What Are Better Alternatives To Online Surveys

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Duda, Mark Damian. "The Fallacy of Online Surveys: No Data Are Better Than Bad Data." Responsive Management. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.

Summary: Recently, online surveys have become increasingly popular among marketing companies for comparing demographic statistics and gathering public opinions, in order to improve their products and services. Although online surveys can be easily and efficiently administered at low costs, research and studies have repeatedly proven most online surveys to provide inaccurate and skewed data. One reason for this is called sample validity. With online surveys, not everyone has an opportunity to participate and provide their opinions, which could cause a small population of people to inaccurately represent a larger population. Furthermore, it is possible that only certain people take certain online surveys solely due to their interest in particular topics, which is a part of non-response bias. Stakeholder bias in online surveys occurs when motivated individuals attempt to alter the results of a poll by completing it several times. Last, the bias of having unverified respondents occurs when certain information (like ethnicity) about survey respondents could be skewed. For these four reasons, it is currently not possible to obtain accurate results from online surveys.

Evaluation of Article in Supporting Claim/Answering Focus Questions: The negatives significantly outweigh the positives of collecting data from online surveys. In today’s economy, most companies decide to administer the relatively cost-efficient online surveys to improve their businesses while saving money. However, the often biased public opinions that companies gather through online surveys could actually cause them to lose more money in the long run. With inaccurate data, the companies’ plans of improving their marketing strategies through public opinion could go backwards. In addition, certain people cannot complete online surveys, such as those with limited internet access, and often those illiterate in English. Also, people interested in certain topics are more likely to take certain surveys, (which could cause bias) because they often come across them while browsing. In a telephone survey, the interviewer could convince respondents to complete a survey and thus gather equal public opinion, regardless of their interest in the topic. Moreover, one’s interest in a particular topic could cause them to take an online survey more than once in an attempt to alter the results, which could be avoided through the use of telephone surveys and/or participant identification. Online surveys are also inaccurate because people could easily enter falsified information, providing inaccurate data.

Claim: Online surveys are inaccurate because of the various issues that they present.

Focus Questions

What are some benefits of online surveys? 2. What are some downsides to online surveys?

3. What can be done to improve online surveys? 4. What are better alternatives to online surveys?

List, Dennis. "Internet Surveys: New Ways to Go Wrong." Audience Dialogue. N.p., 28 May 2002. Web. 03 Apr. 2013.

Summary: When compared to other methods of surveying, online surveys present various issues that could render them inaccurate. One example of this is with blatant lying, when respondents could indiscernibly provide false information. With online surveys, it is also difficult to recognize respondents that took a survey more than once, which could have biasing effects on the data collected. Another problem associated with online surveys is called "over-strict validation," which occurs when the answer choices are not applicable to a respondent, often causing them to choose a false answer choice; this could contribute to inaccurate data collection. Also, technological issues in online surveys could lead to a loss of data, which could render an entire survey inaccurate and therefore useless for its distributing company. It is evident that the new method of running online surveys cannot be trusted entirely, because it poses a wide array of new problems for both the respondents and the distributors.

Evaluation of Article in Supporting Claim/Answering Focus Questions: This article focuses mainly on the negative aspects of using online surveys. Respondents can easily provide false information and get away with it in an online survey. However, when there is a trained interviewer present at the time, (such as with a telephone interview) it is difficult for the respondent to get away with false information without the interviewer recognizing it. Another issue that is exclusively associated with online surveys is a lack of answer choices. Telephone surveys do not have this issue, because the respondent could verbally specify their answer choice. What can be done to fix this problem with online surveys is for there to be an "other" or "I do not know" answer choice present, so that the respondent would not be forced to submit inaccurate data. Another issue with online surveys is that of losing data, with almost all information being stored on an electronic database. Unlike printed questionnaires, for instance, it is possible to lose all of the data collected from an online survey through a simple technological error, and backing up files is not always a simple task for large marketing companies. By using other surveying methods, such as telephone surveys, such problems would not have to be dealt with.

Claim: Online surveys are inaccurate because of the various issues that they present.

Claim: Online surveys are inaccurate because of the various issues that they present.

Focus Questions

What are some benefits of online surveys? 2. What are some downsides to online surveys?

3. What can be done to improve online surveys? 4. What are better alternatives to online surveys?

The University of Texas. "Disadvantages of Online Surveys." Utexas.edu. N.p., 29 Jan. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.

Summary: One problem with online surveys is the questionable aspect of sample quality. For example, it is impossible to prove whether the entire target population for an online survey has an equal opportunity to respond, and whether the respondents are evenly distributed throughout the population to provide accurate results. According to studies, most internet users tend to be younger white populations, although there are rapidly changing demographics of the internet, and certain subpopulations tend to use the internet differently. Technological issues, varying from freezes and crashes to error messages, are another major problem associated with online surveys. Freezes and crashes in online surveys could cause problems on both parts, with the respondents being forced to possibly redo the survey, or with problems in the administrator’s system. Error messages with online surveys present similar problems. In addition, double entry from respondents could either be intentional, or triggered by technological issues, but nevertheless would provide inaccurate data.

Evaluation of Article in Supporting Claim/Answering Focus Questions: Because it is impossible to determine sample quality of subjects with online surveys, alternatives survey methods should be used, which are not often associated with this problem. For example, telephone surveys could be distributed to specific area codes in order to accurately measure demographics in specific regions. Also, in order to prevent freezes and crashes that are often associated with online surveys, telephone surveys can be used which are free of such issues. However, if online surveys are the method of choice for a certain company, then they should be made relatively brief in order to reduce complexity and prevent the freezes and crashes that could cause a loss of data. Error messages, which are usually linked to programming errors and can also cause a loss of data, are yet another reason to avoid online surveys and use alternatives. For instance, telephone surveys require little to no programming, which limits the possibility of errors occurring. Additionally, the issue of double entry in online surveys can be prevented by assigning each respondent a unique identification number, and allowing it to be used only once. By taking these measures, common problems with online surveys can be avoided.

Claim: Online surveys are inaccurate because of the various issues that they present.

Focus Questions

What are some benefits of online surveys? 2. What are some downsides to online surveys?

3. What can be done to improve online surveys? 4. What are better alternatives to online surveys?

Warren, Bradley. "Conducting an Online Survey? How to Make Sure You Don’t Get Bad Data." Ksrinc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.

Summary: Recent advancements have led to the use of online surveys by companies to innovate and move forward. With the cost and time savings, online surveys are an effective way for companies to conduct demographic and market research. However, there are consequences for using online surveys as opposed to other methods. One example of this is the lack of real time interactions, which often leaves respondents with nobody to answer their questions. Also, unscreened respondents could easily be fraudulent by providing demographically incorrect information or inattentive by carelessly speeding through the survey for a possible reward. This could ultimately lead to inaccurate data that would negatively impact the distributing company. However, various "traps" and hitches could be set up throughout online surveys to help detect incorrect information and distinguish the fraudulent and inattentive respondents. By doing so, untrustworthy data could be discarded and marketing companies can look forward to accurate data collection.

Evaluation of Article in Supporting Claim/Answering Focus Questions: Since inattentive respondents could bias the data collected from online surveys, companies must take action to prevent inaccurate information from being collected, through various methods of setting "traps" throughout the surveys. One method is to repeat questions throughout the survey. Inattentive respondents tend to trip-up and provide different answers for the same question. Furthermore, adding specific answer choices that are non-existent or are irrelevant to the questions could help determine the inattentive respondents who often choose randomized and inaccurate answer choices. Another way to help distinguish inattentive respondents is to include questions in the survey such that the respondent is asked to select a specific answer choice. Those who choose an incorrect answer were not paying attention, and were most likely providing misleading answers throughout the entire survey. In addition, there are ways to detect and omit inaccurate data from unwanted respondents. Respondents who complete the survey in an unusually short time period often rush through and provide unusable information, which should be omitted to prevent inaccuracies. Moreover, those who select the same response (such as "fairly satisfied") for several questions consecutively could possibly be fraudulent survey takers. Overall, it is crucial for companies to collect clean and accurate data in order to advance their products and/or marketing strategies.