One of the best tools that a business can use to develop their strategy is the quality survey. Surveys are a great way to learn directly from their customers what is working and what isn’t- and as every good business knows, the customer is always right. There are so many ways that a survey can lead to better business insights. For example, a properly designed survey can help a business see how well their customers are responding to a new product, which of their product mixes are most popular, or which of their practices has been disappointing their customers lately.
There are four main steps to the overall design and execution of a survey. Each is extremely important for making sure that the business is preparing to collect the most helpful data possible. Firstly, a business must determine some core concepts, namely the “five Ws”—WHY, WHAT, WHO, WHEN, and WHERE. The W’s lead to defining the survey’s questions, its goals, its respondent profiles, its chronology, and its format and distribution. After determining these, the survey’s questions must be written. These questions must be clear, objective, and avoid skewing the data in any direction.
The next stage involves distributing the survey out to its respondents and recording their responses. This raw data is then used for the next stage, which is all about converting it into usable information for the business. One of the best ways for a business to properly analyze their results is to convert the responses into a visual format. Some of the most popular methods include bar, line, and pie charts. Each of these charts has their own strength for showcasing specific trends, such as in a chronological format or helping to compare specific values. Armed with the survey and the subsequent graphs, a business can definitely focus on improving their success.
