Using Surveys for Voting

Often on this site we discuss uses for surveys other than traditional data collection and analysis. That's because surveys, while designed for intense market research, are still a tool, and like any tool they can be used in any way that your business sees fit. If you need to collect data, surveys can be useful. So when you have any scenario that involves gathering data, remember that an online survey sent via email is often the best data collection method available for ensuring everyone gets their information in.

Let's say that you have a meeting where you discuss potential options for a business strategy meeting. You can use the survey to make sure that everyone's vote is being tallied correctly, polling everyone at the end of the meeting so that you get an accurate count of how many people believe in a specific strategy – a count that won't be influenced by other people's votes. You can even poll on lunch choices or style of meeting if that method is valued.

Another example of a non-traditional survey is one that's used to gather data on event attendees. You can not only receive feedback regarding who will be in attendance – you can also receive food choices, allow for logic that indicates allergies or special needs, and provide information based on seating or involvement.

Online surveys are created for researchers. But consider the amount of time it takes to find, collect, and use data when you collect it manually or via pieces of paper. There is a lot of data entry, planning, errors – all of which are mitigated by the natural data collection processes of an online survey.

So if you choose to use an online survey instead to collect these pieces of information (even though these simple polling and information gathering needs are not a traditional use of the online survey), you'll find that you save a considerable amount of time and effort collecting information from people only to find that it's difficult to count, causes errors, and more. You save money, effort, and time in ways that traditional methods are unable to account for. Surveys are a tool for researchers, and often have a variety of additional features that make them useful for intense research use.

But they're also simply a tool. You can use them in any way that benefits you.