Your survey journey has officially started—you’ve set up your SurveyMonkey account, and you can begin working on your first survey. Give yourself a pat on the back!
But if you’re like some of our other new users, you might have a few questions before you get started. To help identify and address them, we went ahead and asked new users about the areas they’d like us to review.
We came away with three commonly asked questions. Let’s unpack them!
1. What can survey data help me do?
Out of the three questions, this was our most popular one—and for good reason. If you don’t know how survey data can help you, why collect it?
In short, survey responses allow you to understand your target audience much better, and it’s through this understanding that you can make better decisions that drive your business forward.
There are a wide range of contexts when it comes to collecting survey data, but here are some of the most popular ways people use surveys:
- It lets you understand and improve your customer experience.
Several factors can influence the customer experience: your customer support/success representatives, the quality of your product/service, the return on investment your product/service delivers, and so on.
Though you can speculate about what your customers care about and how they feel about their engagement with your brand, a survey is the only way to know for sure. It lets customers offer candid feedback that tells your team what’s working, what isn’t, and what you can do to make their experience better.
Curious about surveying your customers? Get ideas about what questions to ask by visiting our Customer Satisfaction Survey Templates page.
- It helps you effectively address employee engagement.
Most employees are disengaged in their job—87%, in fact. When you consider that organizations with a higher share of engaged employees deliver more value to customers, earn more sales, and are ultimately more profitable, the ability to understand and improve engagement becomes all the more crucial.
A survey gives your employees a chance to tell you whether they’re engaged, and lets you know why they are or aren’t. Brainstorm what to ask your team by checking out our employee survey templates!
- It allows you to learn about your target audience’s preferences and needs.
What would your target audience think about your product idea? Which package design looks cooler? And which logo better conveys your brand? Concept testing can be confusing, but surveys are here to help.
When it comes to making decisions that impact your target audience, a lot can go wrong if left to chance. Survey data helps you understand how your audience feels in advance, giving you the opportunity to take a well-calculated risk and avoid mistakes.
We have plenty of templates to help you master the art of surveying your target audience, whether you’re testing a new product, deciding on the name of your company, or measuring brand awareness.
- It helps make your personal life easier and more fun.
You can use surveys outside of work, too. In fact, they work great in a variety of personal situations:
- Planning a trip? Survey your travel companions to see what they want to do.
- Want to quiz people on a certain topic? Set up a quiz in minutes and see how they score.
- Eager for people’s predictions about a sporting event? A survey can help you discover what people think will happen.
The list of creative things you can do with quizzes and surveys is seemingly endless. And we have a bunch of other ideas you can take, so don’t be shy to survey your friends and family.
The areas above are just a few of the most common survey use cases. Surveys are also often used in fields like: education, health care, and politics. To help you write surveys in the area(s) you care about most, check out our survey templates home page. It features templates written by our very own team of survey scientists!
2. How do I create my first survey?
Let’s get you started writing your survey!
First things first, log into your SurveyMonkey account. Once you’re in, hit the, “Create Survey,” button on the top right corner of your account home page. From there, you can either choose to write your own survey from scratch or use a survey template that our survey science team built.
If you’re building a survey from scratch, use our BUILDER tool bar on the left-hand side to pick out the question type you’d like to use for every question.
To help you visualize the process, discover features that lead you to write better questions, and get tips for improving your survey design, check out our, “How to create a successful survey,” page.
3. Where can I take more surveys?
We get it. Sometimes you want to take a survey, not send one.
Filling out a survey is often a reflective and insightful experience. Plus, with SurveyMonkey, taking surveys lets you donate to charities or earn gift cards.
There are two places you can take a survey, with each option offering a slightly different experience:
1. SurveyMonkey Rewards- Our new app sends you short surveys—each taking no longer than 5 minutes to finish. After completing a survey, you earn credits, which you can redeem for a gift card or donate to a charity. Psst, SurveyMonkey will match your donation!
2. SurveyMonkey Contribute- This program is largely the same as SurveyMonkey Rewards, with a few key differences:
- It’s accessible on the SurveyMonkey app and on desktop.
- You can only donate to charities.
- You may receive more time consuming surveys to complete.
And there you have it! Now you know what survey data offers, how you can create a survey, and where you can take them. With these three burning questions answered, you should feel confident using SurveyMonkey—no matter how you plan to use it.
