The anonymity that the Internet provides makes it the ideal environment to ask your customers what they really think about your business, product or service. An online survey can reveal the true opinions of customers, as well as allow them to share ideas with you in a safe and comfortable environment. Setting up the best online survey is easy when you use these six steps to guide you through the process.

1. Decide your research goals
Before you can begin your investigation, a clear picture of the expected outcome must be formed in your mind. Need feedback on a product or your service? Is the information you are looking for general or very specific? Do you have a particular audience in mind or will you send surveys to the general public? The answers to these questions will help you decide how to target your survey.

2. Make a list of questions
There are many different types of questions that can be used in a survey, such as open questions, closed questions, matrix table questions, and single or multiple choice questions. Most people who take surveys prefer short multiple choice questions. When writing the questions, keep the language very simple and avoid ambiguity or double negatives. One of the benefits of designing an online survey is that participants do not have to complete questions that are not relevant to them. Depending on your answers, certain questions may be skipped.

3. Invite participants
There are many ways to invite people to participate in your online survey. Who you want to participate in your survey will help you decide the best method of contact. You can send an email to your list of subscribers, post your poll on Facebook, or design a banner that can be displayed on other websites if you want to cast a wider net.

4. Gather your responses
It is important to assign a unique code to each participant to ensure that they only participate in your survey once. This is easy to do when you use an online survey tool to design your survey. In some cases, you can increase the response rate by offering an incentive to the participant, for example, you can offer a gift, the chance to win something in a lottery, a donation to a charity, or a point accumulation system where the participant can save points that can be redeemed for gifts. Another way to increase your survey response rate is by promising to share the results with your participants.

5. Analyze the results
With online surveys, the data collected is automatically stored, so you can start analyzing the results right away. In most cases, you can already see the preliminary results when the survey is still open. Using online survey tools allows you to make visual representations of data by presenting the results in charts and graphs. You can also print the data in spreadsheet form, which can then be used for further analysis.

6. Write a report
The final step in conducting online surveys is to write a report explaining your findings. A successful survey will provide the answers to the question you had about your business, product or service. Online surveys can be used to measure customer satisfaction, get feedback on products or services, and reveal key influencers.

The process for taking an online survey is easy and inexpensive. Smart-Survey’s questionnaire software can provide you with all the necessary tools to help you design your survey. Most business needs can be met with simple, short online surveys targeted at a specific group of customers. The results, on the other hand, are priceless because they will help you make important decisions about your business.