If you conduct an annual or periodic survey, don’t simply “rinse and repeat,” like many other organizations. The time you invest in evaluation upfront will pay off with new insights and/or increasingly actionable findings. Here are some ways we have found to amplify a survey’s usefulness.
- Look at demographics differently.
Obtaining new information on your respondents can help you update personas or find new ways to segment the data. It can provide insights for more relevant and persuasive messaging. If you typically ask traditional demographics, such as age, gender, and household income, consider replacing some of those questions.
- Conduct more segmentations.
Mean ratings might be representative of the full sample’s opinion, but they could also be the average of two opposite groups’ opinions. Always analyze as many sub-groups as possible, especially ones for which you can tailor products, services, or messaging.
- Use advanced analysis methods and tools.
This will also help you dig deeper and find more nuggets of insight. Some of the advanced methods we commonly use are TURF analysis, multiple segmentations, conjoint analysis, and Kano (quadrant) analysis.
- Include a checkbox for permission to connect with participants on their responses.
For customers, you can explore specifics regarding customer service issues or reasons for dissatisfaction scores. You can ask more about unmet needs. You can invite participants to be involved in follow-up surveys or invite them to take part in a customer panel.
- Review your questions for alternatives.
Make sure your questions will obtain the information you require, not superfluous data with no way to utilize it. Do you have a list of features you want participants to rate their interest on? Perhaps asking how often they think they would actually USE these features would be more helpful information.
- Consider breaking up a longer survey into multiple surveys.
Completion rates and thoughtful responses decline with survey length. If you have a lot to explore, consider fielding two surveys. This can be done concurrently, consecutively, or with an option for participants in the main survey to continue to a second, highly-targeted survey for an additional incentive.
- Add an open-ended question.
Questions where participants are free to type or record their thoughts can provide more texture and context to the survey data, as well as allow space for them to communicate something you possibly forgot when designing your survey. But don’t add more than two or three, if possible, as too many open-ends are also a key factor in survey drop-out.
- Consider an incentive.
While ultra-short surveys, such as those sent immediately post-purchase, do not usually require any incentive, most other surveys will require encouragement to attain a substantial sample size or attract a broad enough group of participants. Incentives can be cash, gift cards, purchase credit, or many other things. You should offer whatever is attractive to your specific audience while also being easy for you to fulfill. There are several companies who sell systems to manage incentive fulfillment, as well.
- Think about adding qualitative research.
Do you conduct an annual survey? Consider following that with some targeted online focus groups or individual interviews. Qualitative research allows you to probe responses, dive deeper, and understand the psychological and emotional factors behind the data. If your survey revealed some unexpected or negative results, qualitative research is one of the best ways to help you understand what is fueling those opinions.
Next time you conduct a survey, be sure to take time and review it with fresh eyes and see if one or more of these strategies will help you gain more actionable findings from your research investment.
Linda Kuster is the president of Vernon Research Group.
