Online Survey Tool

There is a word in French I have always loved: mondialisation. Like many French words, there is no direct English translation for this term. To give you a rough idea though, mondialisation refers to the way that new communication technology has recently facilitated conversations between people on different continents. Companies headquartered in London are doing business deals with organizations and offices in Beijing, and American firms have clients in India. Cvent is no exception to this rule.

Since Cvent has clients literally all over the world, it makes sense that our clients want to conduct and design surveys in many languages other than English. I received an email from a web surveys client today who was wondering how she should best translate her survey into six different languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi. My response was quick: I told her that she should create six separate surveys, one which was translated into each of the languages she had mentioned.

I explained to this client she could simply translate her questions in Microsoft Word and then copy and paste the translated text into the Cvent Web Surveys Question Wizard. Yes, you can even paste Chinese characters! I also explained that it would be easy for her to collapse the data from all six global surveys into one report. This is why we have made it easy for you to export your survey reports into Microsoft Excel. If you simply run the Answer Details for All Respondents report for each survey and export the results into Excel, you can copy and paste to combine the data from all six surveys into one spreadsheet.

Another great thing about conducting multilingual surveys in Cvent's online survey platform is that you can utilize the display text feature! Remember that display text allows you to specify the question text that your survey respondents will see separately from the text that you will see from inside the survey application (where you create and design surveys) or in your reports. So, it is easy for you to translate your survey questions in the display text window and leave the question text in English. This way, you don’t even need to speak the language in order to correctly interpret the electronic survey results!

I wasn’t lying when I told my client today that Cvent is also a multilingual survey software solution and is ideal for setting up multilingual surveys. Anyone who knows their right hand from their left knows that the corporate world is confined to your immediate surroundings and the world truly is one global market, so use the Cvent Web Surveys software to survey employees or clients worldwide.

In a paper survey, a question asking for an email address or a phone number normally looks like this:

Even though respondents would not intentionally put in incorrect information here, you have no control when a respondent who just wants to get to the next page in a hurry puts in random text, which is useless to you. The problem becomes a little more real in cases when survey creators ask for figures like:

How do you make sure everyone enters numbers and currencies in the same format? Some might put the answer in words and make any calculations on the data (such as average income) extremely difficult. This is where Cvent Web Surveys software offers you a massive advantage over paper surveys. For your open ended (non-choice) questions, you can specify whether respondents put in Number/Currency/General text/Phone number/Email address. Additionally when selecting formats such as number, you can specify whether a number should be greater/less than a certain number, or even lie in a specific range.

You can even design your open ended questions to take answers in date or date and time format. Additionally, you can decide whether the date should be on or after or on or before a certain date. In other words, you ensure that respondents enter in exactly what they’re supposed to. If you decide to put in a calendar asking people what date they will attend a multi-day conference, you can make sure each respondent can only select one of those three dates. You can even make this question required so survey respondents can’t skip it and move forward. You will always get exactly the information you need and all of your responses will be meaningful.

This power of being able to control what responses you receive is not limited to open ended questions only; for multiple response questions you can determine the maximum and/or minimum number of options that respondents can choose.

Over the past year, I have run into many new Cvent Web Surveys clients with the same issues or problems with their employee satisfaction surveys.  Most of the clients have the same story: in the past, using a different online survey solution, they released an employee satisfaction survey and were not able to follow up in a timely manner. 

The workplace employee surveys were conducted in a number of different fashions: paper-based, with different online survey tools, and even website survey forms.  All of these previous methods had one tragic flaw: reporting.  The survey administrators waited untill the survey was closed to run survey reports or review the paper surveys.  The problem inherit in this approach is time.  They would wait weeks before pulling reporting and discovering an employee had a problem in the workplace or in the case of paper based methods, sometimes months before they scanned the surveys.

When they finally discovered a problem that needed attention they would act, but what they discovered was:

Both of these resolutions are horrible.  If the employee solves the problem themselves they feel the organization is powerless and does not care about their situation.  If they quit, we all know that it costs 10 times more to train a new employee than to retain the old one.

A simple solution to these problems is a feature that Cvent's online survey solution embodies: Triggered Email Alerts.  Most other survey tools out there do not contain this feature.

The beauty of this feature is the survey administrator can have an email alert sent to whomever they designate; Human Resource Manager, Employee Liaison, etc...  In this manner as soon as an employee answers the appropriate question and then clicks finish on the survey an email is sent to the designated person, who in turn can then immediately follow up with the employee and solve the problem.  Thus, boosting employee retention rates, making them feel like a needed part of the organization, instilling employee loyalty, and finally creating a better work environment.

The triggered email alert feature in Cvent's survey solution solved these client's employee retention nightmares and resulted in a better workplace and a more cost effective future.

Last time we discussed in detail about the Graphical Survey Templates offered to Cvent Web Survey software users. Today, I wanted to share with you another marvelous feature available in Cvent’s online survey tool: Cvent Web Surveys Question Library. The question library is home to a list of customer service, demographics, event, HR/training, and marketing/sales survey questions you can utilize when creating surveys online.

Here’s a Sneak Preview:

Customer Service Survey Questions:
1. Did the representative answer your question adequately?
2. Did the representative respond to your phone call or email in a timely fashion?
3. How likely will you be to continue service with our company?

HR Survey Questions and Training Survey Questions:
1. Did this training meet your expectations?
2. Do you have all of the necessary resources available to you to perform your job?
3. Do you have any comments about what might improve your work experience at the company in the coming year?

Marketing Survey Questions and Sales Survey Questions:
1. How does this product's pricing compare to other similar products?
2. How likely are you to return to our site in the next 30 days?
3. How often do you use this product?

If you are new to the survey tool and need help with designing online surveys, I certainly recommend you to make use of these wonderful features. You can also call our award winning Client Services Team at 866-318-4357 for additional help.

In today’s competitive world, most of us find ourselves asking, What more do I get out of our online survey management software besides the obvious?

Well here’s one extraordinary feature you get along with the Cvent Web Surveys tool: A Robust Address Book. The Cvent Address Book is where you can store all you contacts; you can manually add new contacts if you need to update your records with just a handful of contacts or you can use our 4 Step Import Wizard to add bulk contacts in one go.

You can also export contacts out of the survey software if you need to update your personal database. For example, you want to be able to update contacts in your CRM system that attended your conference and completed your post-event survey so sales can follow up appropriately with attendees. Using the Cvent Address Book you can also merge duplicate contacts, create contact groups to help manage the Address Book more efficiently, or edit existing contacts to keep your records up to date.

Wait! There is more. In the Cvent Web Surveys application, you can not only run different reports to pull up information based on your address book, but also run reports to pull up information from your address book. Here is a list of some of our Address Book Reports:


If you are interested in knowing more about the benefits you can enjoy with Cvent Web Surveys, go ahead and sign up for a free trial account!

A survey conducted by research firm BIA/Kelsey found that 9% of small and midsize business use Twitter for marketing purposes. An earlier survey by online marketing resource, MarketingProfs, showed that 84% of small businesses expect they will increase their use of Twitter and other social media outlets in the future. That same report also takes a look at how large businesses - including Dell and Disney - are using Twitter to reach devoted fans and potential customers. Companies large and small have begun using Twitter. I find this list of companies, although old, to be quite impressive!

At Cvent Web Surveys, we often recommend the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets to reach a wider audience for your web survey. We've often found it to be most useful in monitoring and acted fast to ensure customer satisfaction. Bad news travels fast these days, and you have to be ready to react. 

If you are distributing your electronic survey in multiple channels (social media, your public-facing website, and through Cvent's email survey software platform) it is important to track where people are coming from. By analyzing where your respondents are coming from, you can more efficiently distribute your surveys in the future or weight responses. This is especially important if you are paying to advertise your survey - perhaps on traditional banner display advertising, website pop-ups, or search ads such as Google AdWords.

Cvent Web Surveys software provides two ways of tracking and analyzing this data. First, we have our "Reference ID". Reference IDs are a short string of text added to the end of your survey URL – "twitter", "yelp", or "google" – for instance, to allow you to track what other website "referred" the survey respondent to complete your online survey. These strings of text will then allow you to use the Cvent's built-in survey reporting to see, analyze, and slice and dice the information to give a clear view of where the survey respondents are coming from. 

Second, Cvent was proud to announce in our last quarterly product enhancement, the addition of Google Analytics integration. Google Analytics is Google's free tool for tracking visitors to your websites. The integration with Cvent Web Surveys software is extremely simple to set up and is a fantastic addition for our clients who use and love Google Analytics.

Now while I heartily recommend using social media as a tool to get your survey in front of more people, there is one thing that is crucial to remember: many businesses block social media websites. Robert Half International, an IT recruiting firm, reported 54% of companies completely block access to sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and even business-oriented LinkedIn. This means, if you're trying to attract those of us who work, you may be facing a higher hurdle than you imagined.

There is sufficient evidence from prior studies suggesting it is a good idea to keep respondents informed of their progress during internet surveys.  Respondents may suffer from fatigue or irritation, and may abandon web survey forms – even if they have only a few questions left to complete the questionnaire.  This may lead researchers and project managers to adjust their online questionnaire design by reordering questions to include “important” or sensitive items earlier, possibly causing more survey respondents to abandon mid-stream.

There are various survey design techniques that can be employed to keep respondents informed of their progress, especially within electronic surveys.  One way is to design web surveys so the entire survey web form can be viewed on a single page; but while this allows respondents to scroll down and see the total length of a questionnaire, this setup is less than ideal. 

Another method is to include words or symbols in headers and transitions that notify progress (such as section numbers, the words "next" and "finally," etc.)  By far however, the most popular and effective method of keeping respondents in the loop is to include a progress bar. 

A progress bar is a graphic or set of words that let respondents know how far along they are in the survey process.  Progress bars are especially useful for shorter, instant surveys, since answering only a few questions will show that they are through a significant portion of the questionnaire.

Cvent Web Surveys software makes it easy to include a progress bar as part of an effective online survey design.  You can even select among three options (percent complete, page x of y, or a bar graphic that fills as respondents move through the survey).

Some people still believe in using paper surveys instead of designing online questionnaires, sending personalized email survey reminders and utilizing electronic survey methods. Sometimes I have to wonder, Why? Some of the reasons people claim they want to use paper questionnaires instead of web survey forms is because they think it's cheaper. That's not usually the case.

Consider this: Online survey response rates are typically hire than response rates on a direct mail survey. Online survey research designed well will yeild response rates from 20-40%. Let's be conservative and say the paper survey you plan to send out will get a 20% response rate as well. I looked up the cost of a ream of standard multipurpose paper (500 sheets) on Office Depot's website: $7.09. A black ink cartridge for a laser printer is $77.99 and will print on a maximum of 2,200 pages. Most printed surveys will be kept to three to five pages, longer than that your survey form looks over whelming from the very beginning and is going to lower your response rate. This is how that cost quickly adds up:


Keep in mind these costs don't include the staff time of stuffing envelopes to send out the direct mail survey, or the staff time of manually entering in all of the responses into some sort of data collection software, be it Excel or a survey software tool. You can figure it will take an intern a week to send out 5,000 survey responses and another week for them to do the data entry for the 1,000 responses. So that's an additional cost of $600 to $800 for one survey campaign. What if you want to do a quarterly customer satisfaction survey? You're looking at an annual cost of over $25,000.

For me, that would be enough reason alone to look into an online survey software application. With a web survey tool, you have the ability to not only send one invitation, but reminders survey emails as well. Sending reminders, as we've mentioned before, can drastically increase your survey response rate. My suggestion: don't fall for the myth that paper surveys are cheaper than online surveys. It's definitely the other way around.

There are many options available to market researchers when designing a web survey form. I covered this topic a bit last week when I discussed creating online surveys, and included some dos and don’ts.

Conducting a study for the Web offers several opportunities for market researchers that paper questionnaires do not. For example, you can create an instant survey and check on responses frequently for updates. You may even allow the respondents to view the current results when they complete the survey. This works best for one or two-question quick polls rather than longer studies. But knowing they will see the results immediately is frequently a tipping point for respondents who are on the fence about completing your feedback survey form.

This can be helpful in analyzing survey data as well. For example, suppose results for your online survey form vary wildly throughout one week. One day, 10% of respondents use your client’s brand of glass cleaner. The next day, it’s 65%, but then the following day it drops back down to 20%. This could mean something (possibly that you need to check your recipient list) and is good information to track for your client.

The instant results also allow you to add more questions and gain clarification on points you may not have considered prior to launching the survey form. There are dozens of survey web software tools available that can create instant survey results – it’s a method that is worth trying out, but as always, consider your client’s needs before committing to a particular survey method.

Designing survey invitations so that they render correctly in the person inbox is critical. However, with every email client, from Hotmail to Gmail to Lotus Notes to Outlook, have their own rules for rendering HTML email. In the past, I've given you updates on changes Gmail has made that's effected email rendering. Today, I wanted to share some tips to ensure you're creating emails that will look good in Outlook 2007. With Outlook 2003, the general rule of thumb is if it looks good in Internet Explorer, it will look good in Outlook. Outlook 2007 doesn't play by that rule.

Depending on your target market and who you expect your survey respondents to be, you may care more about these email survey design tips. If you are a business-to-business organization, most of your email marketing list is probably going to have business emails on it as opposed to freemail domains. If you're a business-to-consumer organization, you may care more about the rules Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail use to render your emails.

Next time you're sitting down to work on your email survey design, keep these Outlook 2007 tips in mind:

Keep styles in line: This is a general email marketing best practice because a lot of email clients don't support embedded CSS. Outlook 2007 does support embedded CSS, but not all properties work the way they should when their rendered. To avoid running into these problems, just keep your styles in line.

Avoid animated files: Animated .gif files are not going to work in Outlook 2007. Instead of animating, the email will just render with the first image in the animation. As long as you're happy with this first image of the animated .gif file, then it's not going to detract from your email message. Just know that when you go to test your email survey invitation in Outlook 2007, nothing's going to happen.

Specify accurate table widths: This is another email marketing best practice for designing online survey invitations. You should use tables to design HTMl emails. If you have multiple columns and your column widths don't add up to the width you specified for the overall size of the table, you're probably going to run into issues when someone tries to read your email in Outlook 2007. To avoid this, just make sure you're doing your math correctly, or use percentages instead of pixels (just make sure you're adding to 100% not 101%).

Use Alt tag: In Outlook 2007, images are blocked by default. While some users may chose to turn this off and have images automatically show up - you shouldn't count on this. To avoid survey respondents from having no idea what your email says, be sure to include alternative text for all images.

No Forms: If you're trying to embed a survey form in an email message, it's not going to work. Outlook 2007 disables embedded forms. Instead of embedding the form, include a link to your electronic survey hosted either on your website or your survey software company's website.

For the most part, these email survey design tips shouldn't be that hard to follow. In fact, if you're using Cvent Web Surveys software, our email survey tool will keep some of these tips in mind for you - and you don't need to do anything. What do I mean? Our easy-to-use HTML editor automatically codes the email for you, so when you insert a picture, it's going to ask you for alternative text. When you are changing background colors or applying different rules to headings, it will make sure to code the in line style versus embedding CSS. If you're not using an email survey software tool that keeps email marketing design best practices in mind, you're going to need to do the research yourself to find out what different clients allow - or don't allow - in emails.

So, it is clear that Cvent Web Surveys software is always getting better. Remember that 80 percent of the changes made in your accounts with our quarterly product releases are enhancements that were requested by current clients. However, it is not only the online survey application that is consistently changing for the better. Here at Cvent, we are also constantly rethinking and revamping our training classes to serve our clients the best that we possibly can.

I wanted to write a post today just to let you know we recently rewrote the script used for the Survey Creation and Management training class. Another member of the Web Surveys Client Services team and I spent about a week meeting with the Senior Vice President of Client Services and Relationship Management to completely revamp this training class in order to better suit your needs. Although the material covered in the training class is by and large the same as it was before, it is our firm belief that the Survey Creation and Management class is now easier to understand and follow than it had been previously.

Just to reiterate, if you recently signed a contract with Cvent, it is highly recommended that you sign up for this class. Survey Creation and Management is offered every Wednesday from 2:30 PM EST to 4:30 PM EST. We also offer separate classes for our clients in the UK and Australia. The class for UK clients is every Wednesday from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM GMT. The Australia class is offered Thursdays from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM Australian Eastern Time. Finally, you can also listen to our recorded training classes if your schedule does not permit you to attend the live training.

In summary, if you are a new survey client or a new user of the Cvent system, please attend the Survey Creation and Management training class at your earliest convenience. Since this class goes over how to set up your first electronic survey in Cvent, how to import your contacts in bulk into the system, and how to send your survey invitations with the Cvent email survey tool, it is extremely beneficial for you to take as soon as possible.

I think I have always thought of myself as a "planner." While some people "fly by the seat of their pants," I am constantly thinking ahead to the consequences of my actions. The way I see it, this can be a good thing and a bad thing. Being a "planner" is bad because I am not as spontaneous as some of my friends. The "life of the party" is usually not someone who thinks ahead. However, it is a good thing at the same time, especially when operating in the corporate world, and specifically when designing online surveys.

I wrote a post a couple weeks ago about the importance of thinking ahead to reporting before designing a questionnaire online. I want to address a related issue: survey question logic. We on the Cvent Web Surveys Client Services team always strongly encourage our clients to use survey logic to their advantage. Lately, however, I have been getting lots of calls from clients who are having trouble with the logic they have applied. The reason for this is simple: too many clients do not plan or map out the logic they'll apply to their electronic survey. This lack of planning can cause numerous problems, most notably conflicting survey logic.

In the past two weeks, I have spoken with two clients who applied both branch logic and advanced logic to their online surveys. Both of these clients called because they were concerned there was a technical issue which was prohibiting the logic from functioning as it should. "But, I set up my branch logic correctly, and I know that my advanced logic should be working fine too, so what is wrong?" In both cases, the problem was the clients had applied branch logic which conflicted with the advanced logic, and the survey system therefore did not know where to send survey respondents when they answered a question a particular way. "If only these clients had planned ahead and mapped out the survey logic before launching their surveys," I thought, "then this problem could have been avoided."

Moral of the story: Please take advantage of the wonderful survey logic functionality available with Cvent Web Surveys software. However, at the same time, make sure to plan ahead. Even if you are someone who generally "flies by the seat of your pants," when designing online survey questionnaires, you should be a "planner" for once.

All too often, we begin the survey creation process, but draw a blank.  How should we design a survey?  Should a survey design have the company look and feel?  Or should we design it to be a fresh look?

Having an online surveys tool that has survey templates built into the system is extremely important.  It eliminates the nagging question, "What is a survey design? How do I create a professional looking web 2.0 survey?"  This gives the survey builder that boost to get the creative juices flowing. In the Cvent Web Survey solution, there are over 50 graphical templates, ready to help you in designing surveys. Any color, any pattern, any style. They are all preloaded in the Cvent Web Surveys application. Definitely check these out the next time you are trying to figure out survey research design ideas for your next questionnaire.

Want to learn more about our survey design software? Sign up for a product demonstration.

This week I've shared what different colors mean and how they can effect people. The neutral color group is the last of the three groups, cool and warm colors being the other two.

Neutral Colors are good background colors because they unify diverse color palettes. When neutral colors are paired with warm or cool colors, they allow the focus to be on the other color (whether it's warm or cool). They also serve to tone down the intensity of the other color. As I've mentioned in the other two posts, neutral colors do have attributes of warm and cool colors. Blacks, browns, tans, golds and beige are considered warm. Cool neutral colors include white, ivory, silver and gray. As you might guess though, these attributes are much more subtle than those of reds (the hottest color) and blue (the coolest).

	Black - As we've discussed with other colors, black can have contradicting meanings. While black is conservative, conventional and serious it can also be sophisticated, mysterious and sexy. Black, like many of the neutral colors, match almost every color. The colors black doesn't match well with is other very dark colors.
	White - White represents purity, cleanliness and innocence. Like black, white goes well with most colors. Keep in mind that too much bright white can cause some people headaches and be a bit "blinding." For the most part, the colors paired with white, no matter the proportions, are often the ones that pass on meanings in your survey design.
	Gray - This is a neutral color, but it also has cool elements and rarely evokes strong emotions. Dark, charcoal grays show strength and mystery, similar to black. Gray is a sophisticated color, without the negative connotations of black. Grays are good background colors because they're so neutral. You can swap a light gray for white, or a darker gray for black.
	Silver - Silver can be cool like a gray, but it can also be livelier than a gray. Silver is often associated with being sleek and modern and imparts an ornate feel. Silver is a cool metal and lack the warm that gold has. When you use silver, it can give an earthy, natural, or sleek and elegant feel.
	Brown - Earthy. Wholesome. Dependable. Brown is a warm color that can be associated with all of these things, as well as being considered steadfast, simple and friendly. Not sure that brown represents dependability? What about UPS? They've built their whole brand around brown's dependability. Browns, taupes, beiges and creams all are excellent background colors because they make the other colors appear richer and brighter.
	Beige - Like a chameleon, beige takes on the attributes of the colors that accompanies it. However, on it's own, beige is a calm background color. The reason beige can behave like a warm or cool color is because it has the warmth of a brown and the coolness of white.

If you're using the Cvent Web Surveys software application, you'll notice all our pre-created survey templates take into account how colors interact with each other. So next time you're working on a world class customer service survey or creating web polls, check out the graphical survey templates in your online survey account.

One of the great things about Cvent Web Surveys software application is that it is constantly getting “better.” I, for one, am not aware of another survey software company that can state with confidence that 80% of all product enhancements come directly from the requests of current clients. Cvent, however, has certain processes in place so that every time a client expresses interest in seeing a new feature added to the online survey application, this request is quickly relayed to our technical team.

For those of you who were clients before our most recent product release in August 2009, you definitely noticed at least one big change in your account the first time you logged in after the release. As soon as you logged into your Cvent Web Surveys account, you saw that your surveys were no longer organized into folders on the Survey Selection page. Instead, they are now displayed in “views.”

Now, you may wonder why I chose to write my blog post this week on the transition from folders to survey views. It may seem like a pretty dry topic. I wanted to write on this particular survey subject because I get so many calls from clients asking how to create a new survey view that pull the appropriate surveys into view. If you have a lot of surveys created in your account, then this is a pretty important thing to know how to do, so that you don’t have to sort through all of your company’s surveys just to find the few that you are personally working on!

When you are ready to create a new survey view and filter the appropriate surveys into this view, you need to remember 3 simple steps:

1) Create a survey custom field. You can create survey custom fields under the Administration tab, on the same page that you create contact custom fields. Survey custom fields are primarily used to classify the surveys in your account and pull them into the appropriate views on the Survey Selection page. So, for example, if your marketing department and human resources department are running surveys, you may want to create 2 separate survey views, one for each department. The first step to do this would be to create a survey custom field for department.

2) Create a new view on the Survey Selection page. You can create a new survey view by choosing “add new view” from the Display drop-down menu. When you add the new view, you will need to name it and also specify certain options (i.e. whether you would like the view to be private or public). Finally, at the bottom of the page, you should apply an advanced filter based on the survey custom field you just created for department. For example, if you are adding the survey view for “Marketing Surveys,” you should choose “department” as the field, “equals” as the operator, and “marketing” as the value.


3) Now that you have created the survey custom field and added the new view, all you need to do is pull the appropriate surveys into the view you just created! When you added the new view for “Marketing Surveys,” you should have gotten a message, “no surveys match your criteria.” This is because you have not yet applied the survey custom field at the survey-level! To do this, simply go into an individual marketing survey, and click on  Settings on the top navigation bar. On the General Information page, you should click on the Custom Survey Fields tab. Here you can apply the “marketing” label to the individual survey, so that it will show up in the “Marketing Surveys” view.


Hopefully this post will be helpful to those of you who are struggling with the transition from folders to survey views. Believe me, survey views are completely customizable and will help you organize online surveys in your Cvent Web Surveys software account.

Using Cvent’s Web Survey tool, you can choose to send your survey emails manually or setup a specific date and time for the emails to go out.

Manual Send is ideal to send emails to specific invitees from the target list. As you get the option to select:

1. Respondents by choosing which Contact Group the email needs to be sent to
2. Respondents that have not received the email before.
3. Manually enter the search details to search for particular respondent(s)
4. You can click on the Search Button to search for all respondents that have been added to this targeted list
Auto Send on the other hand is ideal to send out mass emails to every contact in the target list on a specific date and time. This feature is perfect to send out reminder email survey invitations to respondents who have not yet completed the online questionnaire or send confirmation emails to completed respondents thanking them for their time and feedback.


Along with these options, there are various other features that you can choose from in the Cvent email survey tool:

1. What format do you want to use to send this email?
Choose from both HTML and plain text or only plain text. If both HTML and plain text are selected, an invitee will receive either the HTML message or plain text message, depending on their email settings.

2. Click Tracking
A way to track which links are being clicked in HTML emails. You can run reports to determine which survey invitation emails and links are getting the most traffic. Turning on Click Tracking enables tracking in your HTML emails.

3. CC Option
Sending to a CC email address is available in all survey email templates. When the CC email recipient takes the survey, the primary contact’s information and email address will be pre-populated within the survey.

To use all these features for your organizations benefit. Sign up for a Free Trial Account now!

Cvent’s online survey tool is like a treasure trove.  Every day, there are new features to discover, new ways to utilize different functionalities and, of course, a never ending feeling of adventure as you navigate your way through.  With all the excitement, it is easy to overlook some features or get stuck in a routine where you use the same survey question types, same images, etc.  for every survey.  Regardless of the purpose or goal of the internet research survey, you will find a way to make those features you are comfortable with work.  But, come on now.  What kind of Customer Support would we be if we didn’t educate you on features that may be underutilized but have enormous potential to change the way you look at surveys forever?

Cvent offers 19 different question types; that is 19 unique ways to ask a question and 15 unique ways to collect a respondent’s rejoinder (single and multiple select questions have 3 different formats each).  My recent favorite, which I have seen in very few surveys (and there are only so many formatting ways to stress VERY), is the File Upload question.  This feature allows respondents to upload additional documentation which will be stored in one, central location.  Think about the possibilities:

1. With the amount of free and easily accessible information available on the internet, online tests have become increasingly difficult to administer.  What is to stop a student or anyone for that matter from "just having a peek" at Wikipedia or "accidentally" having a Google page up with the pertinent information?  A study done by Donald McCabe and Linda Trevino found that schools that had an enforced honor code have significantly less prevalence of cheating (McCabe, D.L. & L.K. Trevino, 1993). How can this be accomplished through an online survey?  Have respondents sign your school’s/organization’s honor code then use the File Upload question to have them upload that document. 

2. When I mentioned that Cvent’s web based survey tool can do anything; I meant it.  You can use the survey tool to identify and confirm respondents eligible for rebates offered on a purchase.  I know personally I get a little perturbed when I see that an item costs $X but, when I get to the register, I find out that it actually costs $Y but I can get the appropriate rebate in 4-6 weeks if I just mail my receipt to the company.  Call me impatient, call me lazy, but I don’t like having to go through all of that.  “But, Dorian, how can we do this differently?” you must be asking...  Two words: File. Upload.  Customers can upload the receipt from their purchase which will be stored within your Cvent account instantly.  If your survey is a collect contact information survey, you can ask for their address and the only step would be to verify the receipt/purchase and then send out that rebate.

3. Respondents can upload images or graphics; photos for a high school reunion, anyone?

The possibilities are endless.  Any additional documentation can be collected and you don’t need to overwhelm your inbox with email attachments for each respondent.  So go forth, I say!  See what other survey treasures you can find, Captain Sparrow.

The Invitation Forwarding feature is one of the absolute coolest things about Cvent Web Surveys software. After all, who doesn’t love having someone else do their work for them? Invitation Forwarding allows your survey respondents to email survey invitations to up to 10 other people. This in turn allows you to grow your database of contacts exponentially, as the system will automatically put all of these new contacts in your Cvent Address Book for you!

In my humble opinion, Cvent does a fantastic job of updating your Address Book for you, and Invitation Forwarding is one of the reasons why. Many of our clients actually find that their Cvent Address Book is more inclusive and “up to date” than their organization’s internal database! Remember that you always have the option to export your entire Cvent Address Book, which in turn enables you to update your internal database, if need be.

Like many of the features present in the online survey application, Invitation Forwarding saves you time that you otherwise would have had to spend hunting down people who were relevant to your survey. Allowing your survey respondents to forward the survey along to other people obviously has other perks as well, since it will undoubtedly increase your response rates and the reliability of the data you collect.

In summary, here is my advice to all of you out there reading this post: Leave the Invitation Forwarding feature turned on on the Thank You page, as long as you are not conducting a private survey. Invitation Forwarding will definitely save you time, increase you response rates, and grow your database of contacts, all of which are guaranteed to make your boss happy.

Incentives with surveys are often used to increase response rates.  Well, do you handle internal trainings? Is your organization involved with continuing education courses? Use online surveys to gather information on those attendees: What is their satisfaction with the training course or training instructor, what kind of courses would they like to see, etc.

Then, let those attendees know how important that information is to your work by giving the certificate of completetion only after they have finished the survey (by the way, with Cvent Web Surveys software that can be automatically done for you). Survey incentives can work both ways - as a gift for the respondent OR a gift for the survey creator (which in this case is incredibly high response rates!).

Don't inundate survey respondents with too many questions though. After all, they may have just paid for a class, seminar, or workshop. Get your data quickly and easily and let them be on their way. They'll appreciate it.

Did you know there are 6 steps in the market research process?  While this process speaks directly to marketing research professionals, the process applies to HR, customer or education surveys as well:

1. Identify and define the problem.  Before you start any web survey project, you should identify the key issues you hope to be able to solve.  This step should also include clearly defined objectives.
    
2. Develop the approach. In this step, you need to establish a budget, understand influencing factors such as the environment or economy, decide on sampling and survey methods, and formulating hypotheses.
    
3. Research design. Designing a survey or questionnaire is considered the most important step in any survey process.  Question design takes a lot of thought and time.  We like to say, "If you put garbage in, you'll get garbage out."  This means that if the questions are bad, the data will be bad as well.  During the survey research design, keep in mind sampling methods and data analysis factors you intend to use.
    
4. Collect the data. Don't forget to test your survey before to ensure you're fielding the correct data.  Thankfully, with the help of an online survey tool, this step is relatively painless.
    
5. Analyze the Data. The types of analysis you planned to perform on the collected survey data should have been decided in earlier steps, but after collecting the data you have to actually perform the survey analysis.  Analysis can be performed using survey analysis tools like office programs, such as Excel, or more advanced programs such as SPSS - the complexity of the questions will determine this.
    
6. Report, Present, Take Action.  The final step in the market research process is to present your survey research findings and draw conclusions.  While Step 3 is the most important because it defines the outcome of your survey, if you fail to complete this last step and act on the findings in some way, the previous steps don't matter. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, this same process can be applied to any type of project: product evaluations, customer satisfaction questionnaires, public relation surveys, etc.  If you give each step the attention it deserves, each of your online surveys should be a success.