I recently took a survey sponsored by the Hertz Corporation, intended to assess the appeal of several new approaches to services. This post discusses some of the problems I found, and why you should avoid creating your surveys like this one. [Read More]
Methodology
Valentine’s Day: think about seasonality and annual trends
Whether or not you have a retail product or service, there are lessons to be learned from Valentine’s Day. What are the annual seasonal variations in your business and what are the trends over longer periods? How do trends affect your research? [Read More]
QR codes not hitting the spot
Many marketing people have been promoting the value of QR codes for quite a while. After all, the promise seems obvious – post a targeted code somewhere, make it easy for someone to reach the website, and track the results of different campaigns. Studies such as this February 2011 survey from Baltimore based agency MGH [Read More]
IT terminology applied to surveys
James Murray is principal of Seattle IT Edge, a strategic consultancy that melds the technology of IT with the business issues that drive IT solutions. When James gave me a list of things that are central for IT professionals, I thought it might be fun (and hopefully useful) to connect these terms with online surveys [Read More]
Survey Tip: Pay Attention to the Details
Why survey creators need to pay more attention to the details of wording, question types and other matters that not only affect results but also how customers view the company. A recent survey from Sage Software had quite a few issues, and gives me the opportunity to share some pointers. The survey was for follow [Read More]
Impact of cell phones on 2010 Midterms and beyond politics
Whether you are a political junkie or not, recent articles and analysis about mobile phones as part of data collection should be of interest to those who design or commission survey research. Cost, bias, and predictability are key issues. In years gone by, cell phone users were rarely included in surveys. There was uncertainty about [Read More]
Why you should run statistical tests
A recent article in the Seattle Times covering a poll by Elway Research gives me an opportunity to discuss statistical testing. The description of the methodology indicates, as I’d expect, that the poll was conducted properly to achieve a representative sample: About the poll: Telephone interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers with 405 voters [Read More]
Poor question design means questionable results: A tale of a confusing scale
I saw the oddest question in a survey the other day. The question itself wasn’t that odd, but the options for responses were very strange to me. 1 – Not at all Satisfied 2 – Not at all Satisfied 3 – Not at all Satisfied 4 – Not at all Satisfied 5 – Not at [Read More]
SurveyTip: Get to the point, but be polite
A survey should aim to be like a conversation. Online surveys don’t have humans involved to listen to how someone feels about the survey, to reword for clarity or to encourage, so you have to work harder to generate comfort. Although you don’t want to take too long (the number one complaint of survey takers [Read More]
Van Westendorp pricing (the Price Sensitivity Meter)
This is a follow up to classes I taught that included a short section on pricing research methodologies. I promised some more details on the Van Westendorp approach, in part because information available online may be confusing, or worse. This article is intended to be a practitioner’s guide for those conducting their own research. [Read More]