In today’s fast-moving business environment, capturing feedback from key stakeholders quickly to inform business decisions has become essential. This has led to the development of a wide range of online survey tools, which allow businesses to effectively collect feedback from consumers, customers, and/or employees. Given this growing choice, it is important to identify the right survey tool to suit your needs. In this article, we discuss some of the top online survey tools for effective data collection.
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Why are online surveys important?
Online surveys are a cost-effective and efficient way to collect data from a large number of people.
Businesses and organizations can utilize them to collect input, viewpoints, and preferences from their intended audience, which can then be utilized to make informed choices to improve their products, services, and experiences.
Easy to use and accessible
One of the main advantages of online survey tools is their ease of use and accessibility. If you have a clear understanding of your research objectives it is possible to create a survey in just a few minutes and distribute it quickly to a large number of people, regardless of their location. This makes it easier to reach a diverse group of respondents and gather a wide range of perspectives.
As an illustration, platforms such as Glow integrate with multiple panel sources, granting access to more than 110 million consumers in 64 different countries.
Cost effective
Online survey solutions are significantly more cost-effective compared to traditional data collection methods like phone or mail surveys.
By using them, businesses and organizations can save on costs related to printing, postage, and phone calls, making it a more economical choice.
The use of online survey software can also enable research-savvy businesses to conduct research without the need to use a market research agency because the leading platforms provide add-on support services such as survey design, platform implementation, response management, and reporting.
Real-time results
With online survey tools, you can get real-time results, allowing you to analyze and act on the data quickly. This is especially useful for time-sensitive projects, cross-market studies, or when making critical business decisions.
Customizable and versatile
Online survey platforms offer a wide range of customization options, allowing you to tailor your survey to your specific needs. You can choose from various question types, add images or videos, and customize the design to match your brand.
The flexibility of online surveys allows them to support various scenarios throughout the product lifecycle. These scenarios include market analysis in the early stages, concept testing for products or services, customer segmentation and profiling of ideal customers, pre-testing of advertisements, brand tracking, and evaluation of shopper behavior.
Top 5 online survey tools
Now that we understand the importance of online surveys, let’s take a look at some of the leading online survey tools for effective data collection.
- SurveyMonkey
- Google Forms
- Qualtrics
- Typeform
- Glow
1. Survey Monkey
SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular online survey tools, with over 20 million users worldwide. It offers a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced users.
With SurveyMonkey, you can create surveys using various question types, including multiple-choice, open-ended, and Likert scale questions. It also offers advanced features such as skip logic, randomization, and piping, allowing you to create more complex surveys.
SurveyMonkey offers a free basic plan, as well as paid plans with more features and customization options.
Common users – Survey Monkey is most often used within the non-profit industry (especially students and educational institutions), according to Enlyft.
2. Google Forms
Google Forms is a free online survey tool that is part of the Google Workspace suite. It offers a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for anyone to create surveys and quizzes.
With Google Forms, you can choose from various question types, add images or videos, and customize the design to match your brand. It also offers real-time collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same survey simultaneously.
For businesses and organizations seeking to conduct basic surveys with their internal teams, Google Forms is an excellent choice. It provides a variety of simple feedback functionalities at no cost.
Common users – businesses of all sizes for non-critical surveys or where information does not need to represent the broader population accurately.
3. Qualtrics
Qualtrics is an enterprise-wide customer experience solution designed to help customers build the world’s best ‘experience management programs.’ Qualtrics offers a powerful and sophisticated suite of research services, including online survey tools with advanced features and customization options. It is suitable for businesses and organisations wanting to take a holistic view of experience design and that require more complex surveys and data analysis.
With Qualtrics, you can create surveys using various question types, including advanced question types such as heat maps and sliders. It also offers features such as A/B testing, advanced reporting, and data segmentation.
Qualtrics offers a free trial, leading to a range of pricing plans based on functional requirements.
Common users – large enterprise businesses.
4. Typeform
Typeform is a user-friendly online survey tool that offers a modern and visually appealing interface. It is suitable for businesses and organizations that want to create engaging and interactive forms, surveys, and quizzes.
With Typeform, you can create surveys using various question types, including multiple-choice, open-ended, and rating scale questions. It also offers features such as logic jumps, hidden fields, and custom thank-you screens.
Typeform offers a free basic plan, as well as paid plans with more features and customization options.
Common users – small businesses, often in the computer software industry, according to Enlyft.
5. Glow
Glow is a sophisticated but simple-to-use online survey tool that offers a wide range of features and customization options. It is suitable for medium to large businesses that require quality data quickly to support decisions regarding product development, consumer profiling, advertising development or marketing effectiveness.
With Glow, you can create surveys using various question types, including their proprietary sustainability measure Social Responsibility Score. It also offers powerful features such as skip logic, piping, and custom scripting, as well as instant language translation for multi-market studies.
Glow offers a free plan with limited functionality, as well as paid plans with free trial periods to enable access to the full feature set.
Conclusion
Online survey tools enable businesses and organizations to gather valuable insights from their target audience. There are numerous online survey tools available, each with its own unique features and customization options.
Selecting the appropriate online survey tool will enable you to gather and analyze comprehensive data, empowering you to make informed choices and enhance your offerings.
Remember to consider factors such as ease of use, cost, customization, and support options when choosing an online survey tool. With the right tool, you’ll be able to make informed decisions that reduce risk and help drive the success of your business.
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