What are the different surveys? And which is right for you?
Depending on what you want to know and how you want to know it, some survey types will suit your needs better than others. That is why we offer three different survey types: General surveys, Targeted surveys, and Feedback. Although they share many similarities, there are important differences. In this article, we will be focusing on the questions and the distribution.
General surveys
Let's start with general surveys. This is the survey type our customers use the most, and we offer templates depending on the industry you belong to (and even a template if you don't want to select an industry).
For general surveys, there are hardly any limitations when it comes to how many questions you want (although, as this is a web survey, respondents tend to leave if there are too many questions). You can ask about the respondents' roles, what they are looking for on the website, what they think of the website, if there is something missing, and so on (all of this is of course included in our templates).
As for distributing the survey, the general survey is meant to be used on the entire website, with some exceptions. For example, there may be some pages where it isn't relevant, or you don't want it to appear in your customer portal. In that case, you can exclude URLs.
The trigger for the survey is time, basically. You select the appropriate time for when the survey should appear (our default setting is 2 minutes), and when that times has passed, the survey will be triggered by the next click the visitor makes. If the visitor answer the survey, they will not trigger the survey again for 90 days (or how ever long you prefer).
When the survey is triggered, it will appear as a pop-up or a modal (your choice, and you can have different settings for different units).
Summary
General surveys allow for several questions and is usually distributed on all or most pages on the website. The general survey will give you a good overview of the website as a whole.
Targeted surveys
Depending on how you use it, the targeted survey can be very similar to the general survey. However, targeted surveys are generally focused on specific areas instead of the website at large. We also offer templates for targeted surveys, but instead of selecting an industry, you select an area/subject for the survey.
The biggest difference between targeted and general surveys is the distribution. A general survey is distributed on a whole website, with the option to exclude URLs. A targeted survey, on the other hand, is only distributed on specific URLs. If you want to ask questions to visitors on certain pages only, or only to some of the visitors, the targeted survey is for you.
There are more distribution options for a targeted survey than a general survey. If you want, the survey ca be triggered the same way as a general survey. That is, you select a trigger time, and after that time has passed, the survey will appear when the visitor click somewhere on the page. Or, you can make the targeted survey embedded on your website, as it is in the image below.
Embedded surveys can be useful if you for example want to ask a question about a text the visitor (hopefully) just read, or after they had completed something (such as made an order or signed up for membership).
Which brings us to the questions. Sure, you can ask the same questions as are usually asked in the general survey, but the purpose of the targeted survey is to ask more specific questions. That could be questions only relevant to a certain type of visitor, or questions about what the visitor just did (for example, read the text on the page or completed a purchase). As targeted surveys are more specific, they are usually also shorter. Perhaps only a couple of questions about the experience.
Summary
Targeted surveys are very flexible. They can include many questions and appear on several pages, or they can be very short and ask about a specific experience. But the main difference between a targeted survey and a general survey is that unlike general surveys, targeted surveys are only meant to be used on parts of the website, or maybe even only one page.
Feedback
The last survey type is the feedback. This is the smallest survey, where you typically only ask a couple of questions, such as what they think of the specific page and why. We offer templates for feedback surveys too.
Unlike the other two survey types, feedback surveys are not triggered by time spent on the website. Instead, they are presented as a feedback button, which the visitors click on to open the survey. As for targeted surveys, you select the pages you want the button to appear on.
Summary
Feedbacks are useful for asking only a couple of questions about certain pages, or about the information on those pages, or similar. In that sense, feedback surveys share some similarities with embedded targeted surveys, but they are distributed differently.
Which survey should you choose?
As you will have noticed by now, which survey type is right for you depends on your purpose, and you have a few options.
- If you want a general overview where you can ask several questions to all visitor groups, use a general survey.
- If you want to ask several questions, but only to some visitor groups or on certain pages, use a targeted survey.
- If you want to ask about an experience, such as placing an order or signing up, use a targeted survey.
- If you want to ask about a certain page or certain information, use a targeted survey or a feedback survey.
