About Omnibus Surveys

Versta Research fields omnibus surveys, and we often recommend such surveys for our clients.  But omnibus surveys do no not always save money or offer the insights that are needed, and so we often recommend inexpensive alternatives as well.

In years past, data collection was a slow, complicated, and expensive task.  If you had just a few survey questions, you could share the cost of data collection by cooperating with others who had just a few questions.  That was the birth of the omnibus.  Today, however, most surveys are conducted online, and the data collection process is automated, fast, and inexpensive.  The cost of a custom survey with just a few survey questions, just for you, fielded exactly when and how you want it,  is often no higher than an omnibus.

Sometimes an omnibus survey is the best way to go, but it all depends on the issues you’re trying to understand and the audience you’re trying to reach.  If you think an omnibus survey might be right for you, here are Versta’s recommendations about how to proceed:

• Focus on the issues you’re trying to understand and the budget you have to work with

• Ask us to recommend all options that answer your questions within your budget

• Do not worry about whether the study is an omnibus or not — an omnibus survey is a money-saving technique for the researcher that should be invisible to you

• If an omnibus survey makes sense, work through a firm like Versta Research – even if we field it through a big-name provider for you, it will cost less, and we can design it in a customized way that helps you turn data into stories

—Joe Hopper, Ph.D.