Online Survey Tools Bring You Closer to Your Customers

Lisa DiCarlo -- Expert Business Source, 4/13/2007 6:32:00 AM

Marketing experts say that one of the most common mistakes that small businesses make is thinking they’re too small for market research. In reality, business owners can learn invaluable data about their customer’s demographics, desires, buying habits and attitudes with a modest investment in Web-based survey software.

Big companies spend millions on consultants to help them better understand the marketplace. Now, small businesses can grab a piece of the action – and expand beyond the simple suggestion box – by designing their own online surveys. They can choose from a dozen or so low-cost Web-based offerings, with prices as low as $10 per monthly subscription.

Some of the more popular packages include the following:

Each company provides resources to help users design and distribute a survey, and some include tools to automatically generate charts and graphs to analyze the data.

Once you’ve chosen a provider, it’s important to design the survey carefully for maximum effectiveness. David J. Snepenger, professor at Montana State University College of Business, notes that you need not be a sophisticated researcher with a PhD to design your own customer survey.

Here are some guidelines:

Structure: Questionnaires should have three sections. The top should introduce the survey with a “help us serve you better” type of approach. The main body should encompass questions about the products or services, and the final part should ask demographic questions on sex, age, income, education, marital status and any other information that might be of interest to your business.
Length: Questions should be 20 words or less, and the entire questionnaire should take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.
Relevance: Choose your words carefully; each question should be specifically related to whatever piece information you are trying to gather.
Clarity: Use words that less-educated respondents will be able to understand
Incentive: If possible, offer respondents a small gift such as a discount coupon for your business.
Respondents: When choosing your survey audience, quality is more important than quantity. The respondents should be representative of your customers, so choose them wisely. Chuck Fuller, online marketing director at StartupNation, suggests trolling for respondents on discussion boards, “listserv” groups and other online communities that are relevant to your business.

Customer surveys should be supplemented by quantitative data about your audience; you can find useful demographics information though free government publications such as the annual Statistical Abstract of the United States and the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book.

The more data you gather, the better your ability to make a connection with your customers. With a modest investment, business owners can take steps to avoid the guesswork that adds unnecessary risk to a business. “Making assumptions about what potential customers want,” says Fuller, “is a dangerous game to play.”

Lisa DiCarlo is a freelance writer based in Newton, Mass.