Effective Survey Research
The requirements of government, business, and social communities

There are many ways to carry out survey research, and at the same time, the research can fall into many categories.

Survey research can be defined as methods of collecting information from a section of people. The research can be compiled using, for example, telephone questionnaires, one-to-one interviews, suggestion forms, comment cards, involvement with user groups, complaint monitoring, and, of course, form and web based survey forms.   

Today, the information complied for local and central government, businesses, and social communities, such as societies, clubs and associations, is vital in identifying the requirements, preferences and behavior of people.      

One common research category is the customer satisfaction survey, although other prevalent categories are market research, customer relationship management, employee satisfaction, job performance, community research and management, and demographic information gathering.

So why is this information so vital for governments, business, and social communities?

Well, if we take the demographic information gathering category as an example, then the data compiled will allow you to segment people so that you can more easily build relationships with them, based on their demographics or characteristics. For example, their age group, income group, educational attainment, home ownership information, employment status, and geographical location, etc.

When you have segmented contacts, you are much more likely to have success with your marketing strategies because you will be able to better understand their requirements, preferences and behavior within each segment.

By the way, you can find a related short article on segmentation, entitled “How can a CRM help me target the right customers?” at www.crmasiasolutions.com/newsletters/newsletter-jan2009.html.

Another example of the use of surveys is to use the information obtained from customer satisfaction surveys, so as to better understand the needs of your customers and improve your products and services.

When you improve customer satisfaction, you will increase customer loyalty, which importantly, will, under normal circumstances, increase sales and profit. However, we are not living in normal economic times at the moment, so it will probably be better to look to surveys, at the moment, to help you improve your current market share rather than sales revenue!

In my view, increasing market share, sales revenue, and profit margins cannot be achieved without the drive and commitment from staff. So you need to also consider planning for two other research categories - employee satisfaction and job performance surveys.

Administrating surveys to staff will certainly help you to explore how to improve your products and services, and may even help you to discover some unrealized issues or benefits.
 
Finally, let’s look at the research methods again. With the Internet’s influence, adaptability and effectiveness, are manual suggestion forms, comment cards, telephone and form based questionnaires, and one-to-one interviews, really effective options today for research?

For me, these options have all been replaced by web-based applications. And complaint monitoring is far better handled using the Internet with online “Chat” and better use of your CRM.

Again, you can find a related article entitled “Integrate Your Business Website and CRM, & Streamline your Sales, Marketing and Service Operations at www.crmasiasolutions.com/articles/integrating-website-and-crm.html

A word of warning, as usual in my articles, don’t get me wrong here, no matter what you do, a personal call to your contacts will go a long way to improve loyalty! However, save costs, and use Skype! But that leads me to my main gripe with Internet Telephony - when will Skype get their act together and provide a quality Skype to landline/mobile phone connection?      

CRM Asia Solutions have recently released their web-based survey application, Survey Squirrel. Designed to make surveys simple, they can be easily created and can be deployed over the Internet by email or on your website. There are superb analytical tools also!   

Check out Survey Squirrel at www.crmasiasolutions.com/web-based-surveys/web-based-surveys.aspx, where you can find out more about “gathering what matters to you”, through collecting information through custom designed survey forms and obtaining vital business intelligence.

Allan C. Batten,
Senior Business Development Manager

Allan has twenty-five years experience in assisting Original Equipment Manufacturers, importers, distributors and dealers/agents with their sales, customer service and I.T. strategies. 

When not exploring South East Asia, he continues to provide of advice and guidance on solutions to improve the overall productivity and profitability of companies through a better understanding of customer relationship management and leadership development.
   

CRM Asia Solutions
www.crmasiasolutions.com
info@crmasiasolutions.com