What questions should you ask yourself to help you evaluate your company’s survey software solutions needs?
In this 12-part blog series, we will discuss the 12 pertinent questions you should ask yourself and provide the advice you need to enable you to compare all of the available survey software solutions on the market.
What is the best survey software solution on the market today? There’s certainly not one answer to this loaded question, and there is certainly no cookie-cutter solution that will fit everyone’s needs. The key to finding the right survey software solution is to first evaluate your company’s needs. Finding the right solution is not as simple as focusing on the cheapest option. After reviewing your company’s needs, you may find that you don’t even need software at all. There are many offerings out there that have surveys built-in that are ready to go, and you can simply sign-up (many times for free) and begin surveying your sample immediately.
Question 1: How many surveys do you intend to develop?
If you intend to develop just one survey or if this may be the very first survey that you’ve designed and administered, then think very carefully about the time it will take you to complete the work. Many survey software solutions take time and effort to learn, and you need to decide whether this is a good use of your time and expertise to take on this function. It may be a better use of your time to outsource your survey development & administration.
Perhaps you intend to design and administer a company-wide survey of your employees for the first time. Employee surveys can include sensitive subject matter. There are a number of qualified consulting groups who do this work for a living, often specializing in specific areas of human resources. These consulting groups have the experience necessary to design a survey with the right questions necessary to meet your research objectives. They may also have the means to offer comparisons (benchmarks) in comparison to other organizations with similar characteristics.
If your answer to this question is “I plan to develop many surveys,” you’ll need to think carefully about your internal resources – do you have the in-house resources to design and administer a survey? Does this individual or team have adequate skills to design a variety of surveys? Will they need specific training in survey design? Who will take on the responsibility of analyzing the survey data? Who will be responsible for interpreting the survey results, write the final report, and present findings?
Next blog post:
Part 2 of a 12 part series. Finding the best survey software solution, Question 2: How many questions will appear in your survey?
