Thinking About Surveys

Surveys have long been a mainstay in the market research industry.  Scientific surveys go back to the 1930s and in succeeding decades have evolved as technology changed.  Door-to-door and mail-in methodologies succumbed to telephone surveys by the 1960s and with the new century email/online surveys have become widespread.  As deployment costs have decreased with the new technologies the number of surveys have rocketed out of control.  And with that there have been corroding response rates and poorer data quality.  At the same time peoples' privacy has been diminished with ever-intrusive data collection applications.

What that means to the small business is that surveys must be used with care when performing market research.  Customers are likely to be much more resistant than in past years to taking a survey and providing information.  And there is a risk that they may become upset with businesses that deploy surveys.

What's the answer?  There is a lot to learn from other data that a business may collect.  One solution is to meet market research needs by mining these data for clues about segments and cross-selling opportunities.  POS systems, billing databases, and email are all inputs that can contribute.  But even with these, there are questions that can only come from a direct question to a customer or prospect.  How to do that without annoying that person?

One strategy is to ask very little, even one question.  Survey sparingly.  And provide a benefit to the prospect.  Perhaps a discount coupon code for each person who participates.  Another strategy is to use alternative methodologies.  Invite a few customers to engage in a conversation with you in exchange for a coupon or special deal.  Or, each time you speak with someone on the phone ask a question and add the response to your phone log.

The bottom line is that surveys must be used with care at least until there is some shift in the marketplace from the way surveys are now used.  I strongly recommending taking stock of other data and creatively seeking your answers from that source.