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Opinion surveys are important tools for businesses to learn what their customers really want, how they feel about their products, how they perceive the brand, what they'd like to see the company offer, and whether or not they feel the customer service in an organization meets their needs. However, this is only the case when they are used properly. These practices, combined with the right survey tool, will cut out a lot of the frustration and confusion many consumers feel when filling out surveys, while also ensuring that you, as a business owner, are getting the input and information you really want from the exchange.
1) Be Clear About the Goals and Objectives of the Survey
You absolutely must be specific about the information you want to glean from the survey in order to get what you're looking for from the experience. The tricky part is asking the right questions to get the exact data you're looking for. Responses must also be measurable and realistic in order to be valuable for your business needs. Use online survey softwareto compile data and measure the results of your survey.
2) Keep it Short and Simple
Surveys are all about helping you. You're asking your customers or potential customers to do you a favor. Respect their time and patience by making the survey as simple as possible and as short as conceivable while ensuring you'll be able to get the information you need to draw a reasonable conclusion from the results. Always offer full disclosure if you want optimal participation. Further, consider including a progress bar so participants can see the end of the survey approaching rather than abandoning the survey with only a couple of questions remaining.
3) Keep it Confidential
It's important to stress to participants that the results of the survey are completely anonymous. People are far less likely to give their honest opinions of products or services if they believe it can be traced back to them. However, promising anonymity gives them license to tell you how they really feel. Even if it's not all pleasant, you want to get honest efforts and responses so that you know how to proceed with future goods and services. The survey tool you decide to use to administer the survey does the rest of the heavy lifting from here.
4) Be Creative with the Wording of Your Questions
The last thing you want is for participants to click out of the results from sheer boredom. If you write creative questions for them to answer, they are much more likely to complete the task than if you take a blander approach with your questioning. Also wait until the end of the survey to ask any demographic information in order to avoid potential abandonment by your target audience early in the survey.
5) Remain Neutral and Unbiased
As excited as you are about upcoming product launches and ideas in the works, it's worth avoiding bringing that into the language of answers and questions for your survey. People, by and large, have a tendency to say what they think you want to hear than what they really feel. If you give an indication of what that is in your opinion survey questioning, they are sure to answer accordingly.
There are other practices you should keep in mind when implementing an online opinion survey. Send out advanced requests for participation so that your audience knows the survey is coming and provide complete instructions for completing the survey. Don't assume that everyone has done one of these before. Even with top quality online survey software, there are some people who may get rattled and quit if the instructions are inadequate or the formatting of the survey tool is not intuitive. Put these practices to good use and see what a difference they make in your survey participation rates and your results.
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