Choices. Choices. When it comes to market research, you will have a lot of options to choose from. One of the first decisions you'll need to make in-house or through the expert advice of a customer survey company is what type of methodology to move forward with.
The 5 options below all center around quantitative projects. This main focus of quantitative is measurement. This is different from qualitative market research which aims to dig deep and explore. If a customer survey is of particular interest to you or your organization, here are 5 options to consider with a brief explanation of each.
Not sure what direction to head with your customer feedback survey? We're here to help!
Option 1: Email Survey
The most cost effective way to conduct a customer survey is through email. This assumes you have a contact database in-house that can be utilized for invitations and reminders. In addition to low costs, timeliness also plays a large role as to why email surveys are the chosen methodology for a lot of customer surveys. Invites can be sent quickly and the vast majority of replies are received within 24 to 48 hours. Our customer survey company always recommends looking at email as the first option because of these benefits.
Option 2: Website Link
If you do not have email contacts but you do receive a lot of traffic to your website this type of methodology may be a good fit for your organization. This can be accomplished through a: (1) pop-up survey or (2) pop-up ad which takes the respondent to a survey screen off-site. The website link relies on visitors to a website to interact and take your survey. Because engagement here is low, this is a numbers game. You need to have enough traffic to support a potential click-thru rate as low as 2% or less.
Option 3: Intercept Survey
If you have a lot of customers or foot traffic to a retail location or other establishment, an intercept survey may be a good option for you. With this type of customer survey, intercept interviewers are staffed on-site to collect feedback from patrons as they travel to your site. The interviewers are typically equipped with tablets or clipboards to record responses. These are excellent for retail locations, stores, events, concerts, and other establishments that draw large crowds. In-the-moment research collected on-the-spot is always more accurate than data collected at a later date.
Option 4: Mail Survey
If email surveys are not doable based on your database, a mail survey might be an option. Particularly if you want to contact each customer and invite them to take your survey. With this methodology, your organization sends a cover letter in addition to the survey document to explain the what, how, and why of the process. The mail survey accompanies the cover letter. The cover letter and survey is printed, assembled, packaged, and mailed to households. Surveys are returned through a pre-paid postage envelope and is data entered by the customer survey company.
Option 5: Phone Survey
The final survey option is a phone survey. This offers an excellent opportunity for two-way communication between interviewers and interviewees. Unlike all of the other options outside of the intercept survey, this option focuses on person-to-person (P2P) communication. This methodology utilizes a team of callers to dial through a list and complete a phone survey using CATI. Your organization will need to have phone numbers to make this one possible.
Contact Our Team
Drive Research is a customer survey company in New York State. We work with clients in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and others across the United States.
Interested in learning more about our customer surveys? Contact us at 315-303-2040 or send us an email at [email protected].