Choosing your survey strategy

Which Opinionmeter approach is best for you depends on your information-gathering needs. Opinionmeter clients can mix and match surveys on fixed and mobile devices, phones, online and paper to meet their needs, always confident that collected responses can be seamlessly aggregated and reported across all approaches.

Point-of-experience polling

There is an important difference between point-of-experience surveying of customers and other approaches which have an implicit time-lag. Annual mail-out “satisfaction” surveys, for example, serve a purpose in many companies but are completely useless in capturing time-critical feedback. Paper forms will usually be taken away to be filled-out later. Online feedback forms accessed via a company’s website are nearly always going to be used hours, days or even weeks after-the-fact, (though the proliferation of internet-capable mobile SmartPhones is changing this). If you want quicker, fresher feedback, a different approach is required. That’s where Opinionmeter shines, with point-of-experience polling.

Asking your customers to answer questions or share opinions when they are “in your space” is always going to give the freshest data, driven by their experience right now.

Device choice

In queuing situations, or when customers are entering or leaving your premises, the on-stand kiosk may be the best choice. Remember, though, it needs mains power. Prominent signage on or nearby the kiosk can draw customers’ attention. It’s rugged and tamperproof, too, so is more suitable than some other device choices for low-supervision areas, and can be bolted-down if theft is a potential problem. Wall-mount options are also available.

In at-the-counter, on-desk or other similar service point situations, a kiosk may work if there is sufficient space, but a smaller footprint device like the iPad or Tablet-PC may be superior.

There are several hand-held options, from the medium-sized iPad and Tablet, to the smaller stylus-driven PDA, then smaller still to the ultra-slim iPod(Touch) unit. Your device choice may need to take into account whether your staff will use these devices (in an intercept survey situation, for example), or whether the device will be given to, and held by, the customer. Securing the devices, whether they are likely to be dropped or not, and whether they need to be used in conjunction with other materials (like exhibits or written matter) will all influence the choice. Various mounting options are available, from covers for the iPad, to a clip-board-based mount for the iPod(Touch). Kiosk-style mounting options (free-standing and desk-based) for the iPad will soon be available as well, widening the choices.

Online(web) surveying

With the remarks above regarding time-lag acknowledged, Online (web) surveys remain a very useful part of a cohesive customer survey strategy. For example, it could be sensible to have Opinionmeter online surveys present the same questions as those on in-store devices, in situations where part of the customer base has a virtual rather than physical relationship with the company. Online responses can later merge seamlessly for reporting purposes with data collected from touch-screen devices.

Online surveys have two broad options:

The survey can be Public (unrestricted), accessed by clicking the URL dedicated to your survey which is visible / accessible to anyone visiting your site; or
The survey can be Private, that is, by-invitation-only. In this option, the URL accessing your survey is typically emailed to the customer. The survey has a “use-once” feature per invitation. The wording of the invitation email, its delivery timing and the recipient list are all managed by you, through the Opinionmeter Survey Manager console. Address lists can be imported from various sources.

Paper-based surveys

These have many uses. They can augment device-based and online surveys, or stand alone to serve special needs. Opinionmeter makes paper-based mark-sense (colour-in the relevant dot) customer surveys simple to create. Marked responses are read by a desktop scanner and loaded to the Opinionmeter database. This makes it simple to use paper forms to ask the same questions as the devices and/or the online surveys, and to merge all answers seamlessly for reporting.