How to Make Best Surveys using Survey Tools

Okay, let us start the discussion with a definition. Cambridge dictionary defines survey as,” an examination of opinions, behavior, etc,..made by asking people questions..”

On a more technical note, surveys or questionnaires are formalized sets of questions designed for obtaining information from unit tests. On our day-to-day routine, we can find them being used in measuring customer satisfaction and customer experience. Recall your visit to a bank let’s say, or a mobile services provider, and one can find a console with many different emotion icons on it, ranging from happy to sad. That is one way, a kind of survey. 

Or, recall your experience when you had recently completed a service for your car. You get a call from the customer care center asking how your experience was. I recall McDonald’s giving me a free softy when I completed a short survey for them. It was amazing. I still like McDonald’s.

Surveys are key to the success of many organizations, campaigns and for academic research.

Academics and research students use them for their quantitative research. While designing the survey, it is important that the information needed is divided into a set of questions that respondents can and will answer. 

Surveys should be designed in such a manner that they should uplift and motivate and most importantly encourage the respondent to become part of the conversation. It is a means to also make them feel that their voice counts.It is important that the questions should minimize error.

The order of questions in a survey is recommended to have following order:

1. Presentation which includes invitation and instructions.
2. Followed by opening questions that are simple and sound interesting to the respondent.
3. Then the type of information - here, first the general information should be obtained first, followed by classification.
4. General information questions are followed by difficult questions that can be complex, sensitive or embarrassing to answer.
5. Finally, the questionnaire or survey is concluded by identification and demographics questions.

There are many survey tools in the market. But for this article we explore the offerings of SurveySparrow to better understand the features available in the market and how they are being provided for personal use, universities and businesses.

The meanings of key terms used are explained once we start describing the features in the various plans provided by SurveySparrow.

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Brief Introduction about SurveySparrow

So one can increase the authenticity, engagement and relevance of a survey by building it up using SurveySparrow. There is some reason that it is trusted by 20,000+ customers in 108 countries including big brand names like Gucci, FedEx, Deloitte Digital, Grant Thornton, Paysafe, Siemens, SAP, Amadeus, Bausch + Lomb, Xerox, EA, and Duke University.

The Surveys provided by SurveySparrow includes Classic Forms, Chat Surveys, Offline Kiosks, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and 360 degree feedback. It has automations including, Visual Workflows, API, and webhooks. 

SurveySparrow provides an amazing way to measure via metrics including executive dashboard, custom reports, text analysis and sentiment analysis.

SurveySparrow is enterprise-ready with Security, Integrations, Custom Data Centre, and White labeling.

SurveySparrow provides an omnichannel experience that includes Email share, QR code, weblink, embedded share, SMS share, social share, and offline mode.

SurveySparrow can be used for measuring the customer experience by companies, employee experience by the HR department of companies, student experience by schools, colleges, and universities. It can also be used to get website feedback. The Academics and research students can use it for Academic Research.

Important Concepts explained with Tools

Now coming to the most important part. Does it have a FREE version? The answer is yes with few features. Does it have an amazing pricing plan? Yes. Please read along. I will go step-by-step explaining the meaning of the terms that are used as part of features to give you a better understanding of the value you can get.

1. The Free version of SurveySparrow includes 100 responses per month, 10 questions per survey, embedded survey, advanced reports filters, and 1500+ Apps integrations with Zapier.

New term meanings

Embedded Survey: It is a method to install/put  a survey on your app/ website so that the users can stay on the page without leaving.

Zapier: Tool to connect your apps and automate your workflow.

2. The next in line is the Basic version. It includes everything in the Free version with added features including unlimited questions, 1000 responses, display logic, scoring, and it can be shared via email, social, web URL, Widget, and QR code. It includes a FREE Trial.

New Term Meanings:

Display Logic: It is kind of if and then logic applied to a survey. If a respondent chooses “a” then display “c”. If the respondent chooses “b” then display “d”.

Scoring: It is assigning scores to each or any option in the survey.

3. Then is the Premium version. It includes all the features of Basic version and added features like 10,000 responses, display and skip logic, recurring surveys, reminder emails, accept payments, schedule reports. It includes a FREE Trial.

New term meanings

Skip Logic: It helps respondents to go to questions that are down in the line by skipping a set of questions.

4. Business Plan. It includes all the features of Premium version and added features like white-labeling, Salesforce integration, hubspot integration, 100,000 emails, 2 offlines devices, and 2 users included. It includes a FREE Trial.

New term meanings

White-labeling: Just like for any other product, the permission to put one’s own logo/ name on someone else’s product.

5. Higher than the Business plan in the Enterprise plan. It includes all the features of Business plan and added features like NPS workflows, NPS Trends and Dashboard, NPS, Sentiment Analysis, NPS Word Cloud, 5 offline devices, and 10 users included. It includes a FREE Trial.

New term meanings

Net Promoter Score or NPS: as defined by netpromoter.com, “measures customer experience and predicts business growth.”.

Few thoughts on the calculation of NPS: It uses the question of likeliness of a user to recommend a brand to their friend or colleague and measures it on a scale from 0 to 10.

The respondents are then grouped as either Promoters, Passives or Detractors. Promoters are the ones that give the rating 9 or 10. Passives give ratings 7 0r 8. Detractors are the unhappy customers and can potentially cause harm to the brand and give a rating from 0 to 6.

Sentiment Analysis: It is a concept that uses machine learning and the like technology to derive meanings of opinions put in the form of a text. It is also sometimes called opinion mining

6. Then the highest offering is the Elite plan for which you will have to contact SurveySparrow. It includes all the features of Enterprise with added features like Custom Data Center, Minimum 10 users, Single Sign-on(SSO), IP Whitelisting, Sub Accounts, and Consolidated Billing.

You can find the details of the pricing in a much better way here. You can find more about the online survey tools and apps here.

I hope this article was useful to understand surveys in concept, how to develop them and how to use them in the current context.

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