3 Simple Ways to Conduct Surveys

By Simon DavisThe best part about a democracy is the ability to voice your opinion and have it heard. After all, it’s the people that make up an organization who contribute to its success. The same can be said for offices, classrooms, conferences and any other group experience. Things only run smoothly if you are on the same page as your audience or participants.Now, obviously you’ll need a method to gather public opinion, which is why surveys and polling tools are a great way to drive engagement, collect feedback, conduct research and gauge satisfaction.Below you will find a few simple applications to conduct your next survey or poll. Of course, no single tool is perfect for every occasion, so feel free to experiment to find which solutions works best for your purposes.Google FormsGoogle is one of the most popular web platforms around and for good reason. Google’s tools are free, easy to use and familiar to most online users, and Google Forms is no exception. This Google survey platform provides a simple way to whip up questionnaires, share them with your teams, classrooms or customers and download the findings into a chart or spreadsheet – making assessment a breeze. And just like other Google apps (Docs, Sheets or Slide), Forms is built for collaboration.Top features include unlimited surveys and responses, customizable themes, visual media inclusion and the ability to imbed surveys into emails or webpages. Not too shabby for a free online tool.Poll EverywhereQuickly becoming a favorite survey app for conferences and classrooms, Poll Everywhere is an audience response system that uses mobile phones, the web and Twitter to gather responses rather than pricey polling hardware.This flexible survey app goes beyond multiple choice polling to allow for open-ended questions. Want to get a discussion started with your audience? Poll Everywhere allows you to develop questions on the fly and see responses pop up on your presentation for real-time engagement with your listeners. This allows for continuous and fluid audience-speaker interactions. You can even display responses in a word cloud or customized chart. Do you want it professional or casual? It’s all up to you.While polling with Poll Everywhere is free, users can also purchase affordable plan upgrades and features including reporting and grading, moderation, response segmentation and support.Survey MonkeySurvey Monkey is one of the most recognizable names among survey apps, and has especially caught fire with business professionals. Just build your questionnaire and share it with whoever you want over web link, custom email, Facebook application or embedded in a webpage.Can’t come up with the right questions? No worries. Survey Monkey specializes in providing unbiased questions to garner better responses. Just choose from over 15 question types (including multiple choice or comment box) and select queries from the stored question bank.This survey provider also incorporates skip logic, a feature which creates a custom path for your respondents based on their answers. This means more relevancy for your participants and better data for your company. And of course, you can export your findings into a document or spreadsheet.Even without any technical know-how, you can make attractive branded surveys for only a few bucks a month. Other appealing features include integration with partners like Mail Chimp and Eventbrite, and the opportunity for team collaboration. Sign up is free, but there are premium plans for serious users.We hope this list of survey apps has been helpful in selecting a solution fit for your purposes. Once you select the tool best suited for your business or classroom, be sure to try out different methods of driving participant engagement and satisfaction. Happy polling![author]About the Author: Simon Davis has been a full-time business writer since the last 4 years and has had the privilege of attending some of the most renowned business conclaves held across the world. When not on business he loves spending time with his girlfriend and a bit of adventure sports. [/author]