“Survey”
While this word may mean a research method to collect data from a certain group, the role of surveying is not just limited to this. When surveys are planned well, the results provide rich insights for the team managing the process. Now with the availability of community survey software, surveys have also become a great way to reach and engage stakeholders to obtain their feedback and contribute to collaborative decision making.
Here, in this blog we will throw light on the benefits of surveying and how to make the best use of online community survey software for engaging stakeholders:
Advantages of using Community Survey Software:
Cost
While the cost of conducting traditional survey used to be high, online surveys are inexpensive, especially when conducted via online engagement platforms that have surveys as one of the included features. Even if you opt to give incentives to respondents, the cost per respondent is quite low as compared to the cost of administering a paper survey or phone survey. Using community survey software can dramatically bring down your overall costs.
Extensive
When using community survey software, you can target a large population. With such broad capability of community survey software, there is an increase in participation resulting in more stakeholder representation. Make sure you also optimise your survey for mobile users (read more about this here).
Dependable
Sometimes stakeholders wish to provide their feedback but without disclosing their identity. Online survey tools let them do just this by allowing anonymity. However, having the flexibility to force registration or at the very least provide key details is also important.
How to conduct an online survey successfully and gain insights?
There are a few points to keep in mind for conducting a survey successfully such as:
- Set your objectives
Understand what you are seeking to achieve and your reporting requirements. This is imperative – flip the process. To know the objective, ask yourself questions like, “What do you want to learn about from the community? What attributes are important to know about each stakeholder? How will I present the survey findings?”. This level of planning is critical to successful survey management. The use of an online community engagement platform enables other tools such as polls and community chat to strengthen sentiment.
As part of the planning stages, it’s important to review your options for community survey software and if this is a one-off process or if you will continually be using this tool. If this is part of a wider engagement strategy, you may be best to look at an online engagement platform, like Engagement Hub, that has surveys as one of 24 tools to engage and inform your community.
- Write down your survey questions
To get the insights you need, it is important to ask the right questions and in the right way. Read our tips on creating a good survey using community survey software.
- Set open-ended questions, such that respondents are able to write detailed answers.
- Set multiple-choice questions, if you need to know answers from a limited choice.
- Set a mix of both open-ended as well as multiple-choice questions.
- Choose community survey software that offers many question types and settings so you can utilise logic jumps and character limits to your advantage
- Send the survey to a targeted group
Getting your survey in front of your target audience can be challenging. Read more about our 52 ways to promote your community engagement activity here for some ideas to increase the visibility of your survey.
Online community engagement platform Engagement Hub lets you send the survey directly to individuals, segments or your whole audience streamlining the whole process, plus giving you insights into which individuals have read your email and taken your survey.
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With surveys, you can have access to great information while also engaging stakeholders who matter, thus aiding your project in becoming a success. However, there are many methods you can use to engage your community and get feedback, which is why online engagement software like Engagement Hub can offer greater value for money as it not only offers surveys but also features participation tools like ‘polls’, ‘ideas walls’, ‘interactive mapping’ and ‘community chat’, to help you have better access to the insights.
For more information about this all-in-one community engagement software, you can visit all the feedback tools in action on our demo site, check out our website or book a no-obligation virtual demonstration here.
