Although there are many, we listed the main pros of using a survey to collect data.
- It’s convenient. You can conduct a survey remotely online, via email, or by telephone, so it’s not geographically dependent.
- It’s time-efficient. You can develop and carry out a survey in significantly less time than other data-collection methods.
- It’s cost-effective. Focus groups or face-to-face interviews usually require more resources.
- It offers excellent statistical significance due to a large number of people answering any survey.
- Finally, if you use sites like SurveyTown, you can create any type of survey with any question type, automatically subscribe contacts to surveys, and see ratings in real-time reports.
Go through the following list to discover the cons of conducting a data-collecting survey.
- It isn’t suitable for controversial issues since respondents may feel uncomfortable giving honest answers. Personal interviews would be a better match for such matters.
- Multiple-choice questions sometimes have a lower validity rate than other question types. Also, phrases like “somewhat (dis)agree” may have a different meaning to each respondent.
- The design isn’t flexible. You cannot change the survey questions or administering method throughout data gathering.
- Researchers must create questions for the general population, and generic questions aren’t always suitable for every participant.