Power Up Your Surveys with Automation

Surveys remain one of the most versatile tools for understanding customer and employee preferences. However, conducting surveys via traditional methods can be extremely labor-intensive. Automating parts (or all) of the survey process promises to save massive time and unlock advanced insights.

In this post, we’ll explore some of the myriad possibilities for automating surveys in the modern workplace.

Why Automate Surveys?

Manual surveys suffer a number of pain points, including:

• They require significant employee time to distribute, collect and analyze
• Response rates tend to be low for lengthier surveys
• Human error can creep in during analysis
• There’s often lag time getting insights to decision makers

Automating elements of the survey process helps solve many of these issues through:

1. Scalability

Automation platforms can send survey invites to thousands of recipients at once, then automatically tabulate and analyze the data without any additional workload. This makes large-scale feedback possible across customers, employees and more.

According to SurveyMonkey, top reasons companies automate surveys include:

• Reaching larger sample sizes (65%)
• Reducing the burden on staff (60%)
• Increasing response rates (50%)

Larger sample sizes increase statistical significance of results. Further, a 2018 report by Dimension Research found:

On average, online surveys see a 30% higher response rate compared to traditional paper surveys. Automated collection via email, web links and QR codes plays a huge part in the adoption of online surveys.

This suggests automation doubles down on the inherent response rate advantage of digital surveys over traditional manuals methods.

2. Speed

Automated collection and analysis enables organizations to gain insights faster. For example, sensitivities to price changes or new ad campaigns can be assessed via automated microsurveys instead of lengthier manual surveys.

Per Aberdeen Group, businesses that automate data collection through surveys and smart devices make decisions 2.2x faster than others. Rapid insights translate into strategic and competitive advantage.

Further, research by InMoment suggests proactive automated feedback can generate 5-10x more survey responses daily compared to sporadic manual surveys. This velocity and sample size leads to quick learning.

3. Personalization

Smart workflows can customize survey questions and frequency for each recipient. This increases engagement and relevance of the insights gathered.

Per a McKinsey analysis, 71% of customers expect personalized attention from companies. Customizing when and what survey questions individual customers or employees receive delivers this targeted experience.

Segments who receive personalized survey outreach also demonstrate 20-30% higher response rates on average according to SurveyMonkey. Further personalization of recommendations and customer experiences based on survey feedback creates a flywheel impact.

4. Integration

Survey platforms can integrate directly with downstream tools like CRMs and email providers to trigger actions based on responses. This closes the loop between gathering data and operationalizing insights.

As an example, software company HubSpot increased response rates by 25% by automatically triggering NPS surveys via Salesforce data then routing alerts and tasks based on scores. This end-to-end automation amplified the value derived from gathering feedback.

The bottom line? Automation helps survey at greater scale, speed, segmentation and impact.

Now let’s explore some common examples…

Applications of Automated Surveys

Nearly any manual survey process can be augmented or replaced with automation, including:

Customer research

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys can be scheduled to go out automatically after purchases, site visits or support tickets.
• Feedback surveys can be triggered by event attendance, trial signups or account cancellations to gauge where improvements are needed.
• Concept or price testing surveys can quickly sample customer response to proposed changes.

Employee engagement

• Pulse surveys can gather regular employee feedback on morale, workplace culture, policies and leadership.
• HR teams can automate onboarding and exit surveys to monitor engagement lifecycle.
• Automated 360 reviews can painlessly gather peer feedback.

Market research

• Political pollsters can swiftly gauge voter response to debates, scandals or campaign messaging.
• Researchers can deploy pop-up surveys about their products across the web.
• Brand trackers can monitor shifts in consumer sentiment and brand attributes over time, or in response to campaigns.

Nearly all organizations can benefit from automated data collection direct from customers, employees and the general public. But where to start?

Here are some examples of insightful questions that automated surveys can help answer:

• How do volume discounts impact likelihood to purchase our product?
• What new features would customers find most valuable in our roadmap?
• How effective was our latest ad campaign at driving brand awareness lift?
• How do employees rate leadership communication and vision sharing?
• What percentage of customers say our product met or exceeded expectations?

And the outputs span far beyond simple reports:

• Aggregated datasets for ad hoc analysis
• Real-time response rate and sentiment dashboards
• Predictive models and lead scoring algorithms
• Personalized recommendation engines
• Automated persona clustering
• Integration with business intelligence and data tools

The possibilities are truly endless once the survey results data foundation is in place!

Getting Started with DIY Automated Surveys

Here is an overview of steps for automating your own surveys:

Choose survey software

Many solutions exist for creating surveys, including Typeform, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey and Qualtrics. When selecting platforms, consider automation features like:

• Number of questions/responses allowed
• Survey logic that skips irrelevant questions
• APIs and integrations with apps like Zapier

Focus on solutions that enable automation with other tools to minimize future migration headaches as your needs grow.

Top survey tools ranked by datascience tech survey platform Capterra include:

1. SurveyMonkey
2. QuestionPro
3. SoGoSurvey
4. SurveyGizmo
5. SurveyLegend

Each platform has varying strengths – research thoroughly before selecting the right long-term provider for your needs.

Design effective surveys

The principles of good survey design apply regardless of manual or automated distribution. Some key tips:

• Limit number of questions
• Randomize order of lengthy surveys
• Include images/multimedia for engagement
• Allow for open-ended comments
• Make questions mandatory or optional as needed
• Use skip logic and adaptive questioning

Balancing length and depth is key—aim for focused surveys under 10 minutes.

Experts including the Pew Research Center recommend 5-15 questions for highest completion rates balanced with statistical validity. Limiting scope and using skip logic keeps engagement high while gathering useful data.

Set up smart survey distribution

This is where automation triggers can enter the picture:

• Date/time: Send quarterly relationship surveys on the 1st workday of each quarter
• Events: Send feedback surveys to event attendees 24 hours after event completion
• Actions: Send NPS survey to all new customers 2 weeks after first purchase
• Integration: Send employee pulse survey biweekly by connecting to calendar app

Use rules and triggers to ensure surveys go out automatically when most relevant and helpful.

Tools like SurveyMonkey, QuestionPro and SurveyGizmo enable setting up these rules directly:

• Schedule recurring survey distribution by date/time
• Link surveys to custom events per respondent
• Associate surveys with purchases, subscriptions or support tickets
• Build complete lifecycle maps to manage survey cadence

Properly spacing out survey reachouts is key – don‘t oversaturate customers and employees.

Automate analysis and sharing

Don’t leave insights trapped in your survey platform. Automate outbound sharing of results by:

• Saving response data to cloud storage systems like Dropbox or Google Drive for analysis
• Adding new responses as rows in spreadsheets or entries in databases
• Alerting survey owners and stakeholders when new survey results arrive
• Feeding high priority alerts into Slack or Microsoft Teams
• Updating leaderboards or results dashboards automatically

This closes the loop between gathering data and taking action.

Most survey providers feature built-in reporting on answer frequencies, ratios, means and other statistics. Further, APIs enable exporting data to business intelligence tools like:

• Tableau for interactive dashboards
• Looker for self-service analysis
• Google Data Studio for custom reports
• Power BI to monitor KPIs
• R/Python for advanced analytics

Connecting survey data to dedicated analytics software unlocks deeper insights through statistical testing, machine learning and visualizations tailored to your analysis needs.

Expand distribution and integrations

Once the foundations are in place, it’s easier to scale automated surveys across the organization. For example:

• Gather geospatial data by triggering GPS surveys via mobile devices
• Integrate with CRM platforms to connect insights to customer records
• Personalize survey questions using past responses and machine learning
• Translate surveys automatically for global audiences

The possibilities are endless!

Here are just a few examples of impactful expansions on initial survey automation:

• Marketing attribution – Match survey data on ad recall and influence to sales data in CRM and web analytics platforms. This enables finely tuned multitouch attribution models and optimal media mix analysis based on statistically significant survey data at scale.

• Churn prediction – Build machine learning models to predict likelihood of cancellations based on patterns in customer satisfaction, feature usage and value realization survey responses. Intervene proactively with customers most at risk of churning.

• Dynamic pricing – Rapidly test optimal price points via automated conjoint analysis surveys. Choose the best price-volume balance to maximize revenue and customer lifetime value.

• Lifecycle analysis – Track changes in sentiment, feature relevance and usage over time based on user lifecycle stage. Improve product-market fit and targeting of messaging for each stage of the customer journey.

Sophisticated integrations and analytics unlocks game changing scale and intelligence – the sky‘s the limit!

Automation Tools to Supercharge Surveys

While some survey platforms have native automation features, you can unlock even more potential by connecting them to specialized tools using APIs and integrations.

Here are some top options:

Zapier

Zapier makes it easy to connect over 1000 popular business apps for workflow automation. You can trigger automated actions like:

• New Wufoo entry → Create Asana task
• New SurveyMonkey response → Add row to Airtable table
• New Formstack submission → Post to Slack

Zaps like these require no coding to build and can orchestrate data flows between myriad tools.

Over 4 million zaps have been created by customers as they automate redundant processes. It‘s ease of use and pre-built templates accelerate leveraging survey platforms via automation.

IFTTT

IFTTT (short for “If This, Then That”) provides similar easy automation for web services and internet-connected devices and applications. For instance:

• New Google Form response → Append Google Sheet row
• New JotForm entry → Create calendar event
• And more

Its simplicity makes IFTTT a great entry point for basic survey automation tasks.

To date over 1 billion applets have been powered by IFTTT‘s simple triggers. It‘s free tier enables core workflows like above.

Integromat

For advanced survey automation scenarios involving business processes, Integromat provides robust workflow creation with dynamic operations like:

• Update records in apps or databases
• Run SQL queries to reshape data
• Trigger email campaigns via CRM or marketing automation systems
• Process and transfer data through secure pipelines

Integromat automates advanced workflows for business users – no coding required

It provides deep data backups, version history and error handling for production-scale automation. Pricing tiers are available based on number of scenarios and volume of data processed per month.

Microsoft Power Automate

As part of Microsoft 365, Power Automate allows building flows to connect and sync data between Office apps, Dynamics 365 CRM, Azure services and more. Example automations could:

• Email survey results PDF from Forms to a SharePoint document library
• Copy Forms responses to Excel for analysis
• Post surveys to Teams channels
• Update Dynamics CRM records with survey data

It provides a no-code approach for integration scenarios commonly used by enterprises relying on Microsoft stacks. Licensing provides monthly runs based on per-user plan.

The specific tool you choose depends on your stack and level of complexity needed. But each helps solve tedious steps in managing survey responses so you can focus on gathering and analyzing insights.

Best Practices for Automated Survey Ethics

While automation delivers undisputed efficiency gains, there are ethical considerations in large-scale data collection:

• Add opt-out steps – Include clear paths for survey recipients to skip questions or unsubscribe from future communications. This puts user control and transparency front and center.
• Anonymize data where possible – Collecting less identifiable info is safer and still useful for many analysis techniques.
• Handle data securely – Encrypt data in transit and storage so all user responses stay private.
• Get consent for collecting contact info and explain intended data usage.

Further, some operational best practices as your usage scales up include:

• Use double opt-in subscription flows before sending initial surveys
• Check for spam filter blocking of survey emails
• Cycle survey content to keep engagement high
• Analyze completion rates to optimize survey length over time
• Follow up personalized outreach to re-engage past respondents

Honoring people’s voices means respecting individuals. Keep these principles in mind as you scale up automated surveys.

The Future Belongs to Automated Insights

Surveys shine light on the most important emerging signals – human needs and preferences. But inconsistent manual surveys often fail to detect insights in a timely manner. Modern organizations require an always-on pulse across stakeholders.

Automating survey collection, analysis and distribution provides this constant heartbeat. The efficiency gains free up talent to focus on customer-centric action based on feedback. Engineers build better features. Marketers craft more resonant messaging. Support teams rapidly resolve concerns.

And this flywheel effect compounds over time, leading to customer lifetime value increasing by 15-20% according to SuperOffice. Continuous automated listening at scale leads to relationships blossoming through relevance and delight.

So whether you need swift concept tests, regular culture checks or large-scale market research, explore automating at least some part of your process. Empower your team to act on feedback and insights faster than ever before. The future belongs to those who know what their customers need before they do!