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When it comes to customer service and determining if your business is meeting its clients’ needs, online feedback surveys are one of the best ways to ascertain your successes and failures. With a few simple online tools and carefully crafted questions, you can gain valuable insight from your customers that will lead you to more profit and happier consumers.

There are key reasons why your business should regularly implement satisfaction surveys. First, the responses will help you gauge how well you have performed with your customers – your source of income. Second, surveys help you understand the unmet needs of your customers and tailor your service strategies to meet those demands. And finally, surveys enable you to gather information about new ideas, products and services that your customers are after.

Effective Online Surveys

To get the most out of your customer satisfaction survey, the questions need to focus on the entire consumer experience. This includes initial conversations, the quality of service received, the products themselves, ease of payment, and closing details.

QuestionPro makes it easy to create online surveys that measure customer satisfaction. Our surveys include a large library of industry standard templates and questions that have been pre-tested by experts. QuestionPro has the tools to automate responses and analyze the data in a quick and clear manner. And all this can be done quickly and easily.

You do not need to be a programming expert to create a survey with QuestionPro. The questionnaires are easily configured with QuestionPro’s intuitive wizard interface, which you can then customized to fit your company. The responses are tabulated and given to you in a layout that includes charts and graphs. Which means you don’t need to employ a team of experts with degrees in statistics or analytics to analyze the data.

Two Keys to Survey Success

Once you are ready to implement customer surveys, there are two critical components that you must keep in mind. First, make the process of completing the survey painless for the customer. Use approximately six questions that won’t take more than 30 seconds to a minute to complete. Write the questions in an easy to read manner, and make the survey accessible from mobile devices.

Second, be sure to DO SOMETHING with the data. This is critical to ensuring your customers that you are listening to them. There is no point in collection customer satisfaction data if you don’t plan to use it to improve your service. The customer is taking the time to complete the survey; make sure you show them you are listening.

Customer satisfaction surveys are one of the most effective ways to measure your company’s successes, areas for improvement, and get critical feedback from your revenue sources. QuestionPro makes this a painless process to implement without the special skills of computer programmers and analytic experts. Do not ignore this quick and easy tool to get instant feedback.

An online survey measures practical information to help businesses improve their customer services and gain information from its consumers. But just because a survey is a practical tool doesn’t mean it is exempt from creativity. Here are five tips to creating great looking online surveys that are sure to get a response rate.

Tip #1: Customize the Template Colors

QuestionPro makes it easy to customize your survey template with different colors. In fact, you can change the look and feel of nearly all aspects of your survey through the Customization options. Change up the background color. Make important questions more visually appealing. You can even break up the text by alternating color-coded text sections. Use of varying colors helps make a survey look exciting and breaks up the information into readable sections.

Tip #2: Add Your Logo to the Survey

Brand your online survey with your company logo or identifier. This helps the customer know the survey is legitimate, while at the same time, adding your brand to another webpage. Using QuestionPro’s “Display Options” module, it’s easy to upload your logo to surveys as well as the survey recruitment emails. The process is as easy as uploading an email attachment.

Tip #3: Add Images to a Survey

Images are another great way to break up text and test marketing photos and ideas. To insert an image to a Question-Answer option QuestionPro survey, copy the HTML code from the “My Image Library.” When you add questions, simply paste the code where you want the image to appear.

Here’s an example of a question you can write to rate an image.

Always remember to keep intellectual property in mind when using images. Don’t run the risk of using copyright materials that you don’t own, as you are responsible for your survey content.

Tip #4: Customize the Email Invitation

The email invitation you create to invite people to take a survey is just as critical as the design of the survey itself. Be sure the email is designed well and engages the reader to click-through to the survey. There’s no point in having a visually appealing survey if you cannot get people to click on the link that brings them to the questions.

Tip #5: Customize the Email Thank You

Sending a thank you email after the individual completes the survey is an important part of the process. And just because the survey has been completed doesn’t mean the email thank you should be any less visually appealing as the survey. These components are all part of the process. QuestionPro helps you upload logos and images to the emails just as easily as you would to the survey itself.

As you get to work on crafting your online survey tool, remember the visual aspect is as appealing as the questions themselves. Experiment with adding color to the templates and font. Use images and logos to set your survey apart from others. And always say thank you to your customer for providing feedback.

The phenomenon known as social media has swept the world and is here to stay. Even if you are not an active user in the social networking sphere, these realms can be extremely useful while publicizing your online survey.

As of February 2012, Facebook had 845 million users and Twitter boasted more than 127 million active users. With those kinds of statistics, it’s hard to ignore social media as a viable way to share survey information. QuestionPro makes it easy to reach into Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with its own social sharing options.

Advantages of Survey Sharing on Facebook

The average Facebook visit lasts 23 minutes – quite a long time to stay on a webpage. Facebook offers a self-service model for displaying ads. And the ads can be configured as invitations to take a survey. In addition, 47% of Facebook users report making between $50,000 – $99,000 annually.

One of the unique aspects of Facebook is its ability to allow you to target a very specific audience for your survey. Using traditional demographic models (age, gender, location, etc.), you can pinpoint your survey to the individuals you need while working with a truly random sample.

Advantages of Twitter

While Twitter does not have the number of users Facebook does, it certainly is climbing in popularity. Like Facebook, Twitter users engage on the social network for a significant amount of time, with an average of 14 minutes per visit. Additionally, 54% of people use Twitter on their mobile phones.

What About LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is another social networking site that is growing in popularity as well. The site has 150 million registered users with 75% of them using LinkedIn for business purposes. And businesses have been quick to tap into the networking component of LinkedIn; there are currently 2 million companies with a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn users are intelligent with 50% of them having a bachelor’s or graduate degree.

Social Media Sharing with QuesitonPro

QuestionPro provides a simple one-click solution to post your surveys on the social networking websites Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Through our Social Media tab, we make it easy for you to post the link of your survey directly to your social media pages.

Do not miss an opportunity to promote your survey (and your company) through social media. With nearly a billion worldwide users on social networking

Quick Response (QR) codes are not new. These are the digital squares that are found nearly everywhere. How do QR codes relate to online surveys? Lets take a look at what a QR code is and how it integrates with survey research.

What is a QR code?

QR codes contain a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. Users then scan the code with their smartphones in order to visit a website that contains exclusive information. What companies are now discovering is that QR codes can be a valuable tool for conveying information to customers.

How does the QR code work for surveys?

QR codes are a great way to embed a link to a survey and reach an audience through the ease of mobile phones. Within the next two years, smartphones will be used by more than 80% of cell phone users. This means that companies have the opportunity to reach those individuals through QR code marketing.

QuestionPro QR codes store the URL for the survey. You can publish this code in magazines, on signs, business cards, or on just about any object or medium. To read a QR code, smartphone users need a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application to scan the code. This will open the survey in the phone’s browser.

Google’s mobile Android operating system supports QR codes by natively including the barcode scanner (ZXing) on some models, and the browser supports URI redirection. That allows QR Codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device.

A QR code reader is not natively included in an Apple iOS. However there are more than 50 free apps available with reader and metadata browser redirection capability.

Nokia’s Symbian operating system contains a barcode scanner, which is able to read QR codes. HP/Palm’s webOS operating system also does not have a native QR code reader, but a reader app named QR deCODEr is available.

How do I create a QR Code?

Creating a QR code with QuestionPro is easier than you may think. Simply log on to your QuestionPro account and go to “surveys” and “send survey.” Then proceed to “invite respondents” and then “social media.” In that screen, you have the ability to download the custom QR code for your survey. You then take the QR image and insert it to whatever marketing tool you are creating (email, poster, advertisement) – just as you would insert an image.

Using QR codes to embed a link to an online survey is a great way to make sure the survey is accessible in a multitude of venues at any time. It also assures the survey user does not always need to be located in front of a computer to take the online survey. And with more and more people working and living on their smart phones, accessing surveys via mobile device is quickly becoming the wave of the future.

I’ve been doing some research on market research panels and noticed the overwhelming number the the word “quality” appeared in articles and blog posts.  This experience reminded me of doing customer satisfaction research for manufacturers and getting into long drawn out battles about why “price” and “quality” weren’t real reasons for buying and not buying because they were too ambiguous.

Opportunities for Quality inside the Market Research Process

Let me explain what I mean by “quality is ambiguous.”  In the world of manufacturing quality isn’t a step — it runs throughout the process.  When we measure quality — we’re actually measuring the quality of the customers’ experience with our process and our product or service.  So quality happens at any stage of the process.

Here’s an example – Let’s say that you receive a catalog in the mail.  The catalog has all kinds of products and as you leaf through it, you see something you like – you’re ready to order — but WAIT — there’s no phone number, no web site, NOTHING!  Notice that this impacts the quality of your experience.  You want to order, but something is missing that’s making it difficult or impossible for you to complete your task.  In a way, it’s the same as if a button on your phone didn’t work – you set out to dial, but the quality of the part failed.

My point here is that quality is something that happens at many steps of the process.

Quality in market research

Let’s get back to quality in market research.  I’m researching online survey panels and notice that (as expected) panel quality is a real concern.  After all, when you purchase panel responses to do your branding research you are making the assumption that people are responding honestly to your survey.  But what’s really nagging at you is whether the people who are responding are:

• really who they say they are
• responding because they care about the survey — or responding because they want to incentive

One of the lesser known features inside of QuestionPro is the Anti-Ballot Box Stuffing feature.   This online survey features isn’t as ominous as it sounds — it’s actually very handy.

What is Anti-Ballot Box Stuffing and When Should I Use it?

Anti-Ballot Box Stuffing makes sure that your respondents only fill out their survey ONCE.   This feature is critical for customer satisfaction surveys or brand recognition surveys where you want one and only one response per respondent.

How it Works

When a respondent takes their survey, a cookie is sent to their computer.  These cookies prevent the respondent from taking the survey more than once.     Another tracking component is linked to a respondents email address.  If you uploaded a list and sent invitations to respondents from an email list – then once that respondent has completed a survey, they cannot complete another one.

To use Anti-Ballot Box Stuffing or Not to?

I like to use this feature mostly for customer satisfaction and branding.  I’m curious about where YOU like to use this feature.  I’m sure that there are other even better examples that I would love to hear about.

This feature can be a sort of nuisance to respondents — especially if it’s not necessary.  For example, if you’re giving a “fun” survey or a survey that you’d like to use as a poll or a survey that you want to build engagement over – then this feature isn’t really necessary.

How to set up Anti-Ballot Box Stuffing

Setting up this feature is EASY.  Simply Login » Surveys » (Select Survey) » Survey Control » Security

Go ahead, you can call us irreverent, we’re used to it.  But that’s how we roll over here are QuestionPro — making online surveys and everything that goes along with making them easy to take and share super easy and accessible to a business on the move.

We’ve added Apps to help you share data anytime, anywhere

When you log into your QuestionPro account, you’ll see a new tab called “Apps” — it was called “Mobile” before.

There you’ll find four powerful apps that will make your online survey management a breeze.

1. SurveyPocket App:  The first is the SurveyPocket app.  When you download this app, you’ll be able to synchronize all your surveys to the app and then run those surveys off your iPad or smart phone — online or offline.   In case you didn’t realize it, your QuestionPro license comes with a FREE device key for one iPad.
2. Google Apps:  Have you ever been in a meeting and wanted to share your survey results?  Or have you ever been on the road and had someone call you to pull data from a survey — and you’re completely disconnected?  All of these problems go away with QuestionPro’s Google App integration.  Now you can upload your reports directly into Google Apps and share them easily without logging into QuestionPro.
3. Salesforce.com integration:  We’ve written about online survey’s being a great lead qualifier or even a way to track certain event triggers that go on within an account — now you can integrate your CRM solution with the data that you’ve collected via QuestionPro.
4. DropBox: You can also upload your reports and files into DropBox for easy access without logging into QuestionPro.  Once again – you don’t have to be a slave to your team and others meetings.  Your survey reports, results and presentations will be available for anyone you designate to access.

It’s not enough to just have great online survey software — what good is it if you can’t share it with the people on your team?  Now you can share all your data with your clients, colleagues and team members.

What if you could survey multiple segments at once?

If you’re only using online surveys to gather basic data, you’re going to love this article.  One of the ridiculous secrets about QuestionPro is that it’s absolutely loaded with high-end features and most of us users don’t even know it!

One of these features is the ability to use what’s called “skip logic”.  Skip logic gives you the ability to segment your respondents and then ask them questions based on their previous response.

For example – say that you’re doing an online survey with trade show attendees.   Some of the trade show attendees are exhibitors and some are just attendees.  Say you wanted to ask exhibitors one set of questions and the attendees another.   You would use the “skip logic” feature to do this.

For example – you can have a question that says:

Are you an:

• Exhibitor
• Attendee

If they say that they are an exhibitor, you can ask them a series of exhibitor questions and if they say that they are an attendee, you can route them to an attendee-centered set of questions.  And if you really wanted to get fancy about it, you can send them each to different surveys altogether.  That is ridiculously powerful.

Three Benefits to using skip logic

1. Personalized experience.  When you use skip logic, your respondents get a more personalized survey experience.  Skip logic gives you the ability to ask questions based on their previous responses and that keeps respondents engaged more likely to complete the survey.
2. Shorter surveys.  When you use skip logic, you create a shorter survey because not every respondent has to answer every question. And this also increases response and completion rates.
3. Better segmentation.  My favorite reason to use skip logic is to give you better segmentation data.  Skip logic reduces the likelihood that people will provide false answers to questions that don’t really apply to them.

If you haven’t tried the skip logic and branching questions – give them a shot for your next survey.  You’ll find that both you and your respondents will benefit.

Did you know that your QuestionPro account actually comes standard with a FREE iPad feature?

First let me show you where it is — then I’ll show you how it works.

If you don’t have a QuestionPro account – you’d better grab your FREE trial now so you can check this out.   The first thing you’ll want to do is log in and then click on the “Mobile Tab”.

You’ll notice that there is already an iPad sitting in that space.  This is your free license for a single iPad.

Install the SurveyPocket App

While you can absolutely do your online surveys on an iPad – the interface can be a little clumsy — this is where you SurveyPocket App comes in.  Go to the App Store and download SurveyPocket.   You’ll notice that the app is designed for BOTH the iPhone and the iPad.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll want to go to the settings and enter the device key that is listed in your account to your iPad.

Some creative ways to use mobile surveys.

1. Trade Shows.  The most obvious way is to take your iPad to your next trade show and use it as a lead collection and qualifying tool.  Instead of using and paying for the trade shows card swiper, bring laser focus to your lead collection and use the iPad and Survey Pocket instead.  Yes.  It will take longer to go through the qualification process, but you will be attracting and talking to only people who are truly interested in your product or service and not just passing through for your free give-a-way.
2. Product demo feedback. Survey Pocket was originally developed to digitize intercept surveys.  You know where people approach you outside a mall or store and ask you questions.  Take this approach one step further and demo your product or service and then ask for customer feedback on the spot.
3. Lead generation.  If you have a retail location, you can place your iPads loaded with SurveyPocket close to a product stand.  You can ask customers questions and based on their answers, they can view a specific video or product demonstration tailored to their needs.

The SurveyPocket app runs your surveys online or offline — that means you don’t need an internet connection.  You’ll also have the geo-location feature which provides the location of where the survey was taken.  Anything you can do with your QuestionPro online surveys — you can do with SurveyPocket on the iPad.

Why use SurveyPocket on the iPad or iPhone?

It’s all about user-interface.  Lots of applications will tell you that they can run on mobile devices — and they can.  But the way those surveys look or function on your laptop isn’t remotely the same as how they would function on your mobile device.  A mobile device needs a simpler interface so that you can see the questions and answer the questions with easy keystrokes.

So if you haven’t checked out the QuestionPro iPad license yet – what are you waiting for.  Download the app, add some surveys and start going mobile with your feedback.

1. Properly Identify Your Audience

Before you commit yourself to a select group of invites, make sure you’ve considered every possible source.For instance, while email mailing lists offer a solid starting point for your online survey, make sure you’re looking at the various online communities and potential newsgroups that could directly influence your niche.

2. Keep your email invitations personalized

Ensure your emails contain a personalized greeting, over the generic templates available. By personalizing your emails, you’re showing your target you care about them enough to write their names. Be sure to start your email with “Dear Mrs. Doe” instead of the “Dear Valued Consumer” canned reply – your response rate will thank you for it.

3. Keep Your Emails to the Point

Wordy emails and multiple links confuse your buyer—so make sure you keep it simple and to the point. Include one link to your online survey in the email, and refrain from including any other links. Make sure you include relevant details about your survey to instill confidence in your audience as well. Things like the company and study’s purpose, the benefit to your target audience (what do they get out of it), survey length and completion times and of course, your privacy statements (if your organization requires it).

4. Keep Your Survey User Friendly

When people arrive on your survey, the last thing they want to see is an expansive list of instructions. Not only are they intimidating, they can prove to be an obstruction to many users wanting to simply click, respond and move on.

5. Display Your Privacy Protections Clearly

The first page should always include how you’re planning to use the survey responses received. By showcasing how you’re using the results, you’re developing a sense of trust with your users—a vital step for any successful campaign. Make sure to include if your data will be private, anonymous, shared with others or if it’s a university study on the front page.

6. Follow Up With a Reminder

With many people checking in with their mobile phones, shared computers or even in the office, chances are you’ll run across a few respondents that want to complete the survey—but simply don’t have the time. Others however, will complete the survey right away. Make sure to follow up with your audience a second time, reminding them to complete the survey and include a link to it directly in the email again. Make sure to filter out those emails that don’t want to be contacted again in the future, and those that have already completed the survey.

7. Make It Worth Their Time With an Incentive

Research has shown incentives to be a very enticing lure for many people. The incentive itself doesn’t have tobe large either. A simple token, gift certificate, raffle or even a coupon normally increases your response rate substantially.

8. Strategically Use Images and Graphics

Generally speaking, it’s best to avoid distracting images, fonts or overwhelming internet features. Select features however, can help your audience complete the surveys—with embedded multimedia, links or images to the potential prize/ incentive, or even a small image of a stock photo works nicely—without risking your credibility.

9. Allow Options for Your Users

While many people become excited about a potential prize, there will remain a select few who simply want to share their information throughout your survey. Knowing their information could help improve a shopping experience, availability of an item or even giving them a reason to interact with others could be a strong advantage on its own.

10. Make Your Results Available Online to Survey Participants

A big lure to many survey goers is discovering the results of the survey will be displayed at the end. Many enjoy comparing their responses with the general pole of others, and by displaying these results (anonymously of course) might just help your audience decide to take the online survey after all.

An Extra Tip…

Consider using friends, family and coworkers to source your targets. Also, consider allowing your respondents the opportunity to share the survey with their friends and family if they think they’d be interested. Include additional incentives (additional tickets to a raffle for instance) to those users who share the survey with others.