NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Survey Software
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Survey Software
Nick Nyhan (nick.nyhan_at_decisiontree.com)
Thu, 09 Apr 1998 21:04:55 -0400
A lot of sites create forms to collect feedback from visitors. Survey
software makes it easier to do this, but there are some drawbacks that
people should at least be aware of:
* Skewed Sample: Research is only as good as the sample. With survey
software on your site, you are getting feedback only from visitors (not
the broader target audience) and you are probably only hearing from the
more extreme wings -- the people who love you and the people who want to
complain. You often miss the middle-of-the-road-crowd which may be a
large part of your audience. We recommend you interview a random sample
of people who fit your target profile (should include visitors and
non-visitors) in order to get a true evaluation of your site.
* Topline Data: Survey software most often provides only topline
frequencies (this % said this, this % said that). This can be
misleading and sometimes the real value of the research is hidden unless
you extract it through cross-tabulation. For instance, we did a study
to gauge the impact of site X charging a fee for their service. On the
surface, it appeared that the fee made a significant impact on people's
likelihood to use the service. Yet, when we seperated people by another
question, we saw the impact was exagerated by a sub-group that would
never even be likely to use the service, at all. For people who were
likely to use it, the fee made little impact. Had they made their
decision off the topline data, they would have made the wrong decision.
Research IS important. Do it right. See related article in recent CIO:
http://www.cio.com/archive/webbusiness/040198_main.html
Nick Nyhan
DecisionTree
www.decisiontree.com
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