The increase in the use of email and the Internet as well as corporate intranets has opened new options for gathering information with self-administered questionnaires. Software is currently available to post surveys on your website or email them to respondents to complete. The survey can be completed online and submitted directly to a database, thereby significantly reducing or even eliminating data entry. 

Advantages of Online Surveys  

The most notable advantage of online surveys over mailing questionnaires is a very quick turnaround of responses. You often can get responses within a few hours or even minutes.

Also, after the initial investment to purchase the software—available from companies such as Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Vovici, or Survey Gizmo—and training time to learn the software, the cost of distribution and analysis of the results is minimal. There is no postage and in many cases few, if any, data-entry requirements, because the software often captures the responses for you.

Many software packages also provide rudimentary data-analysis components, giving you virtually instant tabulations and graphs of your data.

Finally, many survey platforms allow you to customize the path participants take through the survey based on their responses to specified questions. This is referred to as skip logic, and it is extremely useful when you want respondents to see only certain questions based on some answer they give. 

Disadvantages of Online Surveys 

There are, however, some disadvantages to using online survey software. First, some of the people in your target population may not have access to computers, email, or the Internet. Or you may not have email addresses for all members of the population. If you decide to include in your sample only those people who have access and for whom you have an email address, you could get a biased sample.

Second, spam filters may prevent your emails from being delivered to their intended recipients. This could negatively affect your response rate. Third, you may need to invest time and money to procure the appropriate software and learn how to use it. If you do not have adequate funds or have little time to learn the software, the electronic version may not be the best choice. 

Questions to Consider 

When contemplating using email or the Internet to distribute a questionnaire, ask these questions:

• Is the population computer literate enough to complete the questionnaire? 

• Which sections of the population will you be missing if you use this method? (Who does not have access to computers or the web?) 

• Will this method of surveying intimidate or scare some people away? 

• Will this method of surveying bias any of the responses? 

• How much money can you invest in software? 

• Do you have the time and interest necessary to learn a new piece of software? Does your organization already have the expertise to help you?  

• If sending by email, do you have email addresses for the sample?  

• If posting the questionnaire on the Internet or a corporate intranet, how will you get people to come to the page to complete the survey? 

Software Considerations  

Software is available from a wide variety of companies, too varied and frequently changing to list here. Search the web for the most currently available software. Most established vendors will have a website and often will have a demo version or trial version that you can download directly from their site. Determine which software is compatible with the computer system you have available.

Many currently available software products include a library of questions to help you design your questionnaires, but some may not be able to handle certain types of questions, such as ranking or open-ended questions. Consider how you plan to analyze the data collected.

If the software does not include a data-analysis component, check to see if it saves the data in a format you can import into the software you plan to use for analysis. Other considerations include the number of responses or questions allowed, and availability of on-call help.

Check out a few different software products to determine which is right for you, and check whether the company offers a money-back guarantee if the software does not meet your needs.

For more advice on how to make the most of online surveys, check out TD at Work “Surveys From Start to Finish.”