When you’re looking to improve your business and sales, you need to understand your customers. Surveys help you gain valuable insight into how people think. Once you've decided to send out a survey, you need to take care in designing it. You want to get the most reliable results possible.
After you've taken the time to conduct your survey, you need to understand your results. Survey analysis will give you insight into what the numbers really mean. Then you can figure out where to go from there. Simply put: you need to know how to interpret your results.
Look at your research question
Why do you create your surveys? Because there is an overarching question that you're looking to solve. Learn to understand the analysis of your survey questions. Then you can look at how these questions will answer your goal.
How to analyze your survey results
There are four different levels of measurement. You'll want to understand all levels before diving in to analyze your data.
1. A nominal scale that classifies data without a quantitative value. These are like labels.
2. An ordinal scale. This depicts the order of values. This scale has a quantitative value because one rank is higher than another.
3. An interval scale will show both the order and the difference between values.
4. Finally, the ratio scale is the same as an interval scale except that it has a true value point.
Analyze the quantitative data first
This data uses statistics to draw conclusions. Close-ended questions provide the data. You can then compare results and see trends in the behavior of your customers. This quantitative data will help you understand the qualitative data as well.
Use cross-tabulation
Cross-tabulation analysis compares two sets of data within one chart. You will have some responses to your survey that might not be within your target audience. This skews your results. Segment results to analyze how your target audience responded to your survey. Cross-tabulation will reveal insights based on responses to your different questions. This helps you narrow down your results to your target audience.
Causation does not equal correlation
Once you have your results, you need to know that the conclusions you’re drawing are accurate. When two things look connected, it doesn't always mean one caused the other. There’s usually another factor.
When it comes to your business, you can't just depend on your gut. Surveys are an essential piece of understanding your target audience. When you know how to accurately conduct survey analysis, you get greater insight into your business. This information will help you build toward the future.