Surveys are a powerful tool for gathering feedback and insights from customers, employees, non-customers, and other stakeholders.
However, conducting surveys in-house can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and the results may not always be objective or trustworthy.
That's where third-party surveys come in.
By outsourcing online surveys to a third-party market research company, businesses and organizations can save time and resources while ensuring the integrity and impartiality of the results.
In this blog post, we'll explore the definition of third-party surveys, their advantages, and their importance in today's fast-paced business environment.
Interested in working with a third-party survey company, like Drive Research? Get in touch with our team by completing an online contact form or emailing [email protected].
What Is A Third-Party Survey?
A third-party survey is a type of questionnaire that is conducted by an external organization or entity, which is independent of the company or organization being surveyed.
In other words, the third party conducting the market research survey (such as an online survey company) is not affiliated with your company or organization being surveyed and is therefore considered an unbiased source of information.
Types Of Third-Party Surveys
Third-party surveys can be used to gather feedback and insights from a variety of stakeholders, such as customers, employees, or the general public. They are typically administered using various methods such as online surveys, phone surveys, or in-person surveys.
Here are some common types:
- Customer satisfaction surveys: Businesses use these surveys to identify areas for improvement and to gauge customer loyalty. It is important to partner with a customer survey company so that they blind the study, allowing customers to feel comfortable giving their 100% honest feedback.
- Employee surveys: To accurately measure and assess the level of engagement, satisfaction, and morale among employees, organizations often use a third party for employee surveys. Again, this allows employees to feel confident their answers will remain confidential and their answers will not impact their position in the company.
- Market surveys: Businesses use market research surveys to collect insights from their target audience, including customers and non-customers. The data helps them make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and market positioning.
Advantages of Third-Party Surveys
Whether you're a business owner, market researcher, or HR professional, understanding the benefits of third-party surveys can help you make informed decisions and improve your bottom line.
The benefits of conducting third-party surveys include:
1. Trusted expertise
As a full-service market research firm, Drive Research knows the ins and outs of market research.
When you decide to work with a third party for your survey, you’ll be sure your survey is written, fielded, and analyzed with expertise.
Working with a third party ensures questions are written to yield the most accurate, high-quality data, providing your company with the best possible insights.
Plus, third-party survey companies often can reach your target audience more effectively through in-house panels, vendor connections, and social media.
Recommended Reading: Six Common Survey Writing Mistakes
2. Easily source survey respondents
One of the most challenging components of conducting an online survey is finding qualified respondents. Online survey market research companies have access to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.
Regardless of age, gender, household income, job title, or other key demographics that make up your target audience - a third-party research firm can easily find these respondents.
Additionally, there will be no concern with vetting that these are actual people taking your survey, rather than fake online survey bots.
Throughout fieldwork, market research companies like Drive Research will validate the feedback by looking for duplicate responses, streamlined answers, and other important data quality checks.
3. Bring in fresh perspectives
Chances are, you interact with customers, employees, and other key stakeholders of your company almost daily. When it comes to market research, hiring a third-party survey company means fresh sets of eyes and ears to bring new perspectives to the problems at hand.
While in-house market research may seem initially seem appealing, you and your team need to consider all of the biases in market research that may occur throughout the process.
Outsourcing your survey ensures fresh perspectives and minimizes biases, providing your company with the best possible data.
4. Ensure confidentiality and anonymity
Thinking about conducting an employee satisfaction survey? While it may seem simple, an in-house survey won’t result in high-quality data in these situations.
Without confidentiality or anonymity, it’s impossible to know how accurate the survey feedback is.
If an employee can be tied back to their responses, they’re more likely to not be forthcoming about issues they’re having.
Therefore, using a third party for employee surveys ensures employee feedback is as honest and accurate as possible.
In return, your company will be able to make the important changes it needs to increase workplace satisfaction and motivation.
The same can be said when conducting customer satisfaction surveys.
5. Earn more high-quality data
Gathering high-quality data is one of the most challenging aspects of conducting online surveys. But the good news is that outsourcing your online survey to a third-party service provider can help you with this.
Market research survey companies like Drive Research have the expertise and resources to design and conduct surveys optimized for high response rates and high-quality data.
We use techniques such as randomized sampling, survey testing, fraud detection, and data validation to ensure that the data collected is accurate, reliable, and high-quality.
With this information, brands can make data-driven decisions based on facts–not just speculation.
To learn more about survey testing and data cleaning, read our blog: Online Survey Testing: What to Look for Before Hitting Send.
Why Working With A Third-Party Survey Company Matters
The success of online surveys depends on the quality of the data collected. High-quality data is crucial to ensure that the results of the survey are accurate and dependable.
With accurate and reliable data, you can identify patterns, trends, and relationships in the data, which can be used to gain insights and inform decision-making.
Better analysis leads to better outcomes and a more successful survey.
Additionally, high-quality data is cost-effective.
Collecting low-quality data can lead to additional costs, such as the need to conduct more surveys or correct errors in the data collected.
When you decide to work with a third-party survey company from the outset, you can save time and money.
What is the Cost of Third-Party Surveys?
The cost of third-party surveys can vary depending on several factors, such as the scope of the survey, the size of the sample population, the level of detail required, and the complexity of the questions.
In general, third-party survey costs will range from $8,000 to $40,000 including consultation, design, programming, data collection, and reporting.
Watch as our online survey company talks about these factors in greater detail.
Final Thoughts
Conducting third-party surveys carries many advantages - as you now know.
In short, these include:
- Access to online survey experts
- A larger pool of respondents
- Bringing in new perspectives
- Ensuring confidentiality
- Quality assurance
- Time and cost savings
It can also help you earn more high-quality data, which can lead to better insights and more informed decisions.
If you are considering conducting a survey, it is worth outsourcing the task to a third-party service provider to ensure that you get the best results.
Contact Our Online Survey Agency
Are you interested in working with a third-party survey company? Contact us for a rate sheet or custom proposal for your survey project.
We will consult with you from end to end to give you exactly what you need for your market research project.
Contact us through one of the four options below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Rodgers
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
