Analytics Basics: Visitor surveys – Part 2
This article, written by Neil Mason, was originally published on Clickz.com and is republished here with permission.
Last time I looked at the importance of getting a good understanding of the online user experience through tools such as surveys and other feedback mechanisms. The development of technology has meant that these types of tools can be obtained either for free or relatively cheaply, lowering one of the barriers to their adoption. However, just because the tools are cheap it doesn’t mean that the survey needs to be cheap as well, as asking for user feedback is all part of the user experience. So if you’re looking to run surveys yourself rather than use and agency to do it for you, then here are some things to consider along the way.
Be clear about the purpose of the purpose of the survey
Getting some user feedback is better than getting none at all but don’t do a survey just for the point of doing a survey. Be clear about what it is that you want to know. Write down the objectives of the survey and keep it hard and focussed. You may have more than one objective but don’t try to answer everything in one go.
KISS – Keep it Short and Simple
It’s difficult to say exactly how long or short a survey should be, but try and be as efficient as possible. Stick to the objectives and avoid the temptation to cram too much in. If necessary do more than one survey on a different sample of users or only ask certain questions to certain people. Also be careful of the language that you use and the style of the questions that you ask. It’s easy to slip into either using your own terminology that you would use in the business or “market research speak”. Your users probably won’t understand either. Above all make it interesting. Make sure that the questions are relevant and the survey is engaging.
Work out how much data you need
Whilst some data is better than no data, be wary of basing decisions on a small number of responses. A rule of thumb I use is that 400 responses will give you a reasonable level of accuracy in the answers, getting loads more won’t necessarily give you a lot more accuracy but it will mean that you can filter the data to look at sub-groups (ie the differences in responses between young people and older people for example). Once you’ve worked out how many respondents you are likely to need then you need to work out how many people you need to ask to get them. The response rate on surveys can vary enormously so if you haven’t run surveys before on your site you may need to do some test first, which brings me onto my next point.
Test before going live
Test the survey on a small number of users before going fully live. This is especially true if you have a survey where the questions that people are asked depends on the answers that they have given before. You need to check that the survey works technically well and that also all it works well from the user perspective. It’s best to spot mistakes early!
Keep it ethical
Use your surveys for research purposes only. Don’t use them to try and sell people things.
See your survey as an extension of your brand
If you are using online surveys on your site then they are part of the user experience. Ensure that the tone, design and look and feel of the survey are complementary with the brand. You don’t want your users having too different experiences. I had a good reminder of this when I was asked to take part in an online survey for a well known technology brand. The brand image is all about ease of use and good design. The survey was badly designed, looked horrible and was very difficult to complete. I was so annoyed by the survey that I wrote and told them what I thought. Which brings me to my next point…
Be prepared for feedback
You will probably get more feedback that you anticipate. People will either reply to an email invite or will write comments in open text boxes. You will need to have processes in place to deal with any customer service issues that may bubble up. Many of these may be nothing to do with the website but they need to be dealt with.
Hopefully these few tips will help you along the road to getting some useful and interesting feedback from users about their online experience. With the range of tools available there’s no reason not to get started but make it a good experience!