One of the great things of digital data collection using web and mobile surveys is that you save time that you otherwise had to spend on actually collecting the data. With a digital survey tool, the data collection is automated, giving you more time to use the data that is collected for improvement. Here at Responster we strive at making the collection and presentation of your data as intuitive as possible. In order to achieve this we have developed something we call sources. Sources make it easy for you to distinguish where the collected survey data is coming from. Let us show you how.
Finding the Source of Your Data
So, you have created your digital survey and is ready to start collecting data. Let us give you two examples of how sources can be used to separate where your data is collected from.
Sources for Web Surveys
Let’s say that you want to share your survey in Social media. You’re probably connected to multiple social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Seeing as these channels differ from each other your followers will probably also be different from network to network. Wouldn’t it be great to see if your followers respond differently to your survey questions depending on what social network they’re found in? Well, with sources this is possible.
By creating a source for every social media channel, you get unique web links for each and every one of them. Sharing these web links, either by pasting them in posts or by using the built-in social network sharing buttons, your collected data will be separated based on what social network it has been collected from.
After you have run your survey for a while and it’s time to go through your collected data you can easily switch between the sources to see the statistics for each social network.
Sources for On-site Data Collection
If you’re a frequent reader of our blog you already know that we are strong supporters of on-site data collection using our iOS app for iPad and iPhone. We’ve already covered why we believe that iPads are great for on-site data collection (read our post on it here) and we’ve also given advice on what to think about when you create a survey for on-site data collection (read about it here).
Using sources for your on-site survey is a great way to separate where the collected data is coming from, similar to our example of web surveys found above. So, let’s say that you’re running a business with a number of health care centers found in different locations. By creating sources for each location and connecting the iPads to them, you’re able to ask the same questions, i.e. use the same survey, in each center. By doing so, you’re both able to see the collected data separate for each center or combined for your whole organization.
When you use separate sources for each location it’s also easier to track certain important metrics, like customer satisfaction average. We wrote a post a while ago about how you can use satisfaction average to track and improve your business. You can find it here and you should read it if you haven’t done it yet!
More Ways of using Sources
So, now you might think that sources only are good for these two examples covered in this post? Well, not really. Since sources are something we’ve made up it means that you can use it however you want. Let’s give some other examples.
Using iPads, you’re collecting contact information from people on the street for your charity organization. In order to increase the amount of data collected you’re running a competition for the volunteers helping you, where the person that collect the most contact information wins a price. Creating sources for each volunteer that has an iPad lets you see exactly who has collected what information enabling you to choose the winner among the volunteers.
If you’re running a larger store maybe one iPad won’t be enough to cover the whole store. Having multiple iPads connected to specific locations in your store enables you to identify what your customers think of different parts of your store. Perhaps they don’t get the help they need in one part of the store, but are still able to find what they’re looking for. As you can see, similar to the example of on-site data collection found above, sources can be used to improve your whole store by evaluating separate parts of it.
A Source of Your Survey Creativity
Well, you might get the point by now. Sources are really what you want them to be. Since we designed them this way we know that it can be hard to understand the concept of them before trying them out. Hopefully, this post have shed some light on how we think that they should be used. Now it’s up to you to get creative and find new ways of using them! We’d love to hear your ideas. And if you don’t have a Responster account yet you can go on and create one for free here.
Take care,
Ludvig