A product launch can easily cost a company millions of dollars. Obviously, the manufacturer thinks that the product is a good idea, but what does the marketplace  think?

Before an advertiser spends those millions of dollars promoting a product, he wants to have some idea of the odds of his product being successful in the marketplace. Online surveys are one way to determine that. And more advertisers every day are taking advantage of this relatively low cost of doing market research that can prevent them making huge marketing and production mistakes.

The greatest benefit of online surveys is that they give corporations instantaneous feedback on their ideas, products, and services. They can find out, in short order, how much demand there is for their idea or product among their potential customers. In addition, paid survey sites enable them to tweak their offer many times if necessary until they are either comfortable that their idea is worth going forward with or is one that should be dropped. And, often times, it lets them do this at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to produce the product and market it.

Online surveys give companies one other advantage. Surveys help companies to accumulate an email list of possible buyers who have conveyed an interest in what they have to offer.

From the user’s standpoint, paid online surveys give them a chance to make a little money. If they are also interested in the product that they are evaluating, as they should be, it let’s them keep up on the latest innovations on that product. For example, if you are a Linux guru and love working with it, you might be the perfect candidate for a company about to promote a new Linux software add on. And it’s even sweeter for you, if the company is willing to pay you for your opinions.

Typically, a marketing survey form will ask a potential buyer questions about the product or service. What is it they dislike about it? What do they like about it? How much would they be willing to pay for it and so on. This gives the company a chance to modify the product, if necessary, before the intended product launch date.

As a buyer, you may also be asked about your buying patterns. For example, how often do you buy a new car, upgrade your software, or buy pasta? This helps the company gauge the size of their potential market. A company may have a product that they believe only appeals to men. If their survey reveals that it has an equal appeal to women as well, they have potentially doubled their market size. And, of course, it works in reverse as well. They may think they have a product that both men and women will enjoy, and sadly find that only men are interested in it.

With paid online surveys, both the company and the user win.  If you’re a user, the key thing is to get on the right notification lists so you’ll be aware of the online surveys that are available.

Even public transport operators who already use passenger surveys may not fully appreciate the multiple benefits that surveys can bring. Gathering market research is only one use for surveys, a second is the ability to measure the effectiveness of new initiatives as they are introduced and a third is to help promote the new initiatives to the customers.

 

Establishing a Starting Point

When embarking on any change management programme it is always good practice to establish a base line before any changes are made. This baseline survey can serve four purposes, it will:-

• allow the proper targeting of investment
• allow measurement of the effect of change
• assist in the moral of those implementing change
• ensure that new issues are kept separate from the original plan and budget

 

Targeting Investment

There are many areas of any public transport system that can cause passenger dissatisfaction all of which need to be monitored to ensure that the service being provided meets, and where possible, exceeds, performance level targets.

Issues that can be of concern to passenger include:-

• safety and security
• punctuality
• fares and ticket types
• capacity and overcrowding
• quality and design of vehicle
• cleanliness
• facilities at stations and terminals
• facilities for passengers with disabilities

Often limited resources and budgets means that investment needs to be carefully planned and properly targeted.

Passenger surveys allow operators to identify those areas that are of most concern to their customers. By analyzing passenger feedback operators can confirm that their improvement and investment plans are in tune with the passenger demands and concerns. Issues can be classified into high and low priority, as well as long and short term plans.

Major capital investment such as the building of infrastructure for example new terminals, runways, laying new track or upgrading air traffic control or rail signalling equipment may take many years to implement. However, the initial survey may identify some high profile areas where a solution to the raised problems can be implemented almost immediately.

 

Measuring Change

From having established a comprehensive programme from an initial survey the objectives for running periodic surveys are twofold.

One aim will be to verify that passenger concerns have been properly addressed by any of the changes and initiatives that are implemented. A second objective will be to promote and advertise the initiatives that have been implemented and also inform and educate passengers of ongoing improvements and future plans.

Passengers will hopefully be more positive when they can see that improvements have been made and if they know that problems have been recognised and are in the process of being addressed they can be more accepting of the outstanding problems.

 

Keeping Moral

Those implementing change can often develop a siege mentality. It can take time for changes to take effect and for any improvements to be noticed by the passengers.

By canvassing passenger opinion and measuring the results against earlier surveys a successful change programme should see passenger issues change over time, some issues that were problems will no longer be raised.

Those tasked with implementing change and making improvements can become very demoralised as suffering passengers are slow to appreciate the efforts that are being made and are therefore negative in their comments. It is essential that a team implementing change can see clearly the effects of their efforts.

 

Identifying New and Old

In any long term change management programme issues can change over time. The situation can change instantly so that due to an event what was important, is no longer important and what wasn’t an issue, is suddenly an issue.

Having a survey that will act as a baseline will make sure that the passengers concerns can be chronologically documented. Passengers are themselves an evolving group, individual travel arrangements change, fashion changes, life styles develop along with technology. Periodic surveys will ensure that any changes in passenger attitudes are monitored.

 

Online Surveys Make It Easy

Online surveys can reach a broad cross section of any travelling public. They are quick to design and implement and they provide feedback in a format that is ready for detailed analysis. A main features of online surveys is their low cost and flexibility that allows operators to publish multiple surveys that will target individual groups who may have specific concerns.

Not only will online passenger surveys make it easy to collect important market research data it will also deliver a message to the passengers that the operator has a genuine commitment to securing positive passenger satisfaction.

Passengers benefit by having an effective channel to raise issues and through periodic surveys will begin to appreciate that the operator is continually investing and improving the service. The following are links to samples of Passenger Surveys

Sample Passenger Survey for an Airline Carrier: Airline Passenger Survey

Passenger Survey for a Train Operator: Train Operator Passenger Survey

Sample Passenger Survey for a Bus Operator: Bus Operator Passenger Survey

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