The market’s abundance of options can understandably make it difficult to find online survey software that meet all of your research needs at an affordable price.
A poor survey software selection can prevent you from expanding your business’s potential. You must consider all aspects of online survey software, including an integrated survey platform, a robust survey builder, an online survey panel, multimedia survey distribution and data collection, customised templates, advanced analytics and reporting.
We’ve compiled this comprehensive guide to assist you in selecting survey software that will assist you in filtering out survey tools and selecting the one that best suits your research needs.
Prerequisites to consider when looking for online survey software
Before you start looking for a survey platform or deciding which one to use, make a list of your own survey requirements. Here are some things to think about if you’re thinking about adopting or switching to new survey software.
1. Enterprise Technology
The application must be powerful enough to send thousands of emails in a short period of time while remaining simple enough to be used for small projects. The system must also be modular and flexible enough to meet your specific needs and budget.
It is preferable for the survey system chosen to handle bounced emails and unsubscribe automatically via a sophisticated application that simplifies this otherwise time-consuming process.
2. Flexible themes
Online survey response rates are declining. It’s easy to understand why there are so many surveys. Your survey should be noticeable. The chances of the survey being completed are significantly increased if the questionnaire looks good and is clean. Good online survey software should include templates as well as the ability to change the theme. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated; in fact, a neat, clean look is often more appealing, but it has to look good. You should be able to easily change the colours, layout, and style.
3. Powerful routing tools
Complex questionnaire routing logic is critical and is frequently overlooked by those who begin with a basic software tool. You might want to ask those who have purchased a brand and seen it advertised in the last year but not in the last month. Such logic appears simple, but it may be beyond the capabilities of some systems. It should be possible to use and/or/not to specify bracketed expressions.
4. A variety of appearances
Making a questionnaire more interactive will encourage respondents to complete it, especially if the subject matter is not particularly interesting to them. Here are a couple of examples. For starters, using images as responses can make a survey more interesting. Similarly, rating scales can become tedious if they are too long or overused. Respondents may give up or answer rating scales as quickly as possible with little thought or without properly reading the statements. Displaying rating scales in multiple ways within a questionnaire can make the task more interesting. There should be interactive tools such as sliders and sort piles where statements or items can be dragged into piles.
5.Mobile friendly
Smart phones and tablets are increasingly being used to access the internet. Your questionnaire must look good on a PC, tablet, and smartphone. Respondents should have to scroll as little as possible to view responses, especially when scrolling horizontally. A good online software product will let you customise the look of each type of device. When completing a questionnaire on a smartphone, it is sometimes necessary to abbreviate the text. Images look fine on a PC or tablet, but text on a smartphone may look better. As a bare minimum, a survey tool should be able to recognise the device being used and adapt appropriately.
6. Panel management & multilingual
To avoid being overwhelmed by your customers, ensure that the technology you choose has a panel management system. In advance, ask your provider what frequency he recommends for clearing surveys.
A typical questionnaire is sent to the entire list of customers every four or two years for a standard customer satisfaction survey.
Today’s globalisation of commerce necessitates the ability to generate feedback from all overseas entities. If applicable, ensure that the survey tool you choose allows you to create surveys in both European and non-European countries, so that your (customer) satisfaction survey can receive a true reflection and global feedback.
7. Sufficient analysis and reporting
The amount of analysis and reporting required may vary depending on the field in which you work. However, you should be able to generate cross tabulations with each question analysed by several banner points, such as age, gender, region, and education grade.
8. Links to external databases
After gathering some important survey data, it is becoming increasingly important to connect it to external databases, possibly customer databases. Similarly, using data from a database to select which questions are asked is becoming more common. Indeed, any linkage or automation is becoming increasingly important. It could be results being fed into a reporting system or a dashboard. If a respondent expresses dissatisfaction, having the ability to send an automated email to a customer service centre may be a prudent action. As time passes, the world becomes more connected, and these types of tools become more important.
Conclusion:
This concludes everything you need to think about when looking for the best online survey software.
All online survey software may appear to be similar at first glimpse; however, once you start scrutinising minor details, you will notice the differences between all of the tools.
After shortlisting the online survey tools, ask a personalised demo and ask as many questions as you can to ensure the platform is worth your time and money.
Spade survey provides global data collection , global survey sampling, CATI Survey services, Research support services, data analysis services.
