One of the common items we have run into in our experience as researchers – especially in our time as corporate researchers – is how often our colleagues would seem to consider research as synonymous with survey tool. Research is a lot more than tools, and a variety of tools are and can be used for research – from the very low tech (paper surveys) to the very high tech (robust survey / research community platforms and AI-based listening tools).
But when it comes to common survey tools, our team at Coax Insights are platform agnostic. We have used a number of the major survey solutions available today, and each have their strengths. Different platforms allow for different levels of programming complexity, and they may support different question types.
Some tools are perfectly fine for simple surveys that do not require robust survey pathing, nor access to/collection of identifiable respondent data. Other platforms provide you with more programming flexibility and data security management tools. Some platforms are optimized to give you quick and simple summaries of the data you’ve collected, while others allow for robust statistical and text analytics and dashboard capabilities.
Some are geared specifically to measuring key metrics (Net Promoter Score® / NPS, Customer Satisfaction / CSAT, etc,), others provide robust statistical tools and analytics for a wider array of insight types. Some are optimized to plug into panel data sources, some are optimized for use in an online focus group setting, some provide a host of integration tools to enable direct feeds to and from your operational or customer systems, and some provide standalone survey capabilities.
What tool or tools you use to collect your data is really best evaluated based on what you need to know, what you have available and what you need to accomplish with the tools you have. We would not deign to recommend one tool over another without understanding your use case. And we are happy to work with our clients within their in-house tool, if preferred, or by bringing a platform that will fit their needs to the table.
That said, if you intend to use a third-party survey platform, the one thing we do strongly recommend is that you review the data privacy and security features of the tool(s) you opt to use, to ensure you understand any risks and that you approach your use of that tool accordingly.
Coming Up: Research & Data Security
Next time, we’ll talk more about some of the considerations that apply when it comes to research and data security. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss an issue.
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Do you have a question you hope to answer with market research? Contact our team at Coax Insights. We’d be happy to help.