SurveyGizmo: The Case Study (Installment 1)

Why Survey?

There are many reasons to collect data. You might want to gather information about target segments (market research). You might want to test some ideas before launching a new product or service (test market). You might want to get feedback about how well you did (customer/employee satisfaction). Or maybe you want to know where your division wants to go for an evening out (quick poll). These are all great reasons to survey (and they can all be easily accomplished with SurveyGizmo), but each reason to collect data comes with a different set of needs and considerations. As a function of these differences, the way one person uses SurveyGizmo differs vastly from the way another person uses our software.

With our growing customer base, we want to make it easier for you to design the survey that’s right for you. But we don’t want to just try and guess — after all, we are true believers in collecting and then listening to data. So, we’re going to do a little bit of market research of our own and test marketing a few new ideas. That’s right, the survey company is putting together it’s own survey.

Just like you, we have some important questions that will take a little bit of research. How do survey needs differ across industries and customer types? What is it that makes someone choose one account over another? How is our brand perceived? What current features do customers like and dislike? What new features are most desired? We have some ideas, but we need to put them to the test so that we can be sure we have a solid understanding of target segments and to make sure we’re focusing our development efforts in the right places.

The easy part is collecting data — thanks to some great SurveyGizmo software! Collecting data that answers questions like the ones above is harder, but just like you, we’re up for the challenge.

For this project we’re posting our “inner monologue” as we move toward the goal of better understanding customers’ needs. We hope that this case study is a refreshing view on the science and art (or maybe it’s art and science) of collecting data you can actually use. As part of our analysis, we’ll cover a variety of topics on surveying such as how to design a survey that helps you answer burning questions, how to ask questions the “right” way, how to use surveys to test hypotheses, and how to use questions to define and understand segments. We’ll also be posting notes on the inevitable snags and clever breakthroughs we experience along the way.

It should be a fun project, and hopefully “talking out loud” as we go through the process will give you some insights that you can use in your own projects. Stay tuned, and don’t hesitate to chime in with comments — we’ll take all the help we can get!

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