 | Medium: $15-$19 per month |
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 | High: $162-$500+ per month |
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| Online survey and polling tools have vastly simplified the process of gathering and analyzing feedback from customers, employees -- and the world at large. These tools allow users to create online questionnaires, using available templates if desired, then e-mail or post a link to the survey so contacts can submit responses via the web. Results can then be analyzed in "real time." | | |
| Typical costs: | - For businesses with minimal survey needs and small distribution lists, it is possible to take advantage of these tools at no cost. Some limitations apply. SurveyMonkey, for instance, offers no templates, downloads or reports for trial users and allows only100 responses per survey.
- Both SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang offer monthly packages around $19 per month. Zoomerang offers unlimited responses with this package; SurveyMonkey limits responses to 1,000 per month.
- Lower cost integrated solutions are also available. Constant Contact, for example, is an e-mail marketing tool that includes a survey component. The package is available for as low as $15/month (0-500 contacts) to $150 for 10,001-25,000 contacts. Constant Contact offers a two month trial period for up to 100 contacts.
- At the high end, providers like Key Survey can run $162 -$495 a month for single user subscription. Key Survey's functionality is highly sophisticated and unlikely to be necessary for most small business owners, but it provides an indication of the range of services available.
What should be included: | - All of these tools offer helpful user interfaces, online help functions and instructions. Online FAQs, and help tools offers guide users through the process of creating surveys and offer helpful tips and advice.
- Templates eliminate the need to worry about design considerations and also offer ready-made questions for common uses like employee satisfaction surveys and demographic studies.
- Reporting capabilities vary, with Zoomerang offering more advanced functionality than other programs including flexible cross-tabulation to analyze relationships across questions.
- Even the "low-end" tools like Constant Contact offer the ability for skip logic -- automatically skipping respondents over questions that don't apply to them.
- Scalability is a key benefit -- you can survey 10,000 people as easily, and at the same cost, as 10.
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Article updated August 2009 |
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