Web-Based Surveys and Their Usefulness in Reducing

¶ … web-based surveys and their usefulness in reducing the cost of business research. The writer explores several aspects of web-based surveys including performance and comparison to traditional type surveys. There were 10 sources used to complete this paper.

There are many reasons that people gather information today. Health professionals gather information to help determine health trends, needs and problems. Marketing professionals gather information so that the consumer can be better served. Churches gather information to better provide for the spiritual needs of the public. Law enforcement officials gather information to ascertain crime trends as well as other information that is useful for predictions and budgeting needs. Different sized governments gather information for the purpose of providing public services to those who live within their geographic area as well as estimations and predictions about the future of the area. There are many reasons to gather information and there are very few instances in which the gathering of information would serve no purpose to those with the results.

Information gathering comes in many different forms. There are benefits and problems with each type of information gathering. Using a test group can be beneficial but is often costly and limited in its scope of use and consequence. One of the most common and popular types of information gathering tools is the use of a survey. Surveys can provide a wide range of information that can be used to understand the past, predict the future and decide what changes, if any, should be made. Surveys are popular for many reasons and are successful in their purpose. The technological explosion of the last few decades provided the world with a much wider frame of reference for gathering information. The Internet allows those who want to gather information to do so in electronic format. Web-based surveys are useful for several reasons including speed of responses, range of participants and the ability to have a more complicated format from which to gather the information. While web -based surveys are becoming popular there are concerns that they have flaws a traditional pen and paper or in person survey may not have. Web-based surveys can be the most advanced and useful survey method there is as long as the precautions are taken that ate taken with any information gathering study. One of the most explosive uses of web-based surveys today is in the business sector. Web-based surveys are gaining popularity in the business world for several reasons. One of the discoveries of the web-based surveys is that the cost is less than other types of traditional surveys. Web-based surveys can be useful because it reduces the cost of business research while increasing the ability to conduct more complicated and multi-level; multi-step research.

SURVEYS

Before one can begin to understand the concept and advantages of web-based survey methods it is important to understand surveys in general. Surveys are used to gather information for the purpose of understanding trends, deciding the future and examining results. Surveys can be extremely complicated and involved or very simple and plain. Surveys are conducted in several different manners including the in person survey, the telephone survey, the pen and paper survey, and the online web-based survey. Surveys contain questions that are answered by the participants. The questions can range from simple affirmative or negative answers to extremely complicated and multi-step questions. If one were to search for a non-survey example of the way surveys work a ballot would provide the groundwork of understanding. Surveys can be one question or thousands of questions depending on the information needed and the willingness of participants to answer the questions that are asked. Surveys can provide businesses with much needed information that can guide them in future marketing and production decisions as well as trends for the future that they might want to plan for. There are many benefits in the business world to using the survey method of research and with the new ability to use web-based surveys for the job.

THE COST OF RESEARCH THROUGH SURVEYS

Business world wide need to gather information to succeed. Whether it is as simple as asking customers if they are happy with the service and product they received, or an extensive large scale research study to determine future trends and directions for the company. Conducting business research can be costly through the survey method. If the business chooses to conduct in person interviews, such as product testing and sampling, or in person discussion and questionnaires there have to be people hired to conduct the research. This can mean paying for time as well as benefits. In the event there are not enough employees to use them or the company does not want to utilize the employees in that manner temporaries must be hired which can become quite costly. (Polling, 1998) There have been several studies done on how to decrease the cost of business research and still gather the valuable information that the company needs for decision making purposes. There are many things that can be done to reduce the cost of survey information gathering including shorter questionnaires, finding a partner to share the costs and buying into a poll already being conducted. While these methods are good they also create limitations on the poll and survey questions either by dependency on someone else's questions or limits to the questions in the effort to cut costs with survey size reductions. (McCullough, 1998)

Web-based research can be a useful and cost effective tool for the purpose of business research and information gathering. Web-based surveys are useful, inexpensive and reliable as long as the business knows what it wants to accomplish when the research survey is conducted. There are several steps that are important to follow in the quest to gather information via the internet for the purpose of business research. They include:

Understand clearly what questions you want answered

Know who you want to talk to Write a questionnaire and put it on the web

Build traffic to that questionnaire

Analyze the data it is important when putting together a web-based business research study that the desired information is clear to the company conducting the research. The simple question, "What is it that we want to know" is often overlooked by many fortune 500 companies. The business that is going to conduct the research needs to take its time and define its true baseline objectives about what it is that it wants to know. Going over the questions many times until the business is sure that they have sifted through the fluff and been left with the clear cut bottm line questions in important in web-based surveys. "Don't try to trick the system by making broad, general questions like "what should I do to increase profits?" I' m talking about specific, measurable questions like "Do my customers prefer to pay $5 for a product with feature x or $10 for a product with feature y?" Specific, measurable and useful. "

Web surveys are similar to traditional surveys in that they ask questions and compile answers for result-oriented decision-making. One of the most important aspects of web-based surveys that is not possible in traditional methods is the way the survey is marketed. The web-based survey has many possible markets. One can decide to draw people to their site based solely on them stumbling across it. One can decide to place banner ads on certain types of web pages to try and gather information from a select audience and one can try to hit various populations through chats and message boards. Whatever method is chosen for gathering participants there are several ways to reach them and let them know they are invited to participate in the survey.

Some of the ideas that can draw web-based survey participants include:

Banner ads on web sites

E-mail invitation

Telephone invitation

E-mail panels

In the same way that one can buy mailing lists one can also buy email address lists. This is a method that can save time because it provides many people to contact but it can also be a problem because some people do not like to receive junk mail in their email in box and may object or refuse to participate in the survey. (SurveyMonkey 2002)Just as there are traditional survey companies that will handle the survey methods and results for a business for a fee there are now web-based survey companies that will design and promote the survey for the business online and compile the results for the company.

COMPARING THE WEB TO TRADITION comparison of web-based surveys to traditional surveys is important if one wants to understand the differences in results, success and cost to their particular need. (Wells, 2002)Web-based surveys can be cost effective and even reduce the costs of business research in many instances. It is a method that saves on postage as well as possible survey takers depending on the survey style and type that is being used. The design of the survey itself is a one time charge that is often recouped in the savings of the other survey method costs that businesses often encounter.

Critics of the web-based survey method believe that it is not cost effective to do web-based surveys because the traditional survey cannot be eliminated. There are several differences between the two methods and they need to be examined before one can decide if web-based survey methods are for them.

Web-based survey have one or two costs. The cost of the web site design and the survey design itself is a one-time cost and it can be used over and over again. The cost of designing a web site and a survey can be absorbed by the company budget if it is handled in house or it can be outsourced for a fee. The plus side of the cost of the design is once it is done it can be used over and over again with a few adjustments that can be included in the original cost. The web-based survey does not have some of the costs that are associated with traditional surveys. Some costs that traditional surveys have are postage, paper and envelopes. If it is an in person survey then the costs include the pay for the survey takers, possibly benefits for them as well and temps if employees call out sick or cannot be used.

PROBLEMS

According to web-based survey detractors the web-based survey lacks many things that a traditional survey provides. Regarding the cost factor they believe that traditional surveys will always be needed which counteracts the perceived cost reduction in business research that advocates of web-based surveys say they observe.

One of the biggest obstacles to web-based survey taking according to some is the limited population that the web-based survey can reach. Web-based surveys must be taken online and there is a large segment of the population that does not have access to the Internet. This can lead to a potential problem with the purity of the results. Those who cannot afford the Internet, do not own or have access to a computer and do not spend time on the computer will never see the survey. The potential is there for the population to be non-representative of the total world population.

One expert addresses this issue:

"I have no doubt that some people enjoy filling out Internet questionnaires, " and data collected through the Web is easier to process. But whether everyone is able to respond using the Internet also has to be considered. Significant sections of the population also have limited access to the Web, because of bandwidth or PC limitations, and would not be able to fill in hi-tech surveys that go beyond basic use of the Internet. He says there is no clear research on people's attitudes to completing surveys online, though anecdotal evidence suggests some prefer the Internet while others dislike using it for this purpose. The Internet is most useful for surveys where all the target population is online, he says. Business surveys run by the federal government are increasingly heading online, he says, though the initial contact asking people to take part is often made by telephone."

Another possible problem with the web bases survey is the breach of confidentiality. It is the reason the government hesititates to put some surveys online and the business research world can be the same way. The confidentialty of what the business is attempting to find out is not protected on the web. While the mail in or in person survey can also breach confidentiality it is not as open as the web-based survey in which most of the world can access it with the click of a mouse.

There are some surveys the United States government remains reluctant to put on the Web because of security concerns.

Another concern is that people may view web-based surveys as an inexpensive alternative to traditional methods.

Survey respondents still need to be followed up to ensure all complete, and should be given the option of replying in ways other than online, he says.

Token gifts are often used to entice people to complete surveys in the U.S., Dr. Dillman says, for example $2 or $5.

Even if people completed a survey online, they would still have to provide some sort of postal contact to receive the prize.

Touch-tone and voice-automated telephone surveys have also become popular for some types of questionnaires, particularly where the survey is short and has simple answers.

Dr Dillman says when he started working on survey methods in the 1960s, posting questions and answers was the only method available apart from face-to-face interviews.

In the 70s, telephone surveys started to become more popular, and it was not till the late 90s that Internet surveying entered the picture.

The Internet can provide extremely rapid feedback, collating data in seconds.

Dr Dillman says getting quick results is important in fast moving situations, particularly fluctuating economic situations.

CAPTION:

United States public policy professor Don Dillman... Mixing survey methods is the best way to ensure a good spread of results, though operating different techniques simultaneously can be costly.

WELLS Amanda, Internet not the only answer for surveying., New Zealand Infotech Weekly, 03-12-2001, pp 5.

INTRANETS & I-COMMERCE: Get to know your customers through the Web

Businesses that understand their customers are the first to succeed, but getting customer feedback using traditional methods, such as e-mail or paper-based surveys, can be time-consuming, expensive, and unsuccessful. Customers are more likely to make suggestions or give feedback when they are visiting a company Web site; therefore, Web- based surveys can be a vital piece of an overall business strategy.

Many products have appeared on the market that help Webmasters create and post online surveys. I looked at Principia Products' Remark Web Survey 1.0, which shipped in early March. This simple application lets anyone who can operate a mouse put together elegant-looking surveys that are ready to upload to a Web server in a matter of minutes.

Remark Web Survey consists of two components: Designer and Server. The Designer component runs on Windows, and the Server component is Perl-based and will run on any Web server platform.

A installed the software quickly and began creating a survey. The wizard-based Remark Web Survey was straightforward to use, and the software gave me a lot of control over the design of my surveys. For example, I could easily incorporate text boxes, check boxes, radio buttons, drop-down lists, and graphics.

After completing the survey, I was shown three views: a source view that contained the HTML, a design view that represented the structure of my survey in a directory tree, and a browser view that displayed the survey as it would appear on a Web page.

Remark Web Survey lacks an easy way to toggle between the three views within the Designer, a problem that could be solved by adding tabs on top of the view windows. In addition, I had to save the finished survey in a proprietary format and publish it to a Web server separately. The company would be smart to provide a way to publish surveys directly to the server in the next release. Completed survey data is stored in a tab-delimited format so it can be manipulated by another application, such as Microsoft Excel.

Remark Web Survey faces competition from many similar products, including SurveySolutions from Perseus Development and EZSurvey from Raosoft. Remark Web Survey is more expensive than SurveySolutions, and its data-collection methods could be improved; however, it is certainly easy to use and will furnish your Web site with an instant online feedback tool.

Andre Kvitka () has reviewed a wide range of products at the InfoWorld Test Center since 1989.

THE BOTTOM LINE: GOOD

Remark Web Survey 1.0

Summary: This Web-based survey-creation tool provides a simple GUI that allows almost anyone to easily create online surveys in a very short time.

Business Case: Remark Web Survey offers a way to collect customer information quickly without tying up IT resources.

Pros

Wizard-based + Easy to use

Cons

No direct-to-Web publishing method - No built-in statistical tools - Results must be downloaded manually

Cost: $349: single license; $870: three-license pack; $1,300: five- license pack; $2,250: 10-license pack

Platforms: Windows 95/98, Windows NT; server component runs on any Web server

Principia Products Inc., Paoli, Pa.,; www.principiaproducts.com

Andre Kvitka, InfoWorld Test Center, INTRANETS & I-COMMERCE: Get to know your customers through the Web. Vol. 21, InfoWorld, 05-10-1999.

The Perils Of Polling And How To Avoid Them The Perils Of Polling And How To Avoid Them p.5

During one six-month period, 1,700 of the stories my paper published in the main and local news sections contained some reference to polls or surveys.

A suspect we're more typical than not. When Arnold Ismach, former dean of the University of Oregon Journalism School, asked students to check five days' worth of news stories in 14 papers, they discovered that nearly one in five had some quantitative research element. Usually, that means a poll or a survey.

Survey research is a big deal these days. It influences elections, helps determine government policy and shapes our view of the world. It follows that we should be as savvy and skeptical of survey research as we are of any other source.

We have good reason to be. Even respectable pollsters are often way off the mark. Early polling on Washington state's initiative to limit terms of political office showed 70% support. It failed. Missouri surveys on an initiative to increase school taxes showed 2-1 support. It failed, too. Polls on political races involving Jesse Helms, Texas Gov. Ann Richards and David Duke were off by large margins, as well.

The AP Stylebook lists several suggestions for handling survey research, and anybody who hasn't checked it lately should consult the "Polls and Surveys" entry before writing or editing a poll story. In addition, pay special attention to these key questions:

Is it really a survey? We're not terribly careful when it comes to how we use the terms "poll" and "survey." The important point is that both involve scientific sampling as a way of estimating figures for a larger population. Person-on-the-street interviews are neither polls nor surveys. Neither are call-in votes. Remember, too, that haphazard or self-selected samples like those are not random samples, which are scientifically selected so that every respondent has a known probability of being included.

Note that a huge self-selected sample is usually less accurate than a much smaller probability sample. The infamous 1936 Literary Digest poll, which picked Alf Landon for president, drew a sample of more than 2 million.

Remember, too, that counting everybody, as the state of Oregon did when it checked to find out how many homeless people were in shelters on a single night, isn't a poll or a survey either. It's a census. My paper overlooked that fact when we headlined the story, "One-night survey finds 3,200 people homeless."

Who sponsored the poll? The identity of a poll's sponsor can bear directly on its credibility.

An AP report published a few years ago concluded that, "Americans who think they'll be sitting pretty when it comes to covering health costs during their retirement may instead have to turn quickly to welfare." The source? A study conducted by Northwestern National Life Insurance Co., which had an obvious self-interest in the subject.

On its face, the "study" was nonsense. The only survey-research result reported was that of workers over 40, "most believe they will be well- prepared for retirement." The insurance company also reported that only a minority of private companies provided after-retirement medical insurance. Then they waved the bogeyman of welfare around while they conveniently ignored the fact that virtually all retirees are covered by Medicare, Medicaid and, often, some form of personal health insurance.

Do the data justify the conclusions? We have a weakness for inflated conclusions that go way beyond a study's hard data. When my paper reported that a UC San Diego study of 242 upper-middle-class women showed that those with jobs had lower cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, our headline concluded that, "Work is healthy." Tell that to a coal miner.

Is our math OK? Be especially careful about the difference between percentages and percentage points. A news story on tenure reported that the number of full professors in one college system had increased 5% over 10 years. In fact, the number had increased from 6% of the total to 11%, an increase of 5 percentage points. Assuming that total number of full professors was fairly stable, that's an increase of nearly 100%.

Keep numbers in perspective. The rate of pregnant Oregon women carrying the AIDS virus doubled from 1989 to 1991, and the Oregonian's headline and lead focused on that fact. But the total number of infected mothers- to-be was 34, a tiny, tiny percentage of the total number of both pregnant women and infected Oregonians. Each case is a tragedy. But was this angle the news in this story?

What were the actual questions? Sometimes question wording is critical. Lyndon Johnson flimflammed the press in 1968 when he released a poll that showed him leading four Republicans in New York state. What most news stories failed to note was that the poll questions didn't mention Nelson Rockefeller, the state's favorite son.

What's the margin of error? Probably the best-known source of polling error is simple chance - the poll sample may not accurately reflect the entire population. We express that likelihood as the level of confidence and the margin of error. Usually pollsters reveal that there's a 95% chance (the confidence level) that the poll results are within plus or minus X percentage points (the margin of error) of the actual values for the whole population.

Error margins can be critical. A New York Times/CBS News poll on the Clarence Thomas nomination reported that 22% of the men and 18% of the women polled opposed the nomination, and many news organizations made a big deal about the difference. But the unreported margin of error probably was at least 3%. So the actual figure for the men could have been as low as 19%, and the figure for women could have been as high as 21%. It's quite possible that more women than men were against the nomination.

When was the poll taken? Public opinion often keeps changing right up to election day. Early polls are especially likely to mislead on initiative campaigns because supporters generate most of the early publicity. Once the opposition gets organized, things can change in a hurry.

Which is why the early reports on public opinion in the Washington state term limits initiative were so far off the mark.

What was the response rate? Lots of commercial mail surveys draw extremely low returns. And the lower the rate of return, the more likely that the responses represent some systematic error.

Maybe most of the replies came from those with the most extreme opinions. Or from the richest respondents. Or from Republicans.

In general, be suspicious of response rates below 70% or 80%. Lots of other variables affect survey results, and no news story will mention them all. We don't want to bore readers by mentioning every little thing that went into a poll. But we should nonetheless ask plenty of skeptical questions before we decide that a poll is worth reporting. Just because a study sounds scientific doesn't mean we should treat it with undue respect. Survey research isn't the same thing as common sense.

Philip Meyer, an early proponent of using survey research methods in journalism, points out that no computer ever managed a political campaign. And he cites an old story about Harvard professor Edward Banfield and his comments to the students in his voting-behavior seminar. No matter what computer tables told them about the peculiarities of Chicago voters, Banfield told his students, they still would know less than Mayor Daley.

SPSS Announces Surveys with Confidence; Complete, Easy-To-Use Survey Design, Collection and Analysis Package

BW)(IL-SPSS-2)(SPSS) SPSS Announces Surveys with Confidence; Complete, Easy-To-Use Survey Design, Collection and Analysis Package

Business Editors, Hi-Tech Writers CHICAGO -- (Business WIRE) -- Feb. 9, 1999 -- You don't need a survey research background or a big consulting budget to get effective, reliable answers. Hard to believe? Surveys with Confidence, new from SPSS Inc. (Nasdaq: SPSS), will convince you it's true. The product is a cost-effective, three-part survey research software suite that walks users through the survey process from designing the survey to reporting findings. Surveys with Confidence is now shipping worldwide. Surveys with Confidence features a computer-based training application called Survey Coach, which guides users step -- by-step through the survey creation, collection and analysis processes. The Survey Coach is made up of five modules that address different parts of the survey process, including planning the survey, creating the questionnaire, collecting and entering data, generating reports and preparing a schedule and budget. Survey Coach incorporates animation, sound and video for a lively training approach. Surveys with Confidence also includes Survey Builder for creating professional surveys and Survey Analyst for analyzing the collected survey data and presenting findings. Survey Builder is an application for survey design and data entry. It features a library filled with questions designed by experts in survey research that users can copy and paste into the survey along with their own questions. During the layout of the survey, Survey Builder automatically prepares the onscreen data entry form and the data definitions for analysis. For example, when a user enters a possible response into the form, such as "very satisfied," Survey Builder incorporates that response option as a label on both data entry screens and in reports or graphs created from the survey. Survey Analyst is the final piece of the Surveys with Confidence suite. Survey Analyst helps users analyze their data for useful, actionable information and enables them to present their findings. Users choose from a variety of analytical tools including more than 50 statistical methods. Additionally, interactive graphics provide users with the ability to explore their data visually and present it professionally. Surveyors can distribute electronic reports created in Survey Analyst to colleagues who have a copy of the optional SmartViewer software, and for Web-based reporting, organizations can use the optional SmartViewer Web Server. SmartViewer Web Server enables people to distribute dynamic reports throughout their organizations via the Web. Information consumers point their Web browser to the report where they view, slice, dice and drill down into report cubes to answer their own questions. "Surveys with Confidence is the most complete survey software on the market," SPSS product manager Thaddeus Hunt said. "No other survey package has a computer-based training application like the Survey Coach to guide people through the survey process. It's also extremely cost-effective for organizations or departments who need the answers that surveys provide, but can't afford to hire a research firm. Surveys with Confidence provides reliable results and doesn't require a survey research background." Additional benefits unique to Surveys with Confidence:

Enter data quickly: Survey Builder includes a Rules Wizard to ensure that data are entered quickly and are of high quality.

Users can, for example, set up checking rules to ensure entries are within valid ranges, or skip and fill rules that automatically bypass questions that, based on previous answers, cannot apply.

Ask the right questions: The Question Library ensures that users are asking the right questions. It includes an extensive list of questions designed by experts in survey research that users can copy and paste into the survey along with their own questions.

Get answers in more ways: Surveys with Confidence offers seven types of help in addition to the Survey Coach. The help methods include keyword definitions, tutorials, movie demos, Results

Coach, task-oriented help, natural language querying and assistance via the phone and Internet. Surveys with Confidence also includes a full electronic copy of Surveys with Confidence, practical guide to survey research using SPSS to give users expert advice on the survey process. Additionally, Surveys with Confidence features an extensive help file to assist users in operating the software.

Surveys with Confidence is one of a number of analytical software products offered by SPSS Inc. To meet the business intelligence needs of the entire enterprise. Within the enterprise, an important part of managing business intelligence is gathering and analyzing survey data. Surveys with Confidence enables businesspeople who have little survey research experience to collect reliable survey data at a minimal cost. In so doing, it brings this important function to a greater number of organizations and enables them to gather the information they need to make better decisions. Surveys with Confidence System Requirements