How to Create Online Surveys that Get Effective Results

You have probably seen various types of surveys on the web but may be wondering how to create online surveys that get the best results. With good survey results, you can gather important information about your audience, find ways to improve your products and services, and increase conversions.

To get useful results, it is important to do surveys right and create surveys that are clear, concise, and short since users have short attention spans and are often on mobile devices. In this article, we examine how you can ask better questions, when to run surveys, types of surveys to run and how to get the best results.

Why Create a Survey?
Surveys can help you to answer important questions about your business such as what software features are working for your customers and what is not working, and what changes they would like to have made. Encourage the readers of your surveys to give you detailed answers so that you get the specifics. Surveys show that you care about what your customers think and want to make improvements.

Choosing the Survey Type
Your survey should be relevant to your business, customers, and industry. Closed-ended “yes and no” questions are easier for people to answer but do not give you details. So, to benefit both you and your survey takers, combine closed-ended questions with open-ended questions. You might start out with a closed-ended question, then ask one or two open-ended questions, and then wrap up with a follow-up question. Here is an example:

1. Did our product make it easier for you to create videos? (Yes/No)

2. How did our product make things easier for you?

3. Did you have any questions before purchasing our product? What were they?

4. How did our product improve your video-creating experience?  (follow-up)

How to Create Online Surveys for a Certain Audience
One of the audience segments that you can survey is your current customers. For example, you might ask them how they are liking your product so far and if they need any assistance with it.

Another segment you might survey is long-term customers who are happy with what you are offering. If you keep them happy, they can become brand advocates and recommend you to others. You might ask them what is the likelihood of them recommending your brand.

For those customers who stopped using your product or service, you might ask them why they left. This will help to reduce the number of customers who leave.

Surveys Based on User Actions
If someone begins to take an action on your site but then stops, you might have a survey pop up that asks them why they stopped.

You can also create a survey to ask customers about their navigation experience on your site and what could be improved.

Another action based survey is a post-conversion survey in which you can ask customers why they purchased or why they choose a certain product option over another. Right after the conversion is a good time to ask on the thank you page, because the customer is feeling good about their purchase and is more likely to answer detailed questions.