Problems With Online Surveys for Market Research

You are browsing a website when suddenly a pop-up appears, asking you to take a small questionnaire. Your next action -- responding positively or clicking the "Close" button -- determines the surveyor's success in gathering important data. Market research companies use online surveys to gather information to help manufacturers plan their product development, and promotional and marketing campaigns. Although this appears to be an easy way to research public opinion, an online survey has certain definite disadvantages.

Sampling Issues

Online surveys make use of data collected from those who have access to the Internet. However, this is not a truly representative sample because a significant cross-section of society does not have this access. For example, rural populations, young children in the age group of 4 to 10, and senior citizens may not find sufficient representation in the online market survey. Online surveys provide good samples for researchers working on subjects of interest to high school and college students, since these are the sub-populations surfing the Internet most frequently.

Low Response Rates

People browsing the Internet with a specific purpose may not have the time or the patience to fill out an online survey form that pops up on their screen. Even when a market research company sends the survey questionnaire through email, there is no guarantee of a response because the addressee may choose to either ignore or delete the message. One way of improving the response rate is to give respondents an opportunity to win some prize by participating in the survey. However, considering the number of online scams, this approach may not make a significant difference, and may even undermine the survey's credibility.

Technical Issues

Online surveys are highly dependent on technical resources functioning adequately. In certain rural areas, there may be connectivity issues that interrupt a person's usage of the Internet. Other technical problems are also possible, such as the server crashing or the screen freezing as the respondent is filling in answers, leading to a loss of data. If there are undetected bugs in the survey program, respondents may receive an error message that prevents them from continuing to answer the questionnaire.

Lack of the Human Touch

When a person takes an online survey by invitation from the researchers, there is no fool-proof way of ensuring that the respondent is this same person. In an online survey, there is no trained interviewer to lead the respondent through the questions, probing and clarifying certain aspects. Also, researchers do not have access to the body language and other verbal cues as in a face-to-face interview. This limits the amount of data that an online survey can collect. Too many open-ended queries may cause the respondent to lose interest in completing the surveys.

References

• University of Texas: Disadvantages of Online Surveys
• Indiana University: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: Researching Internet-Based Populations; Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Survey Research, Online Questionnaire Authoring Software Packages, and Web Survey Services; Kevin B. Wright
• Interactive Marketing Research Organization: Frequently Asked Questions
• Webalue: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Marketing Research; Meheer Thakare