Use online surveys to increase the Web's communication potential

Give and take

Editor’s note: Jeff Rosenblum is president of Audience Profiler, a Tiburon, Calif., research firm.

The Web has always had great promise of being the world’s greatest communication tool. However, most corporate communication via the Web goes in one direction — from the brand to the customer. By conducting online surveys, companies from virtually any industry can gain a competitive advantage by making their Web-based communication flow in two directions using online surveys.

Conducting surveys online is relatively easy and affordable. When conducted effectively, the return on investment is so high that no company can truly afford to not conduct them. This article provides an overview of the fundamentals of online surveying.

Typical objectives of online surveys

The reason that online surveys are so valuable is that a brand can learn virtually anything it wants via a properly designed and executed survey. Some examples of survey research objectives include:

• gauge customer satisfaction across various competitive elements, including quality, price and service;
• assess customer loyalty and identify methods for increasing loyalty;
• measure your target audience’s usage of specific brands, products and services;
• determine the likelihood of prospects to purchase new products and services;
• generate responses to marketing efforts, including positioning statements, media sources, advertising copy and design;
• explore issues associated with your brand’s Web presence, including usability, content and speed;
• evaluate the impact of advertising campaigns on brand awareness and perceptions.

How to conduct online surveys

Conducting an online survey is a relatively easy process. There are many research firms that can manage the entire process, and there are a few technologies and software packages that can enable you to conduct the surveys in-house.

Unless you have sufficient training in quantitative research, I strongly recommend using a high-quality research firm. (While our firm clearly has a vested interest seeing companies outsource their survey development needs, I can honestly say that the only thing more dangerous than not conducting research is mismanaging or misinterpreting research findings.)

There are seven key stages to conducting a survey online:

• Develop the project objectives: I recommend thinking from a results standpoint - do not try to develop the survey at the beginning of the process, try to create the individual pages of the report in your mind. Focus on the two to three things that you want to learn, not the actual questions that you want to ask. The survey will naturally develop after you have identified your core objectives.
• Develop the survey: A survey should consist of approximately 20 questions. Many companies conduct longer surveys, but that leads to self-selection bias and respondent fatigue. When in doubt, just remember: the shorter the better. Do not make your objectives too broad. Try to have the survey flow so it progresses in an easy-to-follow question order for your respondents.
• Program the survey: There are many new technologies for conducting online surveys. We typically conduct one-page surveys, not multi-page surveys. Our own research has demonstrated to us that this format is most appealing to respondents. If you are conducting the surveys with your own customers, maintain your brand’s identity in the graphical layout of the survey. That helps build your brand and improve respondents’ focus. If you are conducting the survey with non-customers, be sure that you are working with a reputable company with a database of qualified (and not over-used) respondents.
• Acquire respondents: Respondents can be invited to participate in the survey from your Web site via a live link or a pop-up intercept. You can also use a customer database, but do not invite respondents via e-mail unless they have previously told you that they would like to be contacted. We recommend providing an incentive to participate in the survey, for example by donating $1 to charity for each completed survey or a chance to win a significant prize. Incentives help reduce self-selection bias and show appreciation to customers for spending their time helping you.
• Collect data: When respondents submit an online survey, the data typically goes to a back-end statistical package. If feasible, we recommend conducting a survey with at least 400 respondents. A larger base size produces higher statistical validity. Also, it enables you to look at sub-sets of the data, such as frequent purchasers vs. non-frequent purchasers.
• Report on findings: Unless you are an experienced market researcher, I recommend working with a market research consultant. A strong report will focus on the topline findings and significant differences in actionable sub-sets of the data. Be sure not to get bogged down in over-analysis of data that does not yield actionable findings.
• Keep records on file: All respondents should be asked if they may be re-contacted to participate in follow-up surveys. For those who would like to be re-contacted (typically more than 75 percent of the sample), the contact information and other relevant data should be kept on file. This file can be used as the basis for a proprietary panel, which will enable you to access the respondents quickly, easily and affordably when needs arise.

Reporting on findings

Here is a very strong recommendation: Do not over-analyze your research findings. A good online survey will reveal two to three key themes. For example, the majority of customers are unsatisfied and satisfaction can be substantially improved by lowering shipping costs.

In my experience, many companies look too deeply at their research data, trying to find nuggets that could be very helpful, such as recognizing that a key audience segment has a higher propensity to purchase. However, more frequently, by overanalyzing the smaller tactical findings, the broad themes frequently get ignored. Or, many companies suffer paralysis by analysis, meaning that action is not taken because the data is looked at too long and too hard.

This is what I recommend: Use a topline report for your online surveys. Identify the key themes and understand how to act upon the key themes. Communicate your recommendations to your appropriate team members and provide them with user-friendly graphs that support your recommendations. If you are an experienced market researcher or report to an experienced market researcher, it is more than appropriate to search for the hidden nuggets of information in the banner books. However, first get the ball rolling with strategic recommendations based on topline data, then look for the detailed data.

Moving beyond one-off surveys: how to develop an online customer panel

While online quantitative surveys are extremely valuable, the true power of the Internet can be realized by developing and managing an online panel of your customers.

Proprietary panels are extremely valuable because they enable companies to quickly and easily acquire strategic input from customers on a need-to-know basis for virtually any business issue that arises. For example, if any of the following takes place in your industry or your company, you can find out within 24 hours what, exactly, your customers would like you to do to maintain their loyalty:

• your company or a competitor launches a new product, advertising campaign or Web site;
• a new competitor emerges within your industry;
• your company or a competitor changes product prices;
• your Web site experiences technical difficulties; or
• a new technology emerges that can be used in your industry.

Conclusion

For virtually any company, online surveys should be used to ensure that your strategies, marketing, and product selection are developed with strategic input from customers and prospects. Virtually any objective can be accomplished via an online survey. When conducted on a regular basis, they will create a two-way communication flow that will provide you and your company with a true competitive advantage. Many companies conduct online surveys, but few conduct them on a regular basis and effectively act upon the findings from the project. Start conducting surveys today and start recognizing a competitive advantage tomorrow.