Re: Seeking Online Help Surveys Advice

[David Renn <daverenn08 -at- gmail -dot- com>]

It seems there's quite a variety of opinions about surveys, both as
creators and as participants. I guess I figure even if a survey isn't the
most helpful way to get information from our users, and even if some (if
not most) users are annoyed by the thought of a product pushing a survey on
them...I figure at the very least, overall, using surveys can't
hurt---especially since they're so inexpensive to create and implement.
Even if you get one tidbit of helpful information from a survey, it's
probably worth it in the end. But nonetheless, it should be an effective
and well-crafted survey.

So for those who work or have worked with online help:

   - What questions would you most want to ask your users in order to
   better understand and accommodate their needs?
   - How would you frame those questions to elicit the best responses?
   - What sort of information ultimately would you seek to better their
   experience with your online help?

And I ask these questions now in a general sense. Whether it be
face-to-face, via skype, via email, via survey, over the phone, morse code,
sign language, telepathically (Ok, I'll stop there), etc.



By the way, for what it's worth, we're probably going to offer prizes to
survey participants.

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
wrote:

> How could they send prizes without identifying information?
>
> I see no problem with a company whose products I use conducting a
> non-anonymous survey. They already have my information as a registered
> user anyway.
>
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 6:49 PM, Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>
> wrote:
> > One more way to stop people giving you useful information: make the
> > survey look even faintly like an exercise in harvesting personal
> > details for your mailing list.
> >
> > Just yesterday this email arrived:
> >
> > Subject: Just Launched: Adobe Tech Comm Product Survey 2015!
> > ---
> > Participate in the Adobe Tech Comm Product Survey 2015 and shape the
> > future of industry leading tools.
> >
> > Receive the exclusive survey report from Adobe & stand to win exciting
> > prizes!
> >
> > 27 Questions. 15 Minutes. 23 Prizes.
> >
> > It was clearly from Adobe, not a scam - tick.
> > It looks like they want to base their product enhancements on input
> > from working TWs - tick.
> > There's also a slight chance of winning one of a pretty good selection
> > of prizes - tick.
> > They send a summary report. Might be interesting - tick.
> > Looks like it shouldn't take too long - tick.
> > It's 2016, you idiots - attention to detail! cross.
> >
> > So apart from that last very minor nit I'm in a good frame of mind and
> > start the survey.
> >
> > On the first page, _every _identifying question is required, including
> > my full name and email address and the name of my organization. Bzzzt!
> > No survey responses for you, Adobe.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and
> content development | http://techwhirl.com
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as daverenn08 -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives