Offline Survey Preferences

These days, most surveys take place online. Online surveys are faster, they're more cost effective, they're less prone to error and they make it easy to collect data, so it's easy to see why most companies have turned to online surveys for their data collection needs. Still, the value of an online survey is dependent on the respondent's willingness to take the online survey in the first place. While most people are comfortable using the Internet there is still a small subsection of people that prefer answering questions on the phone or responding to surveys in the mail.

Ideally, you will reach those respondents through your method of collecting your sample. You can easily provide a question such as "how would you prefer your survey sent to you" with regular mail and phone survey options and if they check those boxes you contact them via those means. You can also include the choice within the online survey itself, especially for follow ups.

In the email you can ask "if you would prefer a phone survey or a mail survey, click here" or provide the option at the end of the survey that says "how would you like us to follow up with you for future surveys?" Both are potential options for collecting data from these respondents. Finally, you can also consider sending that same question out in reminder emails for those that have not yet filled out their online survey. Ask them if they would have preferred a different method instead, and use that method to include them in the sample.

Before you provide these options, however, make sure you've come up with a plan to ensure you don't have duplicate data and that you can collect all of the data easily. Phone surveys should still take place online. Have the person on the phone entering in the respondent's answers instead of the respondent, but keep it with the original survey so that all of the data collects in the same place.

Similarly, with mail surveys, make sure that you have a method of ensuring that you aren't re-surveying the same individual. Including the most representative sample possible in your survey should be a priority, and for some businesses that means having more than one option available for how the respondent takes the survey. Consider these options as well to reach those people whom online surveys have no appeal.