3 reasons to use online customer surveys

By Kim Komando

What's one of the fastest-growing business uses of the Web? If you answered online customer surveys, you get a gold star.

Telephone and mail surveys have been used for decades, mostly by corporations. You've no doubt been called by a surveyor at one time or another, wanting to know how important ring around the collar is to you.

Online surveys are more affordable and can generate valuable customer feedback in a much shorter time frame. Here are three reasons to use them in your business.

1. Online surveys are cheaper than traditional surveying methods.

The Web has revolutionized survey taking. According to Lee Smith, president of InsightExpress, an online market research firm, Internet surveys cost only 10% of those conducted by phone. And they also run just 20% of what mail surveys cost, he says.

What can an online survey tell you? You can survey your customers on the value of a new product. You can find out if people find your Web site useful and why (or why not). You can discover what and why people buy, and why people don't. You can even find out who the heck is coming to your site.

Smith says his company was established in 1999 to tap the small-business market. Its business has nearly doubled in every year since. Although he has some large customers, much of InsightExpress' emphasis remains on small business. The company defines small business as anything under $50 million in annual revenues. But Smith says his company does business with many one-person shops and businesses with just a few employees.

Small businesses that know what they need can do a survey for less than $1,000. This is a do-it-yourself experience. InsightExpress' templates help shape the survey questions. When the customer finishes with the templates, an expert at InsightExpress reviews the survey.

Not only are online surveys cheap; they're also quick. If you provide the people to be surveyed (for instance, your customer list), results can come back within hours.

2. Online surveys are better than Web site feedback forms.

So what about feedback forms on Web sites? Lots of sites use these. But according to Marc Ryan, director of analysis for Nielsen/NetRatings, feedback forms often attract a preponderance of unhappy people. Online surveys will give you a much more rounded view, he says.

The response to telephone surveys today has dropped to about 30% or less. Ten years ago, it was more like 50%. Telemarketers are to blame, Ryan says. People just don't want to be bothered with phone calls.

However, the response rate on Internet surveys is even lower. Basically, they're easy to ignore, whereas many people still have trouble saying no to someone on the phone. But the marginal cost of e-mail is basically nothing. So finding enough people to respond is not a problem.

"Small business is moving online a lot quicker (than larger companies)," Ryan says. "The logic makes sense."

Ryan is a big believer in Internet surveys. But he points out some disadvantages. In phone surveys, callers often ask, "Is there anything more?" The question can garner additional valuable nuggets of information. That is more difficult on the Web. "You can't really push people on the Internet," Ryan says.

Insight Express' Smith, on the other hand, says getting additional feedback doesn't have to a problem. His company's forms provide a space for additional comments. He acknowledged that some people add nothing, or just a few words. But others have plenty to say. The additional comments, he says, can be "tremendously insightful."

3. You can test-drive online surveys for free.

You don't necessarily have to pay for a survey. A few sites offer free surveys. SurveyMonkey.com, for example, allows 10 questions on its free surveys and up to 100 responses per survey.

SurveyMonkey also sells a professional subscription for $19.95 per month. It offers 1,000 responses per month. No contract is required, and the number of surveys is unlimited. SurveyMonkey does not put its logo on the survey; you can add your logo, if you'd like.

The professional program offers a pop-up ad for your site. That can be used to direct your customers to the survey. When the survey respondents are finished, they can be redirected back to your site, or anywhere else you choose.

SurveyMonkey offers a filtering system to find trends in the survey responses. And customers can download the results into Microsoft Excel or statistics software.

But people often don't know how to interpret their results, says NetRatings' Ryan. So they hire a full-service shop such as his to analyze them.

The questions can be a real problem. "Asking questions is tricky," Ryan says, noting that poorly worded questions can bias a respondent. Smith says that is why his company reviews their customers' surveys before they go live.

"Many of our customers are first-time market researchers," Smith says. "While we believe in technology, we think there needs to be a review of the survey." The biggest beneficiary likely will be you and your business.