Even if you’re not an expert when it comes to data collection, you can still make your surveys more effective. You can do this by using the data collected from your surveys to help you deliver better customer experiences. Fortunately, ObvioHealth has you covered.
In this post, we’ll cover the main challenges associated with data collection and explain how you can use this information to make your surveys more effective. So, if you’re wondering how to apply survey research to your digital experience, read on.
Challenges associated with data collection
- Ineffective surveys and questionnaires
As will all things digital, there is no single accepted strategy or template for developing questionnaires and surveys.
Entities are left with the task of crafting surveys that fit their interests and this creates a haphazard environment that produces questionnaires that fail to meet the objective, to begin with.
Often enough questionnaires are developed that cannot provide the level of clarity intended since consumers could not discern the intention of specific questions.
Consumers have no vested interest in participating in surveys so the questionnaires must also be tailored to engage an increasingly impatient consumer who just wants to use a service and get on with their day.
Long surveys should be more effective for companies but they get little engagement if any from consumers.
- Cost of digital transformation
The term digital transformation has become the single most dreaded term in the workplace.
Companies who have otherwise operated with staggering success find themselves grappling with a whole new platform for engagement and entire sectors of business are becoming redundant.
As if that is not plenty, many mega corporations are operating in spaces that do not have any relation to their core business and carving away market share from traditional vendors.
A good example is the infiltration of telecommunication giants in the finance market or what Amazon is doing to the entertainment business.
Digital transformation is going to cost companies and businesses a lot but it is the only way to remain relevant. To do so, businesses must communicate directly with consumers and surveys are one way to get this done.
How to make surveys more effective
- Define your objectives
To design an effective survey, define the objective of the survey and have each survey or questionnaire collect information specific to a single objective. As a rule of thumb, design multiple questionnaires as opposed to a single long questionnaire.
The digital environment is not structured to allow consumers to dwell on any one thing and consumers are constantly bombarded with so much to discover and engage with.
Keep a questionnaire short and questions direct. Aim for ten questions in one questionnaire and widespread engagement. The feedback is likely to be more useful than a thirty-question form that will be abandoned midway.
- Design the questionnaire for readability and visibility
The mobile platform is the most utilized so design questionnaires for mobile compatibility. Invest in application development professionals to optimize mobile phone surveys for all available platforms.
Look into flash surveys and pop surveys where one to five targeted questions immediately follow consumer engagement. You typically have a 5–second window to capture the consumers’ engagement before they move on to something else.
Offer incentives to consumers who go further to engage in longer surveys or complete longer questionnaires.
- Develop effective questions
There are too many examples of ineffective questions. One of the most common mistakes is leading questions.
These are designed to get positive feedback for the company but eventually, add no value to the information collected and grossly misinform management on the way forward.
‘Are you satisfied with our customer service? Yes No’
The better question would be;
‘Are you satisfied with the customer service you received? Yes/No’ followed by,
‘Please rate the customer service you received.’ then proceed to give a rating scale of 1-5 0r 1-10.
The first question often leads to an answer that offers no value. ‘Yes’ ends the conversation and a ‘no’ provides no further information on what’s wrong.
The second question allows for nuance and asking ‘…you received?’ communicates that the customer is the object of the question and not the company.
Optimizing Questionnaires for a Digital Environment; Final Thoughts
Optimizing questionnaires is a worthy endeavor for any company looking to remain on solid ground in a shifting playing field.
Thomas Parkin is the visionary creator of Honey View, the world’s most charitable community of photographers. With a mission to provide high-quality, useable pictures, Honey View has amassed over 2 million free high-resolution photos, which have been downloaded over 2 billion times globally by artists for presentations, artwork, mockups, and various creative projects.