A Better Way to Field Your Online Surveys: The IntelliSurvey Difference

Fielding a survey effectively involves careful planning, design, and execution to gather accurate and useful data. At IntelliSurvey, we support successful fielding starting with questionnaire design through to analysis.  

We field thousands of studies yearly with our expert team of project consultants. Listed below are the steps we consider to be the most important in the fielding process, including how we add value at each stage. 

Start With Your Objectives

Clearly defined goals and objectives are crucial to the success of your survey. Start by outlining the specific information you are trying to collect and how this data will be used to meet your business objectives.  

Having a clear purpose helps you tailor the survey to your specific needs, identify the right type of questions, and create an effective data collection plan. This will help ensure the survey is relevant, accurate, and efficient.

IntelliSurvey Difference: You don’t have to go it alone. Starting with the RFP, we ask questions to learn your business and thoroughly understand your goals and objectives. Each IntelliSurvey project is bespoke and tailored to your specific needs. 

Identify Your Target Audience

Identify your ideal survey respondents by determining who should participate based on your objectives. Clearly define your target demographic, as appropriate, using attributes such as age, gender, location, profession, etc. Understanding your audience will help you develop your questions and distribution methods accordingly. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Once you’ve defined your target audience, you’ll want to set up a screener that narrows down your respondent pool to only those most qualified to take your survey. You can leverage our field management team to help design your screener and field strategy. 

Thoughtfully Design Your Questionnaire

Follow survey design best practices to create a well-structured questionnaire with clear, concise, and unbiased questions. Limit your questions to the essentials to avoid survey fatigue, and use features such as skip logic and pathing to ensure each respondent sees only the questions relevant to them.

If you have the opportunity, take advantage of expert advice, such as IntelliSurvey, on your questionnaire! It is surprisingly easy to introduce bias or accidentally phrase questions in a way that does NOT get you the data you expect. This also applies to screener questions, where it is critical to ensure only the people who truly represent your target audience make it through to the survey. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: IntelliSurvey programs and hosts over 2,000 surveys yearly, giving us a deep understanding of the best techniques for survey design. We offer services that include an in-depth questionnaire review with feedback on how to improve your survey’s design, logic, question structure, and more. 

Choose How to Administer Your Survey

Online surveys can be administered in a variety of ways, including email, website embeds, mobile apps, SMS, and more. When choosing the best method to distribute your survey, consider factors such as your target audience’s preferences, the level of customization you need, the complexity of your survey design, and your available resources. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Because our team has experience with administering surveys to hundreds of thousands of respondents every year across a broad spectrum of audiences, we understand which methodologies will yield the best results based on your demographic targets. This can include B2C, B2B, and healthcare professionals, and regularly entails finding hard-to-reach populations.

Select Your Sample Size

Select a representative sample that is large enough to provide statistically significant results. Think ahead to how you’re going to cut and segment your data and aim for a sample size that will get you to the number of respondents you are comfortable with for each segment. 

If you have groups for which you want to ensure a minimum number of respondents, adjust your quotas accordingly. You’ll also want to take your budget for sample costs and timeline into account. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Our research team can help you determine which data cuts you’ll need to meet your goals and objectives. Once you have those in place, we can also make recommendations on target quotas while staying mindful of your sample budget. 

Pick Your Sample Source Carefully

Common sources for online surveys include online panels (consumer, B2B, and specialist), CATI (telephone interviewing), customer/client database lists, and Expert Networks. Choosing the right source for each project is key to gaining the insights you need.

IntelliSurvey Difference: We do not own our own panel and are not tied to any specific source. In fact, we work with over 100 partners, often using a blended sample approach to enhance reach and to ensure your quotas are met with the right respondents as quickly as possible.  

Test Your Survey Thoroughly

Test your survey to identify any problems with question-wording, survey flow, or technical errors that would impede a respondent’s ability to complete it. Soft-launching with a small number of respondents can help you catch issues early and resolve them before rolling your survey out to your full sample. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Our survey testing tools are designed to streamline the testing process and eliminate tedious back and forth when errors are discovered. For example, wording can be checked and edited in our drag-and-drop survey builder, IntelliBuilder, as the survey is being programmed - no technical knowledge is required. This lets you focus on testing survey logic and flow after programming is complete. Our testing center includes in-line commenting so you can flag issues and see resolutions in real-time. 

Administer Your Survey

Implement your survey according to the chosen distribution method by providing clear instructions to respondents. Confirm that invitations have been sent as scheduled and responses are rolling in at a rate that aligns with your timeline and goals. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Reporting and monitoring tools are built-in and available from day one of your survey. You can immediately track the number of completes, quota fills, traffic speed, termination reasons, and more. 

Monitor Data Collection

As responses come in, keep track of completes and quotas. Run a few sanity checks - are the numbers close to what you expected? Do free responses look good? Are people answering your attention checks? If not, you’ll want to investigate right away. 

IntelliSurvey Difference: Our reporting platform provides easy access to information and tools in real-time. You can see live respondent data by refreshing reports and easily adjust quotas as needed with just a few simple clicks. Those same reports can be saved and scheduled to go out to stakeholders while in field, ensuring everyone has the information they need at their fingertips. 

Perform Data Cleaning

Data cleaning is a key step to ensuring accurate insights. A stringent set of quality control measures is vital to ensure your data is robust and reliable.

IntelliSurvey Difference: All surveys programmed and hosted by IntelliSurvey include access to CheatSweep™, our proprietary data cleansing algorithm, as well as manual review by our experienced project managers to flag and discard obvious cheaters. As a result, you get better data faster, and you’ll have peace of mind knowing you’re using the most advanced cheat detection system available. 

After You Field Your Study

Once your study is out of field, it’s time to move on to data analysis and reporting. After collecting responses, analyze the data using appropriate statistical methods and tools. Look for trends, patterns, and insights related to your study objectives.

IntelliSurvey Difference: Our platform makes it easy to analyze your data with standard tables and charts for analytics and more advanced features such as weighting, utility modeling, and TURF analysis. Results can be exported in a variety of native formats, including Excel, SPSS, Tableau-friendly verticalized CSV, and more. 

In Conclusion

Effective survey fielding is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning and execution to gather accurate and actionable data. At IntelliSurvey, we understand the significance of each step in the fielding journey and how it contributes to the success of your survey. Our research services allow you to move seamlessly from survey design through data collection and analysis. If you are looking for a partner who will invest in the success of your next study, please get in touch.