can simply use these prebuilt templates and distribute surveys instantly. piHappiness offers 350+ survey templates catered to different industries, such as education, real estate, healthcare, and more.
2. Different types of questions
Survey software allows you to add different types of questions in the surveys. From CSAT to NPS®, yes/no to multiple choice, rating to ranking, slider to matrix, you can add various types of questions to the surveys when using online survey tool like piHappiness.
3. Manage everything at one place
Online survey tools have a centralized dashboard that allows you to manage everything in one place. Whether you want to see how many surveys have been sent, total responses, feedback analytics, or customer information, every piece of data can be accessed via the dashboard.
4. Send surveys in multiple languages
Manually creating surveys in multiple languages needs plenty of time and other resources. However, with an online survey tool, you can instantly create surveys in numerous languages, eliminating the linguistic barrier. This helps you reach your customers all over the world and gather their valuable feedback.
5. Access to useful features
By using online survey tools, you can access high-end features that make survey creation and analysis much easier, quicker, and efficient. These features include survey logic, user segmentation, multichannel management, sentiment analysis, reputation management, customer 360 report, and more.
6. Saves time
As mentioned before, all you have to do is choose the template, customize or add the questions, and hit that ‘distribute’ button to send the surveys. Moreover, you can see the results instantly after the respondents complete the survey. Thus, it saves you plenty of time.
7. Saves money
There are various free online survey tools which you can use free of cost. Likewise, some survey tools offer free trials (often limited to 1 or 2 weeks), allowing you to use the software freely for a specific period. There are also paid survey software platforms, accessible at affordable monthly plans. Thus, compared to traditional, offline paper-based surveys, using online survey tools helps you save money (a lot of money).
How to create surveys: A simple guide
Here is a simple guide on how to create surveys.
- First, understand why you want to conduct the surveys. Do you want to know if customers are satisfied with your product? Do you want to measure customer loyalty?
- Once you determine the objectives, it will be easy for you to create questions. For instance, if you want to measure customer satisfaction, you can add CSAT questions. On the other hand, if you want to gather customers’ opinions on a certain topic, text entry questions are more ideal.
- After adding the questions, you can create survey logic if you want people to skip irrelevant questions (if applicable).
- Once done with the questionnaire, you need to choose the survey template design. If you are using a survey tool, you can simply choose from the prebuilt template design.
- Now, choose the channels via which you want to send the surveys to your customers. It can be SMS, QR Code, email, WhatsApp, personal links, social media, and more.
Tips: How to make surveys more engaging
Have you ever filled in a survey and felt “well, that was great”? Have you ever come across a survey and didn’t even feel like completing it? There is no one magic formula to make engaging surveys. Then, how do you create effective surveys that will engage your customers rather than make them feel bored? We have listed a few tips here:
1. Be relevant and on-point
Do not include unnecessary questions; if possible, use survey logic to allow respondents to skip irrelevant questions. When adding questions, always be on point rather than dragging and making the questions unnecessarily long.
2. Check the visual appeal
Let’s be honest: The first thing we check is the visual appeal, right? If the survey design is too cluttered or awful-looking, there is a high chance that the respondents might abandon it without a second thought. So, you should make sure that the survey design is appealing to the eyes and not hideous.
3. Focus on the language and the tone
Another important thing to keep in mind is the tone and language. It is recommended to use simple language that is easy to understand, so people would not have trouble giving their feedback.
4. Avoid bias
When creating the questions, make sure to be neutral. Avoid using words that can make the respondents biased towards one response only. This is important as the words that you use can impact the genuine opinions of the customers.
5. Put a limit on the number of questions
If you include too many questions in the survey, people may become bored and might wonder ’when is it going to end’ which may decrease the response rate. That is why it is best to limit the number of questions (often 3 to 5). The simple solution is to keep the survey short and sweet.
6. Trial the survey
One mistake people make is not proofreading the survey before sending it to the respondents. By doing a trial check, you can easily find errors (if there are any), see how the template is, and more.
7. Distribute via multiple channels
Once everything is set, it is best to send the surveys to your customers via multiple channels. Be it WhatsApp, social media, SMS, email, or personal links, there are many ways to distribute surveys. Thus, use all the available channels to get the maximum number of responses.
How to analyze survey results
Now, you know what a survey is and how to create one. Here comes another important part, which is to analyze the results. And how do we do that?
Firstly, when you conduct a survey, the responses can be classified into qualitative and quantitative data.
1. Quantitative data
This type of data involves numbers (e.g., ratings, percentages, counts). Here’s how to analyze it:
- Clean the data: Remove any incomplete or irrelevant responses.
- Summarize: Calculate averages, medians, and modes to understand central tendencies.
- Visualize: Use charts (bar, pie, or histograms) for better insights.
- Compare: Look for patterns or significant differences across groups (e.g., by demographics).
Note: If you are using a survey tool like piHappiness, you can directly see the score for CSAT and NPS® questions.
2. Qualitative Data
This data is all about non-numeric responses (e.g., open-ended answers). Here’s how to analyze:
- Categorize themes: Group similar responses into categories or themes.
- Frequency analysis: Count how often certain themes or words appear.
- Sentiment analysis: Gauge the overall sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) in the responses.
- Quote key insights: Identify standout or particularly insightful comments.
Create online surveys with piHappiness today
Online surveys are undoubtedly easier to create than offline surveys. But do you want to make online survey creation even easier and quicker? Then, it is best to use online survey software. There are hundreds and thousands of online survey tools, and it definitely feels difficult to choose the one that fits your needs.
What do you think about a customer feedback software that comes with prebuilt templates, 360 customer reports, advanced analytics, executive dashboard, and multichannel management and also allows customization? Sounds like the perfect match for your requirements? Then, you should check out piHappiness.
With piHappiness, you can create and send surveys to your customers within minutes via multiple channels (email, social media, web, WhatsApp, SMS, and more). There is a feature-rich dashboard that allows you to interpret responses and gather valuable insights. In short, you can manage everything under one platform—from survey creation to survey analysis.
