Learn More About Survey Software
What is Survey Software?
Survey software allows users to create various survey types to gather information. These solutions are useful across a wide range of industries and for collecting different sets of information. Businesses can gather customer feedback to inform their product development and marketing strategies. This information can also be used to develop internal employee engagement strategies. Survey software can even be used to poll constituents in a political district. That data is then used to shape campaign strategies. Mobile survey software applications have now expanded the possibilities for use. In short, survey software is a multiuse tool that is limited only by the creativity of its users during deployment.
Key Benefits of Survey Software
- Collect feedback and data efficiently
- Leverage data to develop strategy
- Gain customer insight
- Manage the survey process
Why Use Survey Software?
Survey software has many different use cases. Businesses may use survey software to shape product development based on customer feedback, and educational institutions use survey software to assess their academic programs and employees. Corporations may use it to solicit feedback from employees, take that feedback, and use it to create an employee engagement strategy. Survey tools can be used during live events and even in the field to collect valuable data.
Product Development — Products, be they software products or otherwise, can always improve. Internal product teams are often extremely close to the product they’re developing, so it can be difficult to stay objective and maintain an unbiased perspective when it comes to evaluating potential areas for improvement. Survey software can be used prelaunch to help teams put together a comprehensive, customer-focused product or postlaunch to help product teams tweak the product to improve it.
Education Program Assessment — Academic program surveys have long been a part of university-level courses. They give students a voice that can be heard by the administration by producing teacher evaluations. Course evaluations are also given to compile feedback about the actual structure and content of the course itself. The feedback is then used to improve teacher performance and increase the amount of value students are seeing from their courses.
Employee Feedback — One of the use cases of survey software is gathering employee feedback. These surveys are often anonymous to solicit the most accurate, unfiltered feedback from employees. Businesses then compile the data gathered from employees during the survey and analyze it. Management and human resources teams then use the insights gained through the analysis of the data to identify employee-highlighted problem areas and put in place active strategies to improve those areas. While survey tools can be used to solicit employee feedback, employee engagement tools contain both survey features and comprehensive tools to address employee concerns and increase engagement levels.
Who Uses Survey Software?
HR departments, educational institutions (typically universities), product teams, marketers, and researchers all use survey software. Because survey software can be used to structure and distribute surveys in a multitude of ways, the user base is extremely diverse and the use cases varied. Each group uses survey software to gather specific sets of information.
Marketers — Marketers use survey software to gauge customer reaction to advertisements and campaigns they produce. They also use these solutions to conduct in-depth market research, laying the groundwork for product development and marketing campaigns by seeing what their target demographic wants and needs.
Academic Researchers — Researchers use survey software to collect the data that drives their insights. A lot of academic research, particularly in the social sciences, is conducted using surveys, and survey software is increasingly used to carry out those surveys.
HR Departments — Human resources professionals use survey software to carry out employee satisfaction surveys. These surveys typically hit on things like employee happiness, the perceived availability of career advancement opportunities, company culture, and more. Tools, like the net promoter score (NPS), can be tabulated from the answers given to gauge overall employee contentment with their workplace.
Product Teams — Product teams can use survey software to solicit customer feedback on their product. They can ask questions about specific features, desired features, and more to improve upon their existing product. This can always be a vital tool but is particularly useful in the initial stages of development.
Kinds of Survey Software
There are three main types of survey software: telephone, in-person, and web-based. Telephone survey software automates the process of calling people and collecting and recording their answers. Computer-assisted in-person survey software is designed to be used for in-depth answer collection when both parties, interviewer and interviewee are in the same room. There are prompts delivered via the software interface on both sides. Entirely web-based survey software is the most common type and is conducted entirely online.
Survey Software Features
Survey software often contains, but is not limited to, the following features:
Survey Builder — Survey software comes with a feature, often a drag-and-drop tool, that enables users to easily build surveys within the solution. This tool allows users to craft every aspect of the survey, including the form of question, the layout of the survey, and more.
Survey Template — Survey solutions typically offer pre-built templates for users to save time when creating surveys. These templates will vary depending on the type of survey being constructed. For example, a survey to gather feedback for academic research will look a lot different from a market research survey put together by a marketing team.
Multimedia Support — Certain surveys work better when there is rich media included. Some survey solutions offer the ability to include multimedia like images, videos, and more.
Analytics — This feature allows users to gain insights from the data collected within the software. The analytics capabilities within survey software can range from fairly basic to quite complex, with the ability to have different types of weighting, filtering, and multivariable analysis.
Email Distribution — Use email to distribute survey questions. This feature may be an integration or just built in to the application itself.
Mobility — This feature allows users to distribute surveys via mobile devices, which is an increasingly important feature to have, as people spend more time and conduct more activity on their phones and tablets than ever before.
Additional Survey Software Features
Multilingual Support — The ability to produce surveys in multiple languages can be vital if conducting international data collection.
White-Labeling — This feature allows users to completely brand their surveys with their company or organization logo and feel. The fully branded survey may be helpful in raising brand awareness.
Answer Scoring — Survey software can calculate survey scores automatically, which is dependent on the scoring algorithm for each survey. The algorithm sets the weight of different questions to determine the final score.
Answer Flows — This feature handles the survey’s reaction to different answers that are given. As users go through the survey, different paths may be taken, depending on their answers to certain questions.
Potential Issues with Survey Software
Subpar Answers — This is a potential issue that can hamper the data collection process, particularly during anonymous surveys. If someone’s name is not attached to something, they might feel less of an obligation to fill out answers to the extent they otherwise might.
Survey Question Ambiguity — This issue is not exclusive to surveys conducted with survey software but is still something to be aware of. If a company wants to use the data gathered by their survey, it should ensure that the open-ended questions are clear and the answers can be standardized. Ambiguities in the questions can lead to bad data, which then defeats the purpose of carrying the survey out in the first place.
Privacy — The issue of survey data being exposed is always a concern, so organizations should take extra steps to ensure that the data they collect is being protected.
