Online customer surveys: benefits and opportunities

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Over time, online questionnaires have gradually replaced traditional paper surveys. However, both follow the same methodology : the purpose and audience of the survey must be clearly defined and the questions must be tailored to the offer and therefore relevant. The only reasons driving the increased use of online surveys are the benefits derived from the digital form, which include:

Time and place are not a concern : an online survey can be answered at any time and from any location. In addition, the results are available immediately after the questionnaire has been answered.
Less work : thanks to digital data processing, an online questionnaire is much easier to distribute and evaluate. This is a great advantage if the document has to be sent to a large number of participants, where only an invitation by email or a link from the online shop will suffice.
Greater possibilities : The digital format opens up a new world of possibilities for professors edu email database conducting surveys. An online survey allows you to use, for example, special filters, random number generators and other features to customize the order of the questions. In addition, it is possible to include images, videos, animations or sound files.
Specific information : online surveys allow the recording of the way in which respondents answer questions, obtaining, for example, information on the time spent on each question, the points where the questionnaire was abandoned or the total processing time of the survey. This type of information helps to improve the survey.
Respect for the environment, space saving : conducting an online survey saves large amounts of paper and does not require physical storage space.
Once you have created your survey, you can send it to your customers in a number of ways, either in a pop-up window on your website or as a link in your newsletter. For service industries, it is advisable to send these emails as soon as possible to get accurate results. Other alternative tools for sending online surveys include ads on social media or QR codes that redirect the user directly to the questionnaire. Remember that general surveys open to the general public can yield slightly falsified results if no restrictions are placed on who can or cannot participate in it.

How to create an online survey?
How to create an online survey?
There are several online survey apps that differ primarily in price, usability, and scope. There are free tools that make it easy to collect information for certain types of questions, such as Facebook surveys. For longer online surveys, web and desktop applications are available, often offered by providers that host and organize the data. In any case, appropriate security measures are required to ensure the safety of respondents' personal information. These providers usually offer different rates for different survey options. To learn more about which solution is best for you, visit our online guide to the best online survey tools . While the way apps work varies, there are standard tasks in structuring a survey that apply to both online questionnaires and physical surveys. It's important to choose the right type of questions, ask the right questions, and structure the survey appropriately.

Choose the type of question
It is advisable to choose the type of questions before asking them, taking into account the type of response you want to obtain:

Identification questions : These are used to ask about the characteristics of the interviewees. They mainly gather personal information such as age, place of residence and origin.
Intention questions : These questions focus on the respondents' perception of some kind of recent or future action or event. Here, it is not a question of answering correctly or incorrectly, but rather determining aspects of reality or intention regarding certain actions. For example: Who will win the next election? Will you vote?
Opinion and information questions : this type of question allows you to find out how respondents evaluate a given situation. For example: “Do you think there is too much advertising on television?” (possible answers: “true”, “false”, etc.).
Behavioral questions : These questions are intended to identify a user's past or future behavior in a given situation. For example: "Do you think you are paying more taxes than you should?" (possible answers: "yes", "no", "don't know", "no answer", etc.).
Asking the right questions
When creating an online survey, it is essential that the questions are formulated in such a way that respondents answer truthfully. Open questions allow a lot of freedom when answering, but they also imply distorted answers, since they depend entirely on the knowledge of the user. Closed questions include the answers for the respondents , therefore they do not allow personal answers. This type of questions requires covering all the expected answers in the best possible way, so they must be clear, brief, understandable and neutral. They must also not contain double negatives or provide positive or negative answers.

Structuring the survey
The structure of a survey is responsible for getting users to answer every last question. The first questions should be eye-catching, as they are responsible for attracting and drawing the attention of respondents, while the middle questions will guide them through the questionnaire. When creating an online survey, it is advisable to organize the questions into different subject areas . The most sensitive topics, as well as personal questions, should go to the end of the survey or be grouped separately in a subject area. Finally, keep an eye on the length of the survey, both in terms of the number of questions and the number of response options.