Meet the New Face of Internet Surveys and Market Research

Telephone and face-to-face surveys eventually gave way to those conducted on the Internet, but the transformation is not stopping there. While far from dead, online marketing surveys are going through their own metamorphosis. Customer input still remains a highly beneficial way to discover how people are responding to your products and services and this input can glean information that helps shape make-or-break decisions. You may want to reconsider, however, the methods you use to obtain this valuable customer input. Traditional, data-driven and often lengthy customer surveys are finally falling from grace, about eight years after their predicted downfall. Some had called into question the quality of the responses, while others wondered if such structured surveys were even necessary when people were openly voicing their opinions over available social media channels. The turning point came when a number of factors converged to push traditional surveys out of center stage. These include:

• The high popularity of mobile devices
• The ever-decreasing attention spans of the general public
• The easy access to big data
• The changing consumer mindset that now demands transparency and reciprocity from even the biggest businesses

Mobile Devices and Attention SpansMobile phones and tablets are rising in popularity and use, and most are not very friendly toward lengthy surveys. Neither are the users. Most mobile devices don’t support surveys unless one or two questions are easily viewable at a single time and the survey can be viewed with a minimal amount of scrolling.Users are also becoming increasingly antsy with answers unless they can provide them in the few seconds they have between sending a text and checking their Facebook page. Google has made moves to develop and deliver surveys that are more compatible with the users and their devices. Others may soon follow.Users are not only becoming intolerant to the survey’s incompatibility with their devices, but also at their status as a nameless, faceless respondent.Big DataBig data is big business, with multiple ways for companies to harvest and review information without even having to ask consumers a single question. Loads of behavioral data are available, giving companies a glimpse into what people buy, like, enjoy and do for fun. Such information gives you the fodder you need to predict future habits as well as the overall lifestyle of your consumer base.That doesn’t mean you can throw surveys out the window altogether. They are still valuable tools for gathering consumer insights, opinions and other feedback that allows you to interact with your customers to provide what they want, need and sometimes even demand.Change in Consumer MindsetWith the rise of social media, consumers now not only have a voice but they are likely to have several accounts across multiple platforms to share that voice. One-way communication is no longer acceptable, with people asking themselves why they should be honest and open for a survey launched by a company that keeps its name private.People are instead using social media platforms or posting reviews to let others know how they feel about a particular brand, service or product. Here they can openly voice their opinion while receiving real-time feedback from other customers or even the company itself - rewards worth their efforts.Social media can also be much more honest than traditional surveys, with survey fraud being a genuine concern. Professional survey takers exist, and their main aim is to answer as many questions as possible in the shortest amount of time then collect payment and move to the next survey.These changes in no way mean the traditional survey is dead; it can still be a valuable tool for gathering specific information you need to improve your strategies or company as a whole. You can make that improvement even easier with the help of mTAB, which provides simple tools that help you amplify the results of your market research while transforming it into meaningful data you can use.