4 Most Common Online Survey Types

Online survey tools have gained a lot of popularity in the past couple of years and have become a software equipment of the majority of corporations as well as individuals who use them for academic and/or personal purposes. These online survey tools make it possible to easily obtain feedback on any topic.

The time of performing phone surveys, printed surveys, personal surveying and manual survey evaluation is long gone. This transition to a more efficient approach of conducting online surveys in consequence saves time and money of the survey organizer. In many cases the survey organizer does not need to employ a specialized agency in market research or public opinion.

In this brief summary we overview the most common types of online surveys.

Satisfaction Survey

Satisfaction surveys are one of the most common online survey types. Generally speaking, they are organized to evaluate satisfaction with goods or services. The survey is usually sent directly to the consumer who may then provide valuable feedback on how to improve a specific product or service.

Practical examples of this survey type include customer satisfaction survey, employee satisfaction survey, student satisfaction survey, patient satisfaction survey and restaurant satisfaction survey.

Research Survey

Market Research Survey

Market research surveys are conducted mainly to support strategic decision making in organizations. They help to gain insight into various aspects of the target markets and customers.

Commonly they help with the:

  • SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
  • PEST analysis (relevant political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors)
  • Exploration of the current market status and its trends

Market research surveys are now commonly organized not only by large corporations but also by mid to small size businesses as well.

Academic/Scholar Survey

This survey type as its name suggests is mostly used by students and researchers. The prevailing use cases include academic research surveys and polls for student assessments. They help to put hypotheses to test and shape opinions on certain topics in the areas of sociology, politics, health, business and others.

360-degree Survey

360 degree surveys are socially oriented surveys whose purpose is to gain feedback for a specific individual. The feedback is provided by a group of people that are regularly cooperating with this person. Typically this survey is organized by a manager of an employee in a corporate environment to evaluate performance. The respondent group is constituted of the closest coworkers. This survey type can be organized as anonymous or by utilizing the Respondent Identification feature which enables generating unique links for specific respondents.

Event Planning Survey

The purpose of this survey is to find a consensus among a group of individuals regarding place and/or time of a future event. Practical examples of this online survey type include planning support of a company meeting, company party, vacation for a larger group of people and dinner for a large family.

And what online survey type would you like to create? See this short tutorial on how to create a survey or go ahead and sign up with us.