Although sometimes underestimated by market researchers, email survey has been successfully used by many companies. For example, The Reader’s Digest spends $300,000 a year on mail research **. Email survey have long been used by researchers because of their low potential cost per respondent, their ability to reach widely dispersed consumers, and their ability to obtain large amounts of data and allow more sophisticated questioning techniques, such as measuring scales.
In this approach consumers receive a questionnaire in their email account, complete it at their leisure, and return it. The email survey is self-administrated, consumers are not only aware of the fact that they are being studied, but they actively participate. Email surveys also tend to give respondents a sense of privacy.
Email survey is gaining acceptance. Kentucky Fried Chicken recently converted their twice a month, 120-respondent Research Guidance Test (RGT) interview from personal survey to email survey. The RGT surveys involve both attitude measures and taste tests. Preliminary studies found that 78-97 percent of participants liked the email interview experience very much. The firm has realized the following advantages since converting to email surveys:
- Questionnaire generation time has been cut from four hours to about one hour
- Paper requirements have been greatly reduced
- Average time per interview has been reduced by 50 percent
- Data analysis is completed the day after the interviews are completed
- The obtained data are more accurate
Surveyo™ is an easy to use, highly productive, time and money saving solution that can be used for all your email survey needs. It is intuitive and powerful survey software that simplifies and enhances the entire surveying and feedback process. Learn More ›
** Edward W. Whitley, “The Case for Portal Research,” Journal of the Market Research Society, 27:5-13, January 1985)