Rapidly advancing technology, evolving socioeconomic times, uncertain geopolitical climates – the world is changing quickly. And that presents a specific challenge for insights professionals. Survey design must adapt to these forces so respondents feel comfortable, secure, and engaged while taking our surveys to collect the valuable information decision-makers need.
Traditional market research tools have not necessarily kept up with the need to improve the respondent experience. However, Research Results has. We have developed several proprietary question formats to enhance the respondent experience and engagement while improving data quality, the key survey design challenge for insights professionals today.
First, keeping respondents engaged. One of the main question types where respondents can “go on autopilot” is matrix questions. And the problem here is that it is just too easy to fly through the responses without really considering your response. We have solved this problem with our Auto Scroll Rating tool (see a demo here). Essentially, we slow down the answer process by highlighting each item. Respondents cannot move forward to the following matrix item until they respond to the highlighted question. Because respondents do not see the entire matrix, this question format reduces the probability that respondents won’t consider their responses and answer all questions the same, just to move on through the survey.
Auto Scroll Rating tool see a demo here.
Next, we have a pie chart tool for questions that ask respondents to estimate the percentage of a behavior. For example, the question might be, “What percent of your day do you spend on certain activities (e.g., sleeping, social media, working, watching TV?)” In our Pie Chart AutoSum tool, answers are entered for each activity on a slider scale using a click-and-drag method. As the respondent answers, the tool builds a pie chart automatically. The respondent can easily see their response based on 100%, make adjustments, and quickly see when their answers don’t sum to 100%. This tool increases engagement and data accuracy while making responding easier for the respondent, especially for mobile phone respondents.
See a demo of the Pie Chart AutoSum tool here.
Another proprietary tool Research Results developed to improve data quality is our Auto-Complete tool. This tool allows an open-end format question but relieves the respondent of typing by automatically suggesting answers that fit the question. For example, to answer the question, “What is your favorite baseball team?,” the complete list of baseball teams is programmed behind the survey. The respondent simply enters the first one or two letters of the team name, and all teams matching those letters are shown automatically for the respondent to select from. As an added benefit, this tool also reduces the back-end data cleaning that comes with entirely open-end responses!
You can see a demo of the Auto-Complete tool here.
Another tool in our toolbox is our enhanced Card Sort. This tool helps improves the respondent experience while improving data quality. When asking respondents to evaluate several items (for example, brands, products, and images), we simply show respondents a picture. Once they respond, we quickly “fly in” the following picture. Because respondents don’t realize they are answering a matrix-type question and stay more engaged. Of course, the tool will not advance to the next item until the respondent answers, eliminating missing data. Finally, we all know that people recognize brand images faster than a list of words, which is another benefit of this tool. We call that a win-win-win!
Check out the Card Sort tool here.
But these aren’t the only proprietary tools in the Research Results toolbox. We have tools to verify and validate respondents, improve image evaluation, improve survey design, and more. You can check them out here. And like the ever-changing environment we all live in, we are dedicated to developing tools for our clients that improve the survey experience and the resulting insight for our clients. So, stay tuned!
For details about all of RR’s custom products, click here, or contact Ellen @ Ellen_Pieper@researchresults.com today to schedule a demo with our programming team!