• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
QuestionPro

QuestionPro

questionpro logo
  • Products
    survey software iconSurvey softwareEasy to use and accessible for everyone. Design, send and analyze online surveys.research edition iconResearch SuiteA suite of enterprise-grade research tools for market research professionals.CX iconCustomer ExperienceExperiences change the world. Deliver the best with our CX management software.WF iconEmployee ExperienceCreate the best employee experience and act on real-time data from end to end.
  • Solutions
    IndustriesGamingAutomotiveSports and eventsEducationGovernment
    Travel & HospitalityFinancial ServicesHealthcareCannabisTechnology
    Use CaseAskWhyCommunitiesAudienceContactless surveysMobile
    LivePollsMember ExperienceGDPRPositive People Science360 Feedback Surveys
  • Resources
    BlogeBooksSurvey TemplatesCase StudiesTrainingHelp center
  • Features
  • Pricing
Language
  • English
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Hebrew IL (Hebrew)
  • ไทย (Thai)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • Portuguese de Portugal (Portuguese (Portugal))
Call Us
+1 800 531 0228 +1 (647) 956-1242 +52 999 402 4079 +49 301 663 5782 +44 20 3650 3166 +81-3-6869-1954 +61 2 8074 5080 +971 529 852 540
Log In Log In
SIGN UP FREE

Home Uncategorized

How to Lay Out Feedback Collection Channels for Your Market Research Plan

creating a flow chartLast week I started a series focused on Market Research Planning.  Most small businesses had never really HAD to do a market research plan.  After all, what was there – a customer satisfaction survey and then all the rest were more demand driven based on what new products or services you might be launching in the next year.  Each survey sort of stood on its own — like a silo.

But a couple of trends have changed the landscape of data collection – the most powerful one has to do with how much time people have to complete (or not to complete) your survey.   In addition to this, the proliferation of social media channels, polling and crowd sourcing have made data collection a little more complicated than it used to be.

The last article talked about setting research goals and objectives .  The next step in the process is called “Lay out collection channels.”  I’m not sure if that’s w formal word or phrase – but it is now.

What’s a Collection Channel?

In the simplest terms a survey instrument is a collection channel.  Other collection channels might include phone, online, poll, social media, facebook, LinkedIn, IdeaScale and so on.  Wherever there is the possibility of gathering feedback from your audience about what your survey objectives are — is a collection channel.

How to Strategically Lay Out Your Collection Channel

  1. Focus on your decision first. It’s critical to focus on what decision you’re trying to make.  For example – “Should I invest in an iPhone app and if so what should it do?”
  2. List your criteria. Now that you’re clear on the question and decision, start listing the criteria for that decision.  Such as “I’ll do an iPhone app if I can charge $1.00 for it”  or “If more than 10,000 people will download it” or “If it drives more than 10,000 visitors to our site.
  3. What other questions do I have? The great thing about this new trend of breaking up where your data comes from is that it allows you to brainstorm on all the other questions or things you’d like to know from your audience — let yourself go and list as many as you like.  You’re no longer limited by number of questions or survey length or size or cost – so let it fly.
  4. List ALL the different ways that you can collect information. Yes this is as simple as it sounds — make a list: Facebook fan page, email, online survey, poll, crowd sourcing, etc.  Don’t forget to include traditional channels such as focus group or customer satisfaction index cards, etc.
  5. Exploratory and Qualitative Channels first. Just like in traditional research processes – you’ll want to focus on collecting qualitative information first.  Social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ning groups or forums, etc.  Are ideal precursors to more expensive and formal focus groups.  In fact – if you do a good enough design – AND depending on what your objectives are, you may now be able to skip focus groups all together.  But don’t just skip it because of the cost — skip it only if these social media channels provide good enough data to give you the information you need.
  6. Match questions with channels. Pull all your vague, general exploratory conversational questions together and match them with what you think is the appropriate social media channel or traditional channel.   Then pull all your quantitative questions and match them with quantitative channels.
  7. Keep it short. Your goal is to keep each collection method easy enough to complete in 1 to 3 minutes.   I’m recommending this time frame based on the fact that the best length for YouTube videos is anywhere between 1 and 3 minutes.  That’s how long you can expect to keep any average respondent’s attention.  (Of course there are exceptions – but we’re not talking about those).
  8. Post your channel layout in a visible place. While your decision and criteria will not change as quickly – what you ask and which channel you choose to ask it through might change as you learn more.  It really helps to keep this plan big and visible.  You might choose a white board in an office or a giant piece of paper.  But make this a working – living document.
  9. Engage your audience and report often. Because these new channels will naturally engage your audience – you’ll have the opportunity to report on what you’re learning through all these channels.  Don’t miss this valuable opportunity to engage and involve your respondents in what you’re doing.  It’s free marketing.

Ways to Involve Your Audience

  • Report Results. Instead of writing some HUGE report no one will read.  Report on your results monthly or quarterly.  Analyze the data as it’s coming in and tell your audience what you’re learning.  This will give them the opportunity to close the feedback loop and confirm or tweak what you’re reporting.
  • Create a download to share. You can re-purpose what you’ve learned.  Look at the data differently – what other, more general and interesting insights did you get from the data? Now write a little mini report that you can share with your audience!
  • Write a post or three. Of course the easiest thing to do is to start a conversation on your blog about what you’re learning – this is a data collection method of its own.  Be sure to tell your network that you’ve got a conversation going on and ask them to contribute and pass the links on.

Hey, I’ve just started thinking about this in this way – it’s new to me.  How about you?  How are you structuring or re-structuring how you collect feedback?

SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

About the author
Ivana Taylor
Ivana Taylor provides DIY Marketing advice, marketing trends and marketing how-to tips and strategies for small business owners and CEOs.
View all posts by Ivana Taylor

Primary Sidebar

Gain insights with 80+ features for free

Create, Send and Analyze Your Online Survey in under 5 mins!

Create a Free Account

RELATED ARTICLES

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Name Testing Survey Questions: Free template

Aug 17,2022

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Life@QuestionPro Presents: Andrews Sekar

Oct 14,2024

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Typeform vs Wufoo: Which is the Best Form Builder for 2025?

Jan 20,2025

BROWSE BY CATEGORY

  • Academic
  • Academic Research
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Assessments
  • Audience
  • Brand Awareness
  • Business
  • Case Studies
  • Communities
  • Consumer Insights
  • Customer effort score
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Customer Research
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • CX
  • Employee Benefits
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Retention
  • Enterprise
  • Events
  • Forms
  • Friday Five
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Guest Post
  • Insights Hub
  • Life@QuestionPro
  • LivePolls
  • Market Research
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Mobile App
  • Mobile diaries
  • Mobile Surveys
  • New Features
  • non-profit
  • NPS
  • Online Communities
  • Polls
  • Question Types
  • Questionnaire
  • QuestionPro
  • QuestionPro Products
  • Release Notes
  • Research Tools and Apps
  • Revenue at Risk
  • Startups
  • Survey Templates
  • Surveys
  • Tech News
  • Tips
  • Training
  • Training Tips
  • Trending
  • Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
  • Uncategorized
  • VOC
  • Webinar
  • Webinars
  • What’s Coming Up
  • Workforce
  • Workforce Intelligence

Footer

MORE LIKE THIS

albertsons-companies-nps-2025

Albertsons Companies NPS and Insights in 2025

May 23, 2025

data-augmentation

What is Data Augmentation? Methods & Uses in Research

May 22, 2025

livecast a new way to do research

Here’s how LiveCast can help you survive the great Stanley Cup debate of 2025

May 22, 2025

Credit-Unions-NPS-2025

Credit Unions NPS Leading in Loyalty in 2025

May 21, 2025

Other categories

  • Academic
  • Academic Research
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Assessments
  • Audience
  • Brand Awareness
  • Business
  • Case Studies
  • Communities
  • Consumer Insights
  • Customer effort score
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Customer Research
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • CX
  • Employee Benefits
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Retention
  • Enterprise
  • Events
  • Forms
  • Friday Five
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Guest Post
  • Insights Hub
  • Life@QuestionPro
  • LivePolls
  • Market Research
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Mobile App
  • Mobile diaries
  • Mobile Surveys
  • New Features
  • non-profit
  • NPS
  • Online Communities
  • Polls
  • Question Types
  • Questionnaire
  • QuestionPro
  • QuestionPro Products
  • Release Notes
  • Research Tools and Apps
  • Revenue at Risk
  • Startups
  • Survey Templates
  • Surveys
  • Tech News
  • Tips
  • Training
  • Training Tips
  • Trending
  • Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
  • Uncategorized
  • VOC
  • Webinar
  • Webinars
  • What’s Coming Up
  • Workforce
  • Workforce Intelligence

questionpro-logo-nw
Help center Live Chat SIGN UP FREE
  • Sample questions
  • Sample reports
  • Survey logic
  • Branding
  • Integrations
  • Professional services
  • Security
  • Survey Software
  • Customer Experience
  • Workforce
  • Communities
  • Audience
  • Polls Explore the QuestionPro Poll Software - The World's leading Online Poll Maker & Creator. Create online polls, distribute them using email and multiple other options and start analyzing poll results.
  • Research Edition
  • LivePolls
  • InsightsHub
  • Blog
  • Articles
  • eBooks
  • Survey Templates
  • Case Studies
  • Training
  • Webinars
  • All Plans
  • Nonprofit
  • Academic
  • Qualtrics Alternative Explore the list of features that QuestionPro has compared to Qualtrics and learn how you can get more, for less.
  • SurveyMonkey Alternative
  • VisionCritical Alternative
  • Medallia Alternative
  • Likert Scale Complete Likert Scale Questions, Examples and Surveys for 5, 7 and 9 point scales. Learn everything about Likert Scale with corresponding example for each question and survey demonstrations.
  • Conjoint Analysis
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) Learn everything about Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the Net Promoter Question. Get a clear view on the universal Net Promoter Score Formula, how to undertake Net Promoter Score Calculation followed by a simple Net Promoter Score Example.
  • Offline Surveys
  • Customer Satisfaction Surveys
  • Employee Survey Software Employee survey software & tool to create, send and analyze employee surveys. Get real-time analysis for employee satisfaction, engagement, work culture and map your employee experience from onboarding to exit!
  • Market Research Survey Software Real-time, automated and advanced market research survey software & tool to create surveys, collect data and analyze results for actionable market insights.
  • GDPR & EU Compliance
  • Employee Experience
  • Customer Journey
  • Synthetic Data
  • About us
  • Executive Team
  • In the news
  • Testimonials
  • Advisory Board
  • Careers
  • Brand
  • Media Kit
  • Contact Us

QuestionPro in your language

  • English
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Hebrew IL (Hebrew)
  • ไทย (Thai)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • Portuguese de Portugal (Portuguese (Portugal))

Awards & certificates

  • survey-leader-asia-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-asiapacific-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-enterprise-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-europe-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-latinamerica-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-middleeast-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-mid-market-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-small-business-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-unitedkingdom-leader-2023
  • survey-momentumleader-leader-2023
  • bbb-acredited
The Experience Journal

Find innovative ideas about Experience Management from the experts

  • © 2022 QuestionPro Survey Software | +1 (800) 531 0228
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Use