Understanding how to create a new product survey can save you time and money. The knowledge gained from simple surveys can be invaluable when it comes to designing and developing a new product. It can give you insights to what your customers want from your product or what potential new items they’d like to see.
There can be nothing worse than going through the effort of creating a new product only to find out that it is not selling as well as expected. Luckily many problems can be found early in development through surveying your customers base and target consumers. Unfortunately, most traditional forms of surveys are quite expensive and if you’re just starting in your business it can be out of your reach in a financial sense. The best, and usually the cheapest, way to get the information you need is to write and send out the surveys yourself.
At Quizpipe we have developed a series of tools that will allow you to construct your own new product surveys. All our surveys can be shared to social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), or sent as a link to an email account. You have access to our analytics tools, and this can show you what answers people selected, how many people completed your survey, and what answers they provided. After looking through the answers people have given it can become clear if the product is ready for release, or if it needs further work. In this article we’ll take you through the steps involved and teach you how to create a new product survey.
Decide how you’ll conduct the survey
There are a few ways that you can conduct the survey, some of which include, online methods, mobile devices, paper forms, face-to-face or phone interviews, as the most common. Of these few the mobile and online options are the cheapest, and currently the most accessible, especially if you have an existing consumer base. Interviews are often the most expensive as you’ll need to hire someone to conduct the surveys, and sometimes these are not targeted but rather take a snapshot of the general population.
If you have spent the time and effort to build an email list of people interested in your products, then you already have a selection of people that will be willing to fill out your surveys. If you already have an existing product and are looking to make something new, or improvements to your current offering most people will be more than willing to help out. Many users like dealing with a company that is actively listening to their concerns about a product and they like to see companies making changes based on those concerns. Therefore, you can build on customer loyalty by sending out surveys and taking heed of the results.
Write the survey questions
Once you’ve settled on the method that you’ll choose to conduct the survey, you can move onto writing the questions. For a survey to be successful you’ll need to keep it short and sweet. For best results we’d suggest keeping the survey to around ten minutes in length. When a survey takes longer than ten minutes people get bored and either start giving false information simply to get through it, or they abandon it. If people aren't truthful in their responses or only complete half the survey, you’re not getting the full picture of what they think about the survey subject.
When you're researching how to create a new product survey, take note of how to structure the questions. As with most writing it needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. Introduce the survey and inform them of how the survey will be conducted and why you’re seeking their input, and make sure you mention the approximate time to complete the survey. Then follow with the questions, these should be listed in a relatively logical order, and keep all the related questions together. This will help the users to maintain a flow and not be confused with what you’re asking. When you’re finishing the survey, thank them for their time and ask if they can be contacted for any follow up questions. If they tick yes you can send them an email that allows them to answer any questions in more detail.
When writing the questions, try to stick to close ended questions. Those that have a yes or no answer are best. This will give you quantitative data that can be used to demonstrate the results in graphs and other presentable formats which makes it easy to see where problems are at a glance and limit feedback that is based on what people feel about a product. While you can ask a close ended question that goes beyond yes or no, make sure the answer has a definitive response. For example, you could ask for the respondent to select what they think along a range. Often this can look like a statement and then asking them if they agree or not on a scale of 1-10 (just make sure you state if 1 or 10 is the positive response). Set time constraints for your survey
Setting a time and date for the completion of your survey means that you have a definitive cut off time for receiving results. This allows you to collect all the data and begin to analyse the information without other results coming in at a later date. Think of it like an election, you set a time where the count will happen and do it all on that day. Looking at early results can skew your data in an unusual manner, the same can happen if the results keep coming in later. You need to have a firm final date and time, then you can start making decisions based on the feedback provided. By leaving the survey open for too long, an analysis may take an unusual amount of time to complete.
To help people fill out the survey quickly, you can try offering them something in return. You might offer a discount code on their next purchase, or even a free product. Incentives like this are perfect for getting a high return on any survey you send out. This is because people are more willing to do something, even though it is of little cost to them, when they get something in return.
Analysing the results of your survey
After you have received all the results in your survey, you can start to analyse them. Depending on how many responses you get this task can be daunting. By using programs that are available, you can easily cut down on the time it takes to analyse your raw data to a form that makes sense and is easily reviewable.
If there is a strong opinion on one particular element of your product it should be reasonably quick to deduce what it is. Then you can start to make changes or determine what needs to be addressed to correct any issues, or build on what people liked about your product.
##Conclusion Learning how to create a new product survey can give you the answers to what people think about your product. By using the tools available through Quizpipe, you can create and send out your survey quickly and cheaply. After receiving the responses, getting access to the data is simple. You’ll have access to all the respondent’s emails which gives you the opportunity to ask any follow up questions.