How To Conduct An Online Survey and Engage Customers In A Dialogue

By Tim Slavin
2006-08-08

Test Your Survey

Once you have written your survey questions, the next step is to test
your survey with a small group of customers. The size of this group
should be at least 5-8 customers; in usability testing, often this
number of people are enough to identify the key issues. While you can
test your survey online, it probably will work best in person with a
printout of the survey. Your goal is to understand how your customers
are likely to respond to each question, the inner dialogue that will be
triggered by reading each of your questions. This dialogue is
impossible to capture online. Instead, you need to be able to ask your
test audience how they responded to each question, what words, phrases,
and sentences confused them, what worked and what failed.

Testing also is critical because you should never change your survey
once it is put up and advertised. Changing questions in mid-survey will
distort your results, creating two surveys. Your goal is to ensure that
the results you get the first time are adequate for your needs.


Article Pages:
» How To Conduct An Online Survey - Introduction
» The Survey Process
» Define Your Goals
» Pick Your Tools
» Write Your Questions
» Test Your Survey
» Deploy Your Survey
» Measure Your Results
» Final Thoughts: To Pay or Not To Pay For Participation?

| |

Related Articles:
» User-Friendly Surveys in 5 Simple Steps
» 10 Steps to Creating More Effective Surveys
» Build Better Surveys - Survey Question Types Explained
» Understanding Single Choice Survey Answer Types
» Doing a Corporate Culture Survey
» 14 Tips For Writing An Effective Online Survey

Survey Articles
» Market Research
» Paid Surveys
» Survey Analysis
» Survey Benefits
» Survey Promotion
» Survey Software
» Survey Writing Tips

SurvSoft's Software Features:

	Randomizable Answer Choices
	Randomizable Question Order
	Advanced Skip Logic
	Advanced Avoid Logic
	Delayed Skip Logic
	Response Piping
	Email Invitations with Reminders
	Question Library
	Plus more...

Testimonials:
"Great web program. Survey creation was a breeze, and data summary even easier to understand. Nice clean design of the site, and customer service delivers very prompt service."
- Kurt Wedderburn

Free Web Polls
Create online polls for your website with our free web poll software. You can customize your polls and track your poll's performance through your free account.