How to Use Surveys in Event Management

Event planning is a notoriously hectic field. You’re often organizing several other people and businesses in order to hope that they all come together to make your event go along smoothly. It is difficult enough to manage employees in your own organization.

But when you’re managing other people’s employees, and other company’s schedules, the end result can be incredibly hectic. As more and more industries find use for online survey technology, one of the industries that appears to be picking up on it the most is event planning, because both the quantitative and qualitative features of an online survey are a great way to manage multiple needs at once.

On television, event planners manage companies and people by calling each of them and hectically writing down the information. They check in regularly (“Have you done this? Have you started on this? No, the white one not the yellow one!), and they lose track of all of the companies they need to follow.

It’s backbreaking work. Surveys offer a better solution. If you work with vendors that regularly have access to emails, you can send them a weekly (or even daily) survey that requests just a small amount of information from them.

For example: Have you started on the (cake/flowers/decorations, etc.)? In percentages, how much have you completed? How much time do you think you need until completion? Do you need anything from me to help you reach the deadline? There are ample questions you can ask, but you can ask just those 4 or so questions and suddenly you have the regular updates you were looking for.

No hassle, and no stress. With the SurveyMethods online survey software system, you can also set your event planning survey up to provide you with live updating results that you can monitor online from a specific web address, as well as email alerts if someone responds in with an answer that you need to see immediately, such as a “yes” answer to “have you encountered any problems?” or a “yes” answer to “have you completed the project?” Using these tools, you can monitor all of the vendors that you’re working with for the event without having to call them each day and with them able to fill out the forms easily. You may have to find vendors that are willing to complete a survey, but if there are only a few questions, most vendors will understand the value of avoiding phone calls and be happy to complete these types of progress reports.

Many event planners have used surveys to find out whether or not the event was a success after the event has completed. But few are using survey software to ensure they can make the event successful. Even though this may not be a “research” use for this type of software, it is a valuable way to ensure that you’re able to run your business more efficiently.