Surveys are an essential part of business survival: individual companies conduct surveys on a daily basis, whether online, by telephone, or even in person. The intent is always the same: to find out what customers think of a product or service. Knowing what customers think means that a business can adjust products and create new ones to satisfy their needs.

Similarly, surveys can be useful to assess individual sectors, their performance in difficult markets, and even the market shares of companies: they can help governments and companies find the best way forward for the economy.

However, to successfully and efficiently conduct any type of survey, you need to find the best survey software for your needs.

There are several things you can do to ensure you choose the right survey analysis software.

Set Your Criteria

You can’t choose software, be it market survey platforms or data collection software, without knowing what you are looking for and what you need.

The potentially most important criterion is the questionnaire design and how easy it is to create and manage. Be sure that the software offers an easy and intuitive way of building your questionnaire but also the possibility to access the script for a quicker questionnaire design.

Many inexpensive tools have a lot of limitations: make sure the tool you choose has no limits on the number of questions, number of answers, type of questions, or complexity of the questionnaire flow.

Check that your tool offers more than just the basic question types. To create professional questionnaires, you also need more advanced questions such as matrix, ratings, sliders, photos, video, signature, NPS, and more.

To ensure a smooth and smart experience for the respondent, you must rely on logic: your software must offer display, skip, and randomization conditions for all items of the questionnaire. A questionnaire tailored to the respondent guarantees you a higher response rate and data quality.

Assess Software Survey Platforms

There are several valid survey solutions on the market: when faced with the choice, therefore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the functioning of the platform and some important aspects.

• It must be easy to install and use: the software should be available on the cloud or on-premises and the platform must have intuitive controls that make the creation and management of any survey a simple process.
• It should also be possible to download the market research results into a file format of your choice, like Excel, CSV, SPSS, and others. This will allow you to analyze and share the survey results. If you rely on an IT company, also check the possibility of having custom integrations with third-party tools such as CRM or other software.
• To ensure data consistency and reliability, you should have a quality control tool available that allows you to validate interviews before analysis and correct any errors in bulk.
• The tool should allow you to collect data with web, face-to-face, or telephone surveys in a simple and integrated way to leverage the potential of all methodologies.
• The software should offer all the distribution tools, from emailing, texting, link management, and sharing on social media.
• Don’t forget to check that the survey tool also offers an analysis section: from creating reports with professional charts and tables to crosstabs analysis.
• In the case of telephone surveys, it is necessary to verify that the survey software has a built-in softphone, that it covers both predictive dialing and click-to-dial to optimize data collection, and that a module for supervisors to monitor agents’ work is also included.

Web-Based?

Even if you’re undertaking a phone or face-to-face survey, you’re going to need to upload the results and collate them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The best way to do this is to choose web-based survey software. Make sure the product you choose has these features: it can be easily used anywhere, has a number of automatic backup options, and offers professional support at all times. The web-based nature will also guarantee regular updates to protect you and your data from cyber-attacks.

Check Feedback

An important step in choosing survey software for research is to see what others think of it. This is the joy of the Internet: online you can consult the software manufacturer’s website, case history, reviews, and even social media.

You can also talk to other companies that have experience with a specific survey software: it is worth asking how long it took to train staff on the software.

Remember that when checking reviews, among the positive ones there should also be negative ones. If there are only a few negative reviews, you can read them and see what the problem is.

In many cases, the problem is not worrying, however, it is still worth seeing how it was resolved by the service provider. This tells you a lot about the company you will be dealing with and how they deal with customers.

If you need to confirm their behavior or attitude, you can contact customer service and see how they react.

Summing Up

Market research software and the right survey tools for research can help your business perform better and capitalize on any market-related issues.

It is important to consider the functionality of the software, the expertise of the manufacturer, the ease of use, and the quality of support provided.

That’s why it’s worth taking some time when considering the right software for online surveys.

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