There are numerous advantages of online surveys, both for researchers and respondents.
Online surveys are faster, cheaper, easier to make, and quicker to analyze. From the perspective of participants, they are engaging, easy to access and answer, and anonymous.
Even though there are both pros and cons of online surveys, the advantages of online surveys far surpass their less positive aspects. Continue reading to find out about online survey advantages and disadvantages.
1. Low-cost: One of the greatest benefits of online surveys
Low cost is one of the main advantages of online questionnaires. Be it market research or education research, using online surveys and questionnaires greatly reduces research costs because everything is easier, faster, and automated.
Unlike telephone and in-person questionnaires, online surveys don’t require a dedicated location to be conducted. You save money on staff, who would otherwise have to organize and conduct the surveys, as well as on the printing and distributing required when using paper-based surveys.
Additionally, there is no need to use resources and time on analyzing data manually, since online surveys store and analyze it automatically.
If you are worried about the cost of online survey platforms, there’s no need to be. Multiple affordable online survey websites can help you create surveys, including SurveyPlanet.
At SurveyPlanet, you get numerous useful features as part of the free account. These features include unlimited surveys, questions, responses, SSL security, survey embedding, and much more.
But if you want to upgrade to a Pro account and access more features, that can still happen at a low-cost thanks to our affordable pricing plans.
2. Flexible design for a survey that stands out
Online surveys are also very easy to style. An eye-pleasing and visually engaging online survey increases your response rate and helps customers remember your brand and its unique style.
At SurveyPlanet, we are well aware of the importance and effectiveness of the visual aspect of online questionnaires. That is why we offer clean and beautiful pre-made survey themes that will impress every customer.
With a Pro account, you also get the opportunity to make custom themes, use images in questions and answers, style surveys the way you want, and ultimately create your own way of communicating with your target audience.
3. Advanced branding options for a more successful business
Branding your survey is crucial if you want to enhance brand awareness. With many businesses on the market, and the huge amount of visual input customers are exposed to every day, you need to stand out if you want to be remembered.
And what better way to stand out than to develop a solid brand personality, through both tone of voice and visual content?
Apart from gathering information that will be valuable in market research, online surveys also can amplify your brand personality. In order to accomplish that, it’s important to use your brand colors, fonts, and logo, all of which you can easily do by using our white label surveys, URL redirecting to your website, and even custom survey URLs.
4. Large samples and better reach give you greater insights
Another of the many advantages of online surveys, and one not possible until this century, is that you can reach a large audience all across the globe.
This is particularly important for multinational companies doing business with clients from all around the world. Taking a small sample size and assuming this feedback accurately represents the opinion of the majority of consumers is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when doing market research.
With online surveys, you can get feedback from customers from different countries in the blink of an eye. All you need to do is create a survey, then share it via email, social media, or your website.
5. More accurate data leads to better business decisions
Data collected with online surveys is more accurate than traditional survey methods because the information you gather is automatically stored. This means that survey answers are stored exactly as your customer typed them, not as they are interpreted after the fact.
With traditional methods, the staff is responsible for typing in the gathered data, during which mistakes can sneak in.
Additionally, when participants are left alone with their survey they are more likely to be honest when filling it out, as opposed to being swayed by an interviewer.
6. Real-time results enable fast reaction
Since was all live in a fast-paced world, the average customer expects instant information and services. So when there’s something wrong with the way your business is going, you need to fix it fast to retain customers’ trust. Otherwise, they may lose interest in your brand and start using your competitors’ services.
With online surveys, you get fast and accurate results. Respondents’ answers are automatically stored on your account and you can access them even before the survey is completed so that you can prepare to act fast and improve your services.
7. Easy and automatized data analysis
When you have real-time access to the information you gather, you can start analyzing data even before you collected all of it. This helps you take the first steps in improving your business when you’ve noticed something is not working.
But that is not the only advantage of online surveys. When it comes to data analysis, if you use the right online survey tool you get access to features that will help you easily and accurately analyze gathered feedback.
With SurveyPlanet, you can use results filtering, cross-tabulation, and export gathered data to different formats. For enterprise users, we offer access to live analytics through survey insights.
8. Online surveys are convenient for respondents
Respondents are the most important part of a survey. Out of all the advantages of online surveys, their ease of use for respondents is no doubt the most important one.
Online surveys are extremely convenient for your customers—more convenient than any other survey research method. With online surveys, every customer can answer your questions at their own pace, whenever they have time for it.
This means you avoid unanswered questions or inaccurately answered ones, which often occurs when participants rush to finish a survey.
9. Online surveys have a higher response rate
Poor timing is the biggest culprit for low response rates. Customers want to answer surveys only when they have time and desire to do it. A higher degree of convenience results in a higher response rate.
With online surveys, respondents can choose when they will fill out your survey, making them less likely to ignore your survey altogether.
10. You get access to more honest answers
As already mentioned, a customer is more likely to provide more honest answers when filling out an online survey.
This is because people feel more comfortable expressing their honest opinion when they are not being interviewed in person or by telephone. Moreover, if you make your online survey anonymous, you gather even more honest feedback.
If your survey is anonymous, make sure to tell your participants and explain how you will protect their personal information.
Disadvantages of online surveys: Here’s what to look out for
Along with the numerous advantages of online surveys, there are also a couple of disadvantages. The limitations of online surveys revolve around the inability of a researcher to create a good survey, along with dishonest responses which can lead to inaccurate results.
Here are the main disadvantages of online surveys—and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Survey fraud greatly affects survey responses
The biggest challenge in conducting online survey research is survey fraud. If your survey is too long, or your questions are confusing or misleading, it can affect survey responses.
People will be more likely to choose random answers or skip certain questions altogether, in order to finish a poorly-worded survey. That is why, to get truthful responses, it is important to create questions carefully.
If you’re not sure what you want to ask, or how to word your questions, our many survey samples and pre-written questions are all available with a free account.
Another aspect of survey fraud is people completing surveys just to get the promised incentive. Although it is recommended to offer incentives as a way of increasing the survey response rate, keep in mind that there can be people who will want to take advantage of this.
2. Survey fatigue: Be careful not to wear your participants out
Even if your questions are concise and to the point, it doesn’t mean you’ve made a good survey. You can still ask too many questions, which will result in survey fatigue.
Long surveys can get tiresome and respondents lose their focus and interest. As a result, responses stop being honest. A good way to avoid this is to use question branching. This feature offers you the opportunity to ask relevant questions to each participant.
You can choose which questions respondents will get based on their previous answers, which spares them from having to answer unnecessary questions and reduces the time needed to complete the survey.
3. Sampling issues: Define your target audience
Be careful when choosing the group of people you send surveys to.
The first and most important thing to do is to define your target audience. You need to know who your average customer is, including their purchasing habits, and what they expect from the products and services they buy. Then, be aware of the two most common sampling errors.
The first is choosing a sample that is not big enough. If you base your entire research on the opinion of a small group of people, changes you eventually make may not get you the results you expect.
The second is to make sure your sample is diverse. Even a big group of respondents won’t provide you with accurate data if they all come from the same background. If your customers come from different countries and different age groups, make sure you have respondents from each of these.
Your sample should represent your average customer. Only then can you generalize answers and expect good results.
4. Common errors in research and how to avoid them
Many errors can occur during survey research, both on the researcher’s and the respondent’s part.
We’ve already discussed those of researchers—mainly sampling errors and problems related to creating questions. The order of questions can also influence participants’ responses.
Those related to the participants are called response biases. For example, a customer may choose socially desirable answers or tend to agree or disagree with questions regardless of their true opinion.
To avoid these errors, make sure your questions follow a logical flow and are neutrally worded. Offer a sufficient number of questions, or better yet, always allow skipping a question or typing in their own answer. That way they won’t be forced to choose an answer they don’t agree with.
Online survey advantages and disadvantages always come in pairs, but if you know how to avoid the mistakes that can occur, you can enjoy all the advantages they have to offer.
In order to make the process easier, you need a good survey tool that will help both in the making and analyzing of questionnaires. Sign up for a free SurveyPlanet account and start making amazing online surveys!
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