Free online surveys offer significant benefits to both companies and respondents

While helping companies identify problem areas, respondents get improved services and enhanced product quality in return. However, respondents should be motivated to complete surveys as they often go unnoticed by Internet users. The article suggests a few tips on how to get a survey answered.

Defining objectives

One of the most important steps of creating online surveys is to map out its objectives. It should be done in the very beginning as clearly set goals give a start to the whole survey: they help identify target respondents, choose delivery means and formulate questions. So the first question which should be answered is why free online surveys are created.

Delivering the survey

Delivering the survey may seem to be the easiest part in the whole process; however, Internet users who expect to access the necessary information in a few clicks may just close survey pop-ups or delete unwanted mails. Besides, the survey placed on the website can be completed by any casual browser which may affect the final results. Usually surveys are created for a particular audience so it’s important to determine delivery means. That’s when the question ‘how’ comes into play.

Asking the questions

It is often said that the way questions are asked influences answers so questions for free online surveys should be written with this consideration in mind. Leading questions are not the best solution as they might affect result accuracy; it’s better to use multiple choices, rating scales, agreement scales and check boxes. If the multiple choice seems to be incomplete it makes sense to switch to open-ended questions. Yet, open-ended questions shouldn’t prevail as they take more time and might turn off potential respondents.

Following the order

The shorter the questionnaire, the more responses one can receive. However, there is no guarantee that respondents don’t drop out in the middle of the survey that’s why it’s recommended to start with the most important questions. At the same time free online surveys should flow easily so questions need to be arranged logically.

Being frank

Business people appreciate their time as it might cost them money. Even if target respondents don’t belong to the business world they may have lots of daily errands to run instead of completing surveys so a well-defined time limit is a benefit. Saying that a survey consists of a certain number of questions is not enough as it’s not always clear how long it takes to answer them.

Giving incentives

A good way to drive more traffic to the survey is to give incentives to potential respondents. Even though there are people who simply want to make a difference there are also those who should be persuaded to complete free online surveys. Incentives can come as gifts, coupons, free trials or prizes.

Compiling a survey might require significant time and effort investment. When it comes to surveys for hundreds of respondents, professional help becomes a necessity. Besides, experts can create surveys which are not restricted to pre-set themes and integrate them into the website delivering their customers a completely branded survey.