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Stop garbage surveys
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It was almost 17 years ago when I helped pioneer the realm of online surveys. Back then, there was no “Internet” per se, it was more of an intranet vis-à-vis through outlets like Prodigy, Compuserve, and America Online.
While there was skepticism at first over the effectiveness of this methodology, its popularity grew quickly. The two main drivers of this were that you could deploy questionnaires very quickly, and do so very inexpensively, well, at least compared to traditional (paper, telephone, etc.) systems.
By the mid 90’s, my company started seeing a new variant of what we conceived --- Do It Yourself (DIY) web survey tools. Using these “tools”, and I am being generous with that word, companies, individuals, and non-profit groups could deploy all types of polls. Depending on which plan you selected, the cost was very modest, and/or free --- though we all know that there is no such thing as a free lunch!
While this might seem like the end of the story, it is only the first half.
Fast forward to 2009. Today we are seeing a proliferation of web-based surveys. Desperate for information, especially in this economy, organizations are polling their customers, members, clients, prospects and any one else that they can think of in a seemingly non-stop fashion. It would appear that every time someone has an idea, the cry is heard; “lets do a survey.”
There are many problems with this mindset, but, let me address three of the more troubling.
1. Most web-based surveys today are poorly written and ill conceived. Instead of using an experienced professional to craft them, to “save money”, companies are taking the marketing guy or gal and anointing them as the research guru, even though they have no experience or training in this field. As a result, using an old computer term --- garbage in, garbage out. Translation; awful surveys are sent out, and meaningless data is returned back.
2. In nearly every case, the author of the survey doesn’t answer the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) question for the potential responder before they ask. The outcome of this is that buy-in and participation is minimal. The consequence of this is that the results do not offer a solid representative sampling.
3. With the exception of “professional” survey participants who get paid to take surveys, the over-saturation of Internet research has turned people off of this great methodology that still has endless potential in the hands of the right people.
James Siminoff has recently posted some great blog pieces about his own experiences that illustrate some of my points.
As someone who helped create this industry, I feel compelled to help clean it up, which, I will do.
Please send me your best examples of the worst online surveys that you have received. I will be posting a “Top 10 Worst” list in the coming weeks.
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