Pros and Cons of Doing Surveys In-House

Despite all the survey tools available, you still need someone to run your survey project. Often companies decide to outsource this work to companies with experience in the area, but outsourcing can be expensive, and companies often prefer to complete projects in-house so that they can have more control over their costs and their surveys. But completing a survey project in-house isn't always the best idea either. In this article, we'll explore the pros and cons of completing a survey in-house over outsourcing.

Greater Control – While survey companies are often well-trained in completing surveys correctly, once you outsource your work to one of these companies it is no longer in your control, and that means that you'll have no knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes. If the company you choose does something less-than-reputable or has a different theory of survey best practices than you do, there's nothing you can do about it.

On the other hand, in in-house surveys you have control over every aspect of the project. Greater Company Involvement – It's very hard to get a company to rally around research when all they see is the final numbers. When multiple individuals within the company are working on the survey and handling the results, the company often values and understands the data more.

Less Costly – You do need to have employees that are training SurveyMethods and spend their time running your surveys correctly, and that can be expensive. But overall the price of running a survey in-house is less costly provided you complete it efficiently.

Required Knowledge – It's important to find and/or train someone so that they can complete these surveys efficiently. Poorly run surveys lead to incorrect data. You need to have employees or staff that truly understand things like survey language and best practices.

Multiple Staff – While you can have an individual that is prepared to run the survey, it's often better to have multiple staff dedicated to it, in case someone is sick or there needs to be some type of collaboration. This is hard for many businesses. Overall, if you have or can train employees that will be able to effectively create and manage surveys and have the tools or staff to run the survey, you'll have better control and save money on costs.

But expertise is important, so if you're concerned about the level of expertise or use of resources, you may want to outsource your survey work instead.