Necessities for Survey Analysis

It's not enough to simply make customer surveys and briefly review the results without going into in-depth survey analysis. Customer surveying gives you the opportunity to gather the information you need to make business decisions that are based on the evidence at hand, rather than just your own intuition. Of course, not all survey analysis software is created equal. As you research your survey analysis software options, make sure whatever software you choose has these necessities:

• Side-by-side comparison – You won't be looking at any single survey in a vacuum; instead, you'll be comparing results to past surveys and information gathered from other sources. If you're a very large company, this may mean thousands of surveys going back several decades. Your software should allow you to compare surveys and specific questions from different surveys without any trouble.
• Ability to integrate different types of results – Not all surveys give the same types of results. Some results are more qualitative, such as customer feedback comments; and even in multiple-choice results, the format will vary. Your software should allow you to integrate these different types of results.
• Capacity – As mentioned above, large companies may have thousands of surveys from thousands or even millions of customers, going back decades. Even small to medium companies who give out surveys frequently will find that they accumulate a large database over time. Your survey company must be able to handle this type of volume.
• User-friendliness – Few companies have a dedicated analyst these days, and with modern software there's no need for one. The best survey analysis software should be intuitive to use, allowing people from many different departments and backgrounds to learn the software quickly and make sense of the results.
• Great customer service – You want a company who will be on-call to answer your questions when you have them. It should be easy to find a real person to talk to on phone or via web chat, and the customer service representatives must be competent at helping you find solutions.

When you find a software company, like mTab, that offers all of these features, you'll be able to truly make the most of your customer surveying. Companies who do customer surveys frequently, and combine it with excellent survey analysis, are able to stay a step ahead of their competitors who are less in tune with the market.