Online surveys are one of the quickest and most inexpensive ways to gather information from your target audience. Apart from being measurable, it can also reach thousands of users in the targeted time.
With the help of some of the best survey software tools, you can easily collect valuable data from the people who are willing to participate. These tools enable you to create forms of different question formats such as skip-logic, page branching, dropdown, image choices, and many more.
How to Use Survey Software Efficiently?
With the help of survey software tools, you can set up forms which can be plugged-in on your website where it can be accessed by the target audience. But in order to ensure that the survey is visible, and the reach is uniform, it is essential to use a good online survey software.
Not just corporates; various academic institutions and individuals, are also incorporating some of the best survey software for academic research. In addition, even in the corporates, need of surveys isn’t just limited to a few high-end businesses. It has become a crucial element of SMBs, today. With the help of online survey tools, you can take your small business to new levels.
One of the most important things any business needs to do is understand its market. You aren’t a psychic that you’d understand the demand of the consumers. Hence, the simplest thing any business can do is ask the consumers. And what better way to do it than with surveys, which not only provide a collective consensus, but also give necessary tools to compile the individual feedbacks for a detailed insight into the consumer inclination.
The online survey tools available in the market allow you to tune-in to the consumer demand.
Salient Features of Online Survey Software
Online survey software comes with a multitude of features which enable small businesses to not just conduct surveys, but also analyse the results of the survey and export the gathered data for record-keeping. Given below are some elemental features provided by a suitable online survey software:
A typical survey software uses essential tools such as drag-and-drop options, preset templates and preview options. The survey builder uses a convenient front-end interface to make form-building easy for the users. However, it saves the collected survey data in the backend, in a systematic manner for the creators to analyse for useful insights, once the survey is over.
The best survey software provides a few question formats such as multiple choice, drop down, rating meters etc. They also provide the option of flowchart-based questionnaire. For instance, if the first question is “Do you own a car?”. If the user says no, it skips car related questions to the next segment.
Question formats also include choice generators, questionnaire randomisation options, and style formatting tools. A few survey software brands also provide timers for individual questions or the whole set, while some provide the option to embed images and videos in questions and multiple choices.
A typical survey software uses algorithms to calculate the total score and for tallying responses provided by the candidates. Since the whole process is automated, it not only makes survey data analysis easy but also systematic and quick.
Most survey solutions come with pre-set templates to assist new survey creators. They provide a skeleton which can be used as a reference to create questionnaires of different formats. Most of these templates are mobile responsive and offer different themes, too.
Most of the top survey solutions provide the option of using multiple languages in the questionnaires to target non-English speaking audiences. These software solutions also provide tools like spell-checker to make to ensure correct grammar and composition.
Several survey software also use their brand’s custom logos on the survey. Their premium versions provide brands the option to remove the logo and put theirs for more personalised surveys.
With the help of survey software, SMBs can export the gathered data in different formats such as CSV and excel. Then, the data can be analysed by the SMBs to gather insights and work upon them accordingly.
Here is a compilation of seven best survey software to help you decide which software suits you best.
SoGoSurvey is one of the best free survey software available online. As it provides an array of different functionalities, you won’t have to go to any other platform for additional utilities.
Here are a few of amongst the 600 functionalities you can get with SoGoSurvey’s free account plan:
Hence, SoGoSurvey; the one-stop-shop comes at one of the top.
Survey Monkey is one of the most renowned names in the market. Its 1-2-3 ease of use, i.e. design, distribute and data analysis makes it one of the most ideal surveys in the market. Its motto, “Ask More, know more, do more” lives up to the facilities that it offers. It has a unique feature called survey quality metric which lets you predict how well the survey will perform.
Apart from this in its free version, it gives you:
The best thing about this is that its UI is well-designed, and it’s really easy to use. However, the only downside is that you cannot export data in the free version and is only available in the paid version.
Typeform is popular for having one of the most convenient and aesthetic survey layouts of them all. Its UI is well-designed, and it certainly lives up to its motto “The future of forms is here”.
The free version, is called the basic plan, has lots to offer, including:
These are some excellent functionalities for a free version. The paid version is known as the Pro version, and provides features like score calculator, payment fields, and other options such as sending participants follow-up emails, to name a few.
You can also look into the best typeform alternatives!
Unlike most SMB tools in our list, Qualtrics Research Core can play a number of roles depending upon your requirement such as concept surveys, brand tracking, and advert testing. It may appear a sophisticated platform, exclusively designed for businesses. However, if you delve into its plans, you will find a simple, yet effective plan to satiate your survey requirements.
The plan includes:
Its premium version provides advanced features such as unlimited survey and distribution options and web, social media, email insertion facilities as well. Additionally, it also provides more than seventy languages, along with advanced security such as data Isolation and app firewalls in its paid version.
When we talk about free survey software, Google Forms will always come in the conversation. With Google’s brand trust it is clearly one of the most famous survey software around. While technically, Google Forms is a simple form builder, it can be used for many different purposes such as creating polls, surveys, and class quizzes, etc. making it one of the best survey software for research.
It can be used for short and long-form questionnaires, and images can be put in a grid form for participants to choose from.
Some multi-faceted features of Google Forms are:
Google Forms is also the most readily available software in the market considering the global reach of the brand. Hence it is used by SMBs across the globe. And did we mention that it’s completely free?
QuestionPro is another excellent free software tool which we would recommend. With the help of this survey software, creating surveys is as simple and expedient as it can get. However, simple doesn’t mean limiting. It provides a variety of different options, some of which only the premium plans of other competitors have to offer.
Some of its salient features include:
Its premium version comes with additional features such as Export to CSV and Excel, downloadable reports, and multilingual options.
Budget plays a vital role when it comes to SMBs. As a small business you would love free version of Zoho Survey. It comes with features such as unlimited surveys and the ability to share survey forms on your website and social media platforms. It also provides password protection. What can one ask more?
Some of the features that Zoho Survey provides, are:
Creating a survey is really simple in ZOHO and a well-designed survey can be created in minutes with Zoho. The paid version provides additional features such as customizable logo, spam protection, the ability to export to XLS and CSV format files.
Conclusion
To conclude there are a number of different online survey software available in the market with a plethora of different features. However being an SMB, which one you choose will eventually depend on your business requirements and budget. Hence, it is important to choose a software which provides all the features you would want for your business at the lowest possible price.
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