Subject areaData and infrastructure
Also known asquestionnaire
A survey is a study run with the same questionnaire for everyone, addressed to a sample of people, to measure their opinions, habits or satisfaction.
In marketing it is the tool used to measure customer satisfaction, brand recall or the willingness to recommend, as in the NPS.
The value of a survey depends on three choices: who answers (does the sample represent customers, or only the happiest ones?), how the questions are written, and who pays for it. As the articles on the site note, most figures in some fields come from commercial surveys, and should be read as such.
A survey measures what people say; social listening and behavioural data measure what they do. The two readings complete each other.
An example
A hydraulic pump manufacturer sends a five-question survey on delivery times to last year's customers. The answers separate those satisfied with the product but unhappy with the service, information that orders alone kept hidden.
Related entries
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Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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