What You Need to Know about Surveys

by Amanda Kaiser

We have some BIG, important questions

We wonder, how do we:

Attract?

Engage?

Retain?

Research is creating new knowledge.- Neil Armstrong

Customer research can save us!

1. Protect us from making bad decisions.2. Tell us about things we are unaware of.

Research can grow us!

Research can be misleading so we have to be careful!

Most of us do not conduct research because of the…

expense, time and mystique but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Research insights need to be…

Accurate

Actionable

Complete

Start with a GOAL first• What problem are we solving?• For who?• What will we do with the results?• What kind of resources do we have for this

project?

What method should we choose?

Depends on the questions we have

What(Quantitative)

SurveysData

Feedback

Why /How(Qualitative)

Focus groupsInterviews

Observation

There are 2 categories of questions

What-type insights

•What did they choose?•What satisfaction rating will they give us? •What media do they consume?•What raking will they give our benefits?•What content is most popular on our site?•What subject matter is most interesting?

Surveys

Satisfaction over timeWhat is going on

Surveys

Good for mapping trends over time

Surveys

Terrible for answering the questions we really need answered. http://goo.gl/YIdbPE

Your data

• Spot problems• Understand preference for existing offerings• Define segments

Feedback

Solve problems in the moment

Why-type insights

Discovery

Context

Detail

Why-type insights

•Why did they join/purchase/donate?•Why are they loyal? •What are they challenged with and WHY?•How does the problem feel to them?•What are their goals and WHY?

These are the questions we really need answered

Focus groups

• Get an overview of key issues• Signal staff is listening

BUT focus groups can be misleading if not done correctly

Observation

Discover what is not talked about

Phone interviews

Understand their problems AND the context behind their problems

Phone interviews

Preferred method to answer our big questions plus this method is accurate, complete and actionable.

Limitation of research

Yes, ask respondents about their problems. No, don’t ask them to predict.

Research process

1. Define the goal

2. Identify who we are studying

3. Select the methodology

4. Detail the questions to be answered

“We figure out what we want.”

- Steve Jobs

Not conducting customer research might work for

Apple but it does not work for us.

Amanda KaiserKaiser Insights LLC

Find more resources like this at: SmoothThePath.net