Category Archives: New Features

You Can Thank Us Later – Customize Your Online Polls Using These Newly Released APIs

Posted on January 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

You don’t have to be a HUGE enterprise to have gorgeous branded and customized polls on your web site.  Granted, you will have to have some technical expertise — but not a staff of expensive engineers.

The MicroPoll application has just released new and improved APIs that will make white-labeling your polls a breeze.

What’s an API and why is this exciting enough to write an article about it?

API stands for Application Programming Interface — and it’s like a gateway that allows you to interact with and customize inside of an already existing platform.  For example Facebook and Twitter are existing platforms and HootSuite and Facebook Apps use APIs to communicate with the platform.

APIs are specially designed to expose only the  chosen functionality and/or data while safeguarding other parts of the application which provides the interface.

And this is why the MicroPoll API is so exciting.  It frees you up from the basic templates that we’ve provided and gives you access to the back end of the MicroPoll platform that allows you to make changes without losing functionality.

Check out this step-by-step tutorial on how to use the new MicroPoll API.

Who should use this?
If you’re an organization who wants to leverage polling from either their own applications or websites use these API’s to give your poll that professional look and feel.
Why would you want to use this?
Your organization can ask a developer to use these APIs to embed polling capabilities natively into applications or more seamlessly into your websites. There is no need to build infrastructure to support data collection or reports because MicroPoll takes care of these.
What’s in it for YOU? 
If you’re rigorous about your brand, then this new feature will allow you to create a a high-end look without all the big budget expenses that go with it.   People will try and tell you that it doesn’t matter – but you know that it does.  There’s no denying that your brand drops a bit in credibility when you’ve invested big bucks in a web site or branding only to embed a cheesy-looking poll inside of a professionally designed web site.
Here’s an example of how one company inserted their logo into the poll.
What could you do with Micropoll’s new API?

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Use Survey Timer to Spice Up Engagement and Response Rates

Posted on November 11, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Survey Timer has been a feature on Survey Analytics for a while but it’s now moved over to those of us who use and love QuestionPro.

I have to admit that when I heard about it, I didn’t quite get it.  I didn’t understand the potential benefits that having a timed survey would offer.

So to get a little more information and clarity on the subject, I talked to Aditya Bhat, our director of sales.  Here’s a peek at our conversation.

What is Countdown Timer?

Countdown timer is a feature that actually sets a time limit on a survey.  Respondents literally have to complete the survey within a certain period of time.  When the timer runs out — the survey closes and the responses are marked as incomplete.   The minimum time limit is 1 minute and the maximum is 60 minutes.

Why would you ever want your survey to time out?  

Believe it or not, answering a survey under a given time frame actually increases the quality of responses in terms of capturing the first thing that comes to the respondents mind. A classic use case would be a quiz survey.

A Quiz Survey?  

Of course, surveys aren’t just for finding out what people think, they can be an ideal tool to find out what people know.  And using a timer increases their concentration on the material.  Too often, respondents are disengaged from surveys – they simply click on the extreme ratings; lowest, highest or right down the middle.  Often these responses can’t be used. Adding a timing feature increases their engagement and full participation.

What’s the benefit of this?

The biggest advantage of this feature is to reduce drop out rates. The respondents have to complete the survey as soon as they start it as there is a timer. They can not leave it and walk away from their desk etc.

Who do you see using this feature the most? 

Market Researchers and people running Employe satisfaction surveys.  When you have the employee answer the survey in a give time frame will get you more precise data as they dont have much time to think and alter their answer.

Countdown timer follows the gaming trend

If you’ve been reading our articles, you know that we’re big fans of making surveys more engaging and more fun — the industry calls it Gamification.  Big brands are using games to get their customers and fans more involved and online and mobile surveys have jumped into the fray as well.

If you haven’t tried the countdown timer feature in your surveys — be sure to give it a try.  Follow the help link to set it up: http://questionpro.com/help/610.html

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Posted in Feature Enhancements, New Features, QuestionPro, Survey Analytics

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Instant wins with QuestionPro Action Alerts

Posted on October 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

I once had a boss who was fond of saying “in the future: instant wins”, meaning the faster you can act, the more customers you’ll win.  It’s easy to think of examples of this principle in action:  McDonalds, the ATM, FedEx, and Expedia all come to mind.  The web is ideally suited for “instant” strategies, from Amazon’s “one click purchasing” to the proliferation of Live Chat on retail sites, more and more companies are taking advantage of the web’s real time capabilities.

With QuestionPro’s “Action Alerts” it’s easy to instantly act on a customer’s responses to your survey questions.  Image being able to send an email within minutes of a customer selecting “Please have someone contact me” on a survey question.  Action Alerts can also be used to quickly address problems, for example, if a customer selects “Very Unsatisfied” to a product satisfaction question, you’ll be able to proactively contact this customer within minutes.

With QuestionPro’s easy to use rules, you can create custom Account Alerts tailored specifically to your needs.  To learn more about setting up Account Alerts, please see below:

http://questionpro.com/help/151.html

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Posted in New Features

Spotlight Report – How much “sharing” is good?

Posted on September 6, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Since we are kids, we are taught to share as much as we can. When we launched Spotlight Report a few years ago – we figured – either share all the data or none. We’ve now added in some more granular sharing options as part of our Enterprise License — By default all the questions in a survey are shared as part of the Spotlight Report – Enterprise customers can choose to omit sharing some sensitive questions etc.

See the screenshots below to see how to enable/disable Spotlight Reporting on a question by question basis:

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Posted in Feature Enhancements, New Features, Survey Analytics, SurveyAnalytics - News

Free Webinar Wed 8/24/11 @ 8AM PST: How To Create Your Own Panel Management Solution in 30 Minutes

Posted on August 10, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Wednesday August 24th, 2011

8:00 AM PST

Click here to sign up now

Panel management solutions are popping up everywhere for companies to explore. The main objectives to getting started is that it’s too difficult to learn, It’s too time consuming, or it requires to much dependent on the software company and slowing down the panel debut. With SurveyAnalytics solution, MicroPanel,  implementing your own panel management solution doesn’t have to be difficult and require 2-3 months of set-up time to get started. The webinar “How To Set Up a Panel Management Solution in 30 Minutes” will help familiarize you with the following:

-Trends & Advantages of creating and managing your own panel solution

-How to get started : 5-point focus to kick off your panel solution

- Customized site behavior: Get Your panel & Panel Portal the way you want it to

- Profiling Surveys: Capturing panel info while you ask questions in your survey

-What Are Knowledge Bank Questions: How to Implement them and connect them to your Panel profiles

- Sampling Portal: Pulling specific data for your surveys

A Question and Answer session will follow prior to the conclusion of the webinar.

A recording and webinar slides will be posted on this blog in the afternoon. Make sure to check back and download your copy to view.

To learn more about http://www.micropanel.com

Click here to sign up now

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Posted in Feature Enhancements, New Features, Uncategorized, Webinar

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SurveySwipe Launches Mobile Research Communities Pilot Program

Posted on July 19, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Survey Analytics Offers Companies Three Months of Free Beta Testing

 

Seattle, July 19 2011 – SurveySwipe, a subsidiary of Survey Analytics is introducing a free three-month demo of the Mobile Research Communities pilot program to companies who sign-up for beta testing on the SurveySwipe website. SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities allows companies to reach out to specific audiences with questions relevant to their brand and to receive feedback from that audience in real-time – via smart phones.

SurveySwipe serves as both a social and a business application. Users who download the app can earn points for answering questions related to their particular communities and those points can then be redeemed for various kinds of prizes like iPhone applications, gift cards, and other deals. The information obtained from SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities is highly targeted, hyper-local, and easily obtained from users who are incentivized to respond in a convenient manner.

Like other Survey Analytics solutions, SurveySwipe is accessible and developed to be user-friendly. Companies can easily adapt each survey to their research needs and create a branded survey experience for subjects. SurveySwipe is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices as well as being the only app to support all four major phone platforms.

“SurveySwipe gave our conference the ability to garner immediate feedback in real-time,” says Brian Dowdy, Director of Research, PSAMA. “Through their comprehensive reporting mechanism, we were able to quickly identify the pulse of the conference and adjust resources appropriately. SurveySwipe is the premier choice when building private communities for real-time.”

“As the industry continues to trend more and more towards mobile interaction, it is essential to gather feedback from this source,” said Vivek Bhaskaran, President and CEO of Survey Analytics. “SurveySwipe offers companies unlimited surveys and responses, full control of users and data, customizable points and rewards systems, and 10,000 users from a variety of communities that reflect the needs of diverse target audiences. But because of our commitment to innovation, we will continue to add more features and augment the already-successful program as we move forward.”

Survey Analytics is working on several other new products, including SurveyPocket, developed for the iPad platform. Companies wishing to sign up for the SurveySwipe Mobile Research Communities demo, should visit or click on the SurveySwipe Logo below.

http://surveyswipe.com/application/surveyswipe/mobile-research-communities.html

Link to SurveySwipe Press Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/surveyswipe-launches-mobile-research-communities-pilot-program-125821118.html

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Posted in New Features, SurveyAnalytics - News

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How to Control Your Customer Satisfaction Scores

Posted on July 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

We tend to measure customer satisfaction after the customer experience has already happened.  But that isn’t when the opinion about the experience is really created.

Customer experiences are actually created long before your customer ever reaches your doorstep.  They often start with impressions and perceptions created when your potential customer interacts with friends and colleagues who may tell them about your company, or they search online and find articles and reviews about your business.

This is the moment when expectations are created based on what messages are currently active about your business and the customer experience.  While you can’t control others — you can control and design a customer experience.

  1. Profile Your Customer.  I know I say this all the time, but if you want to control a customer experience, the first thing you must do is be clear on what kind of customer you’d like to attract and then create a customer experience targeted toward them.  Here’s an example.  If you have a hair salon business and you decide to target people who are on a busy schedule.  You might design an experience that guarantees that your customer will start their appointment on time and end their appointment on time — every time.  If you were targeting people who wanted to go to a salon for a spa experience and who looked at that experience as entertainment, rather than a task — those people would feel rushed, hurried and unappreciated.  So first decide on WHO your customer is and what’s important and then start designing a customer experience around that.
  2. Map out your experience process.  The best experiences are really staged, orchestrated and managed.  Customers appreciate the thought put into it and are willing to pay a higher price and give great reviews to the companies that deliver .  To design a great process, you’ll need to map out exactly what your process looks like TODAY.  This way you can manage and measure the effectiveness of the changes you’re making.  At each stage of the process, outline exactly what your desired action or outcome is and then work backwards to make sure that it’s achieved.  For example, if your customer is a busy person who wants to receive service within 5 minutes of walking in, you may decide to have them schedule an appointment in advance so that their slot is guaranteed.
  3. Create opportunities for feedback.  Don’t wait to ask for feedback!  Survey Analytics’ SurveySwipe application has some terrific features that can push surveys out to your customers based on when they enter your store.  Or, you can post QR codes at different stations around your location and give customers the opportunity to give you a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down” at that specific station.  It not only increases customer engagement, it allows you to control that experience in real time and make improvements immediately before a bad impression is created.  Here’s some more information on the SurveySwipe Instant Feedback Product
  4. Change it up for the better.  If you’re receiving input and feedback, make those changes and publicize them.  If a customer made a request for something that turned into an improvement to your system – let everyone know.  If it’s appropriate for your business, acknowledge them there or why not send them a letter or note about the change you made with a special free gift to come back and experience their idea in action.

With today’s interactive technology, there is no reason to wait for customer satisfaction feedback — get the feedback as soon as possible so that you can control the quality of that experience.  This will not only improve your customer satisfaction ratings, but will improve profitability, loyalty and customer engagement.

Related articles

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What’s New on SurveyAnalytics: Recording and Slides Now Available

Posted on May 27, 2011 by | Leave a comment


Thank you to all who attended “What’s New on SurveyAnalytics.” This was a 30 minute presentation on new tools currently available for all clients to use. If you missed the webinar you can view slides & recording here. If you have questions, contact your account manager & we will follow up with you.

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Posted in New Features, Webinar

Find Out What’s New At SurveyAnalytics

Posted on May 25, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Free Webinar for all SurveyAnalytics license holders!

Find Out What’s New At SurveyAnalytics

Thursday May 26th at 9:30 AM PST

Sign up here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/474713098

Join us on Thursday May 26th at 9:30 AM PST as we showcase fun new product offerings available from SurveyAnalytics. If you’ve seen some new items and wonder what they are, this is a great forum to satisfy your curiosity! Dedicated exclusively for existing clients, this session will allow you to view what’s available from SurveyAnalytics and think about expansion opportunities to your current research strategy in the near future.

New tools we will be showcasing include:

-SurveyPocket: The first offline and online mobile field research app for iPad/iPhone.

-MicroPanel: Creating your own communities just got easier than ever.

-New features and aesthetics added to SurveyAnalytics to enhance the respondent experience.

We will then open up a time for a Q&A session and also include an opportunity for you, the user, to make suggestions and have other users vote on them. In fact you can start this right now!

Add suggestions/feedback and vote on ideas for SurveyAnalytics here: http://whatsnewonsurveyanalytics.ideascale.com

We hope you are able to join us for this webinar presentation and look forward to your opinions and feedback.

Click here to sign up: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/474713098

Thank you!

The SurveyAnalytics Team

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Posted in New Features, Webinar

Get the right people to answer….

Posted on April 20, 2011 by | Leave a comment
Pick the right crowd..

Pick the right crowd...

One of the most common requests we get ask at SurveyAnalytics is “how can I find respondents for my surveys”? You can use your existing clients of course, but very often you need to know things that your current contacts or clients can’t tell you. For instance: why didn’t someone buy your product or service ? Will you get more sales if you change the price of a product? Will your product be appealing to a new age group you don’t sell to at the moment?  Being able to ask questions to the right group of people is critical to successful research.

Sample, or the group of people you ask to take your survey, is a necessity for any market researcher.  Now SurveyAnalytics can provide you with the right sample, at the right time, for the right price !

As part of our service to our existing clients we have a new sample service, offering sample from a wide range of panels we have developed. As a special introductory offer we are able to offer 250 completed interviews (surveys can be no longer that 15 questions) free of charge to existing clients.

 If you were to buy this from other sample companies it could cost you more than $250, but we can offer this to SurveyAnalytics clients for a limited time totally free of charge.

Please contact us at panel-requests@surveyanalytics.com for more details on this great offer.  The sample provided by SurveyAnalytics will be “general population” sample covering a representative cross-section of  the population of the USA.

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Posted in Essay, New Features

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