Research is one of the most important functions in any given organization. It is only through constant feedback that the organization can restructure its processes and products to suit the needs of its stakeholders. One of the best ways to conduct this research is to create an online questionnaire. The advantages of online questionnaires are numerous.
1) Online questionnaires normally take a short amount of time. They usually take three to ten minutes. This saves your organization a lot of time. You can actually spend more time analyzing the data than collecting it. This will give you a better and more comprehensive understanding of what you are trying to study.
2) Online questionnaires are cheaper than written questionnaires. They save you a lot of money. For example, you do not have to hire field supervisors, field interviewers and data analysts. All the functions carried out using written questionnaires are computerized.
3)Online questionnaires are accurate. Respondents feed their answers directly into the system. The human errors usually committed by field agents and data analysts are not present. The answers are direct, precise and well coded.
4)It is easy to analyze online questionnaires. The data analysis and presentation is at the touch of a button. The presentation is normally in form of graphs, tables, formula and charts. This is possible since the process from data collection to its analysis is computerized.
5) Online questionnaires reach a greater number of respondents. Almost everyone has access to the internet. People are increasingly using the internet for business, leisure and research. They are more people now on the internet than ever before. Online questionnaires will therefore help you to collect feedback from more people.
6) You can create an online questionnaire at any time. This means that you can change the questions to suit your company brand and products. You can therefore be more specific with your questions. You can also easily correct any mistakes made on the questionnaire.
7) People tend to be more honest in online questionnaires. This is because there is no person looking over his or her shoulder. They can afford to be honest without any repercussions. For example, some respondents cannot answer truthfully because they feel that they may hurt the feelings of the interviewer that is asking them questions.
8) You can design your questionnaire to match a very specific target group. You can create an online questionnaire just beneath particular brands or services. This will narrow down your respondents to only those that are interested in these brands or services. You can also develop codes that only certain customers can use to answer your questionnaire.
9) You can introduce audio visual aids in your questionnaire. This is especially important for feedback on commercials and products launches. People need to see what you are asking them to give their feedback on. This is possible thorough online questionnaires at very low costs.
10) They do not have geographical boundaries. Anyone around the globe can answer it depending on how you design it. This means that you can generate feedback from potential markets even before you enter those markets. Likewise, you can understand what is going on in certain countries without actually being in those countries.