The last presidential election was a stunning win for online polls and a drubbing defeat for telephone polls. It provoked a loud and contentious debate among survey methodologists about the accuracy of polls and about how (and whether) to revise our methods. So here we are again, four years later with technology having moved faster…
Even just a few years ago the idea of using SMS text messaging for surveys seemed absurd. There were strong demographic skews to cell phone usage, and among SMS usage as well. Texting was often a cost add-on for cell phone users, so they carefully guarded it. And of course research companies could barely manage…
There is an important directional bias in our culture such that things above tend to be perceived as better than things below. Top is better than bottom. Up is better than down. Over is better than under. Whatever the reasons for this bias (and there are several compelling theories) recent research shows that it affects…
That Nespresso survey I got via my work email—surely it must be SPAM, right? I have no relationship with the company and have never inquired about it. Some sleazy market research company harvested a huge list of e-mails and blasted it out to hundreds of thousands of people like me. So I decided to report…
Most companies test new product or service ideas with concept tests to evaluate market interest and to refine their ideas. Most of these (like most surveys, nowadays) are conducted online, which offers speed and cost efficiency. But there is a downside. While people are quite adept at reviewing ideas and answering questions in online formats,…
Here we are on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which makes it a perfect time to answer the question: “What in the world do we mean by accessible surveys?” Our last newsletter (How to Make a Survey ADA Accessible) outlined the important steps needed to begin developing such surveys. But it’s worth stepping back from the…
Nine out of ten Americans (89%) regularly use the Internet. So the old argument that online surveys will miss big chunks of the U.S. population is no longer valid. But an important question remains: Are the remaining one in ten (11%) who are beyond reach with online surveys substantially different from the others? And if…
If you are a consumer-facing company deploying online surveys of your customers, accessible surveys will likely be on your agenda in the next couple of years. Accessible surveys incorporate unique design features so that people with disabilities who use assistive technologies can participate as fully as others. With the need for survey accessibility growing and…
A perennial debate among survey researchers is whether respondents should be allowed to answer “don’t know” or “not sure.” In fact, this is something we at Versta Research wrestle with (and argue about) internally almost every day. My approach is generally to not allow them. We have seen strong evidence in our own work that…
One of the weirdest things about research is how the everyday nature of our work keeps changing as a result of the problems we solve. A colleague on the corporate side recently shared an observation that I found unsettling: With her customer experience research now fully automated, even down to the “analyses” via quick dashboard…