1 Topic 5 Blogs: DIY Surveys

The question posed to the group of 5 Bloggers this month was: “The survey monkey conundrum:  the upsides, downsides and opportunities for researchers that access to self survey tools creates.” Links to my fellow bloggers Annie Pettit¹, Joel Rubinson², Josh Mendelsohn³ and Bernie Malinoff⁴ can be found below.

If a company is using DIY survey tools, I see it as an opportunity. It provides evidence that the company understands the value that market research can bring to an organization. Many market researchers, too quickly, frown upon the use of DIY Survey tools and I feel that they do so simply because it cuts them out of the loop. Survey’s have been around a lot longer than market research professionals. A simple show of hands, for example, has been around longer than the word research. No one has ever argued against a show of hands and it is likely the most frequently run survey on the planet.

Personally, I’ve never walked into a company that is running their own, homegrown, survey(s). What I have run into are a number of companies that I wish had done some kind of rudimentary survey before making a decision. Nevertheless, I do have a few concerns that I would say make hiring a research professional in the best interest of businesses large or small.

Third party impartiality being the first. One of the biggest benefits of using a research supplier is that your customers, employees, stakeholders, potentials, etc. are not talking to you. They are talking about you. Data gathered from individuals when they know the sponsor of the survey is generally very different from data gathered from individuals when they don’t know the sponsor of the survey. A good example would be an employee satisfaction study, where my experience has led me to beleive that most of the real value comes not from the basic benchmarks but from the verbatim data that can be collected. How likely do you think your employees would be to speak or write  their minds if they knew the boss was able to see it associated with their names?

The next concern is related to survey design. If you have not been trained to write surveys you will end up with poorly written questions. Even a poorly written question can provide moderately accurate data for a business decision. But it can be completely in-accurate if it contains biased questions, double-barreled questions, or questions that people won’t want to answer knowing who the information is going back to.

Last on my list of concerns is sampling methodology.  Research professionals have already convinced the biggest companies in the world that sampling methodology doesn’t matter anymore (taking a jab at online panels, I know, they’re already being battered). But that doesn’t mean that a business will be able to get it right without help.

If you are a company planning on using your own DIY survey, I say go ahead. But realize that you are likely to miss out on the expertise and impartiality that research professionals bring to the table.