Survey Data Collection: Definition, Methods and Analysis

In the expansive landscape of research and decision-making, the cornerstone often lies in the meticulous process of “Survey Data Collection”. From traditional paper surveys to modern online platforms, the methods employed in survey data collection play a very critical role in getting the correct information.

Want to avoid spending money on bad marketing? How about ensuring new products and strategies are consistently winning successes? What about wishing your business grew steadily and didn’t experience any unforeseen downturns?

If all that sounds tremendous (and it should), there’s a single tool to achieve all these benefits and more: surveys.

Getting to know your customers through surveys is the single most valuable activity for your business. You’ll learn what audiences want and don’t want and how to optimize your strategies. You’ll also discover market opportunities, potential risks, and more.

Regardless of this tremendous value, some businesses shy away from audience feedback. People assume survey data collection and analysis is too tedious to be worthwhile. Thanks to tools like Google Forms, this is no longer the case.

This discussion will explore survey data collection methods and how to save time and money in the process.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Survey Data Collection?
2. 4 Essential Survey Data Collection Approaches
3. How to Collect Survey Data Online?
4. How to Process Collected Survey Data?
5. Benefits of Survey Data
6. Wrap Up

What is Survey Data Collection?

Definition: Survey data collection is one of the early stages of acquiring valuable audience feedback. Depending on what survey data collection example model you’re using, it may be the second or third step after setting a goal and choosing a feedback collection method.

Survey data collection is the physical act of gathering audience responses.

Traditionally, survey data collection also involved organizing the results and beginning to tabulate the responses. This step is largely automated today thanks to online survey data collection methods, such as Google Forms.

With modern online survey tool examples, survey data collection is almost effortless. It’s simple to send your questionnaires to a specific email list or share a link with the target audience.

The data is then collected automatically and stored as digital data for you to analyze. In short, online survey data collection has fixed the most tedious steps of gathering audience insights!

4 Essential Survey Data Collection Approaches

The collection stage may also include choosing the type of survey data collection method you wish to use. There are several options you can pick from.

The approach you decide on will impact the time and money required. It will also affect the type of data you acquire.

Let’s look at some of the survey data collection methods to consider when strategizing about gathering audience feedback.

• Online Surveys

This is the most effective survey data collection method. Online survey tools enable you to reach enormous audiences at no cost.

Many online survey data collection tools also organize and display the results automatically. This is a huge time saver compared to manually tabulating every response.

Online surveys also have higher response rates. They are less intrusive than phone or face-to-face surveys and participants can answer the questionnaire on their own time.

Overall, they are more convenient for you and the survey’s participants!

• Paper Surveys

Some businesses rely on paper surveys rather than online ones. These data collection questionnaires are physical sheets of paper that participants fill out.

They have many of the same benefits as online surveys, with one glaring drawback. You have to manually tally the results from each form, making them highly inefficient for time. And they are prone to error.

If you have 1,000 participants, which is 1,000 sheets of paper you need to examine and tabulate.

• Face-to-face Surveys

Engaging customers one-on-one is a more personal method of collecting survey data. You can approach them directly at your business.

The benefit of a one-on-one survey data collection example is you receive more candid responses. Audiences may open up more in this more personal, conversational setting.

However, face-to-face surveys aren’t practical from a time standpoint. You can only have so many one-on-one conversations. Thus, your survey results end up capturing the views of only a handful of people. It doesn’t represent the views of the collective audience.

• Telephone Surveys

This survey data collection method is increasingly one of the least effective. We’re in an age where many people prefer texting over calling. This means many customers won’t answer the phone, especially if they don’t recognize the caller.

This approach can also be accidentally disruptive. You don’t have any sense of what the person on the other end of the phone is doing. They may be in the middle of dinner or attending an important meeting.

The only advantage of telephone surveys is they share some of the benefits of face-to-face surveys but with a higher reach. Again, that’s if you can get an agreeable person on the other end.

How to Collect Survey Data Online?

Regarding online surveys, the best tool you can use is Google Forms. It makes survey data collection and analysis incredibly easy from beginning to end.

All you need to use Google Forms is a Google account (like a Gmail email account). It’s 100% free, just like Forms. There are no paywalls or premium subscriptions necessary.

To open Forms, go to any Google page (even just google.com) and click the icon for apps in the upper right corner. This will open a dropdown menu with every Google tool you can use. Scroll through the list until you see the purple icon for Google Forms.

This will open the Forms app. You may be asked if you’re using the tool for business or school. This option only influences which templates the tool suggests. You’ll still have access to every survey template regardless of what you select.

On the topic of templates, this is your next step to create surveys in Google Forms. You can choose between templates such as the Customer Feedback or Event Feedback options. Or, you can decide to start fresh with a blank data collection questionnaire.

Google Forms has a lot of features to make your data collection questionnaires more engaging to participants. Here are just some of the benefits of using Google Forms:

• Multiple question types are available (multi-choice, short answer, grids, rating scales, etc.).
• Designate which questions the audience is required to answer.
• Add logos, pictures, or videos to your data collection questionnaire.
• Devise sections to your surveys for superior organization.
• Add a progress bar and other features.

Another time-saving advantage to this online survey tool is how it responds to your question entries.

Let’s say you enter a question with the intent to use a rating scale. Google Forms adjusts the question type accordingly. It’s a small feature to make your life easier.

Sending your survey data collection example form to the target audience is also incredibly easy with Google Forms. Click the purple “Send” button at the top to get started.

The “Send” button opens a menu where you can choose how to send your surveys. The options include direct links, email, or sharing on social media pages.

The moment you hit send, the online survey data collection process begins.

Google Forms free tool offers a basic overview of your response data. However, you may want to export the results to Google Sheets or Excel for deeper analysis.

Thankfully, the Google Forms free online survey tool makes it very easy to do this. Under the Responses tab, you can click the “Link to Sheets” link.

You’ll be able to create a new spreadsheet for the data or select an existing one.

For Excel users, the process is a little longer, but still very easy. Instead of clicking “Link to Sheets,” you’ll choose the three vertical dots next to it.

This creates a dropdown menu with the option to download your responses as a .csv file.

Choose the location on your device for the file download to go. Then, open up Excel, import the .csv file, and presto! Your Google Forms data is now in Excel!

How to Process Collected Survey Data?

The more survey responses you receive, the harder spreadsheet analysis becomes. A few rows quickly grow to hundreds. It’s all too much stuff to take in and understand.

This is known as data overload, where it becomes paralyzing to look at your spreadsheets. Data visualization provides a solution for this tiresome wall of numbers.

Data visualization means taking data and visually depicting it with charts, diagrams, dashboards, etc.

There’s some powerful science to back up the effectiveness of charts. For instance, your brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than raw text or numbers.

It’s the classic saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Charts display thousands of numbers in a visual format. With the right survey chart, you can see what’s happening behind your data instantly.

Plus, charts help communicate the results of your Google Forms free online surveys to others. It’s a much better way to share audience insights between departments or with clients and stakeholders.

Once your survey data is in Excel, it’s very easy to turn it into a visualization. If you’re starting with a survey template in Excel, you can seamlessly organize your responses and create clear charts. For the best survey charts, we recommend downloading ChartExpo, an add-in for Excel from the Microsoft AppSource.

ChartExpo enhances charting in Excel in two major ways. First, it adds several new chart types not previously found in Excel. This includes options like the Likert Scale Chart or CSAT Score Survey Chart.

How to Install ChartExpo in Microsoft Excel?

1. Open your Excel application.
2. Open the worksheet and click on the “Insert” menu.
3. You’ll see the “My Apps”.
4. In the office Add-ins window, click on “Store” and search for ChartExpo on my Apps Store.
5. Click on the “Add” button to install ChartExpo in your Excel.

ChartExpo charts are available both in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Please use the following CTA’s to install the tool of your choice and create beautiful visualizations in a few clicks in your favorite tool.

Let’s examine the collected survey data on the following questions.

• How important is the operating system for you while purchasing a phone?
• How important is the screen size for you while purchasing a phone?
• To what extent does camera quality factor into your decision?
• To what extent does the color of the phone factor into your decision?

Below are the responses (feedback) that are associated with each question:

1. Extremely Unimportant
2. Unimportant
3. Not Sure
4. Important
5. Extremely Important

Finally prepared the data table as shown below:

Responses	How important is the operating system for you while purchasing a phone?	How important is the screen size for you while purchasing a phone?	To what extent does camera quality factor into your decision?	To what extent does the color of the phone factor into your decision?
Response 1	Unimportant	Extremely Unimportant	Extremely Important	Not Sure
Response 2	Extremely Unimportant	Not Sure	Important	Extremely Unimportant

The above table is just sample data. In actual scenarios, you will have a lot of responses and more questions as well.

• To get started with ChartExpo, install ChartExpo in Excel.
• Now Click on My Apps from the INSERT menu.

• Choose ChartExpo from My Apps, then click Insert.

• Once ChartExpo is loaded. Click on “Likert Scale Chart” from the list of charts.

• Click the “Create Chart From Selection” button after selecting the data from the sheet, as shown.

• When you click on Create Chart From Selection you have to manually map responses with numbers. The Likert scale has this arrangement:
  • Extremely Unimportant = 1
  • Unimportant = 2
  • Not Sure = 3
  • Important = 4
  • Extremely Important  = 5
• Once all set click on Create Chart.

• The Likert Scale Chart will look as follows.

• If you want to have the title of the chart, click on Edit Chart, as shown in the above image.
• To change the title of the chart, click on the pencil icon that is available next to Chart Header.
• It will open the properties dialog. Under the Text section, you can add a heading in Line 1 and enable the Show option. Give the appropriate title of your chart and click on the Apply button.

• Let’s say you want to add text responses instead of numbers against every emoji.
• Click on the pencil icon next to the respective emoji, expand the “Label” properties, and write the required text. After that click on the “Apply All” button.
• For saving changes click on Save Changes. This will persist the changes.

• Your final chart will look like the as below.

Insights

• 67% of consumers indicated that the operating system is important for them while purchasing a phone, 24% of consumers indicated that the operating system is unimportant for them while purchasing a phone, & 9% said they are not sure about whether the operating system is important for them or not.
• 70% of consumers indicated that while purchasing a phone it is important for them to have good screen size and 22% of consumers indicated that while purchasing a phone it is unimportant for them to have good screen size.
• 62% of consumers indicated that the camera quality factor is important to them and 26% of consumers indicated that the camera quality factor is unimportant to them.
• 64% of customers indicated that the color of the phone factor is important to them and 25% of customers indicated that the color of the phone factor is important to them.

Overall view, 65% of respondents think the different features are important for them. But 24% said phone features are unimportant to them. 11% of consumers said they are not sure which means sometimes features are important for them and sometimes they overlook features of the phone.

What are the Benefits of Survey Data?

Survey data helps you learn about key audiences and how they relate to your business.

The primary audience to research is your customers. These are the individuals you’re tirelessly trying to engage and convert. So, their thoughts and feedback matter a ton!

That said, don’t neglect other forms of survey research. For instance, you gain equally valuable feedback from your employees. They may supply suggestions for improving the company and the quality of the workforce.

The more you learn about these key audiences, the easier it becomes to develop winning strategies. In other words, survey research takes the guesswork out of the equation.

You’re never left wondering, “Is this the right move?” Thanks to your survey research, you know each decision is correct.

Should audience attitudes change, your ongoing longitudinal survey research will alert you to these shifts. This gives you ample time to react accordingly and continue delivering remarkable experiences.

FAQ:

What are the 5 methods of collecting data?

1. Interviews
2. Focus Groups
3. Questionnaire
4. Direct Observation
5. Telephone Survey

What is survey research (with examples)?

Developing feedback forms and questionnaires are two examples of survey research tools. The objective of these strategies is to acquire actionable insights from the audience.

For example, a restaurant may conduct survey research by asking customers to complete a questionnaire about their favorite dining options. These responses help the kitchen staff innovate new dishes.

Wrap Up

Survey data collection is an important step in getting to know your audience. It’s the process of asking and acquiring feedback from customers, employees, focus groups, etc.

These insights lead to positive changes in your organization. You find out what products, experiences, marketing campaigns, features, services, etc. work. You also learn which ones don’t entice your target customers.

Google Forms makes survey data collection incredibly easy. Not only does this online survey tool make creating questionnaires and feedback forms incredibly easy, it also makes managing the data equally simplistic.

The online survey data collection begins as soon as the first person completes your questionnaire. The data appears automatically, including a simple chart showing the scoring summary of each survey item.

You can migrate your survey results to either Google Sheets or Excel with a few more clicks of the mouse.

Then, ChartExpo’s data visualization tool completes the process with its library of survey charts. It’s the perfect follow-up to your online survey data collection.

There’s no reason to dread survey data collection any longer! Thanks to tools like ChartExpo, Google Forms, Excel, and Google Sheets, you have everything you need to actively listen to customers.