|
Since the technology first became available, the application of web and email surveys has been somewhat dubious. Legitimate concerns about the medium's representativeness have held back Internet market-researching from realizing its potential. But the proliferation of PCs and Internet access in the past few years has made such electronic survey options more viable approaches to data collection.
The Basics
If you haven't become fully immersed in this research approach just yet, please allow me to share some basics about these related methodologies before we discuss appropriate applications.
Web and email surveys are electronic forms of data capture. Email surveys are typically nothing more than a flat file with no logic capabilities not much in the way of formatting options. They are sophisticated enough, however, to capture information without requiring key entry on the back-end, and they lend themselves easily to respondent tracking, if desired. Email surveys are sent directly to targeted individuals on your mailing list and include a cover letter invitation with the survey appended.
Web surveys, on the other hand, are capable of skip patterns and other logic. Formatting is limited only by your imagination and budget, including thte use of still photography, video, and audio. Web surveys can be passively administered (by asking those who visit your site to complete a survey), or aggressively implemented (by issuing an invitation to complete a survey on the client's or supplier's web site).
Internet-Based Survey Applications
Web and email surveys are appropriate in situations where access to the Internet or to email is available to most, if not all, of your targeted universe.
From a corporate perspective this includes most business customers or prospects, especially those of a technical ilk, and possibly employees as well.
From a consumer perspective, until there is greater Internet penetration, fewer applications for electronic surveys exist. However, e-commerce is rapidly making inroads into non-technical industries, and as companies like Amazon.com and Ebay continue to post increasing revenues, the number of consumers reachable through this medium will only parallel that exploding growth.
In the not so distant future, as respondent representativeness becomes even less of an issue, you can anticipate more and more consumer research conducted via the web. From concept and packaging tests, to assessing reaction to print, radio and television advertising, web surveys are likely to supplant mall intercepts and mall surveys for many research applications.
|
