Today there are so many choices available in the market to choose from vis-à-vis survey programming tools that a buyer would get confused by the sheer enormity of it. Questionnaire designing is a very critical part of your research survey and a wrong choice would jeopardize your efforts. I have compiled a short list of popular survey programming tools online panel/market research companies could utilize and avail cutting edge technology available with them. The list is not necessarily ranked from 1-5 – you can consider all the tools mentioned here at par in terms of usability, scalability and best practices. The article gives a brief review of these survey programming tools and what makes them so good.

CONFIRMIT

Confirmit is what Robert De Niro is to movie aficionados – A POWER HOUSE PERFORMER!!

I would probably require an entire separate article to write a eulogy ‘I love Confirmit’. I first came in contact with this awesome tool in January 2004 when I had just embarked upon my career in Online Panel Industry. The way Confirmit has become a market leader in survey research industry is amazing – based on very high end technology innovations.

Confirmit has always been ‘in touch’ with the requirements of its customers. You can come up with the CRAZIEST quota groups and Confirmit tool would implement it in just few clicks!!!

Built on the Microsoft.NET platform, Confirmit is endorsed by industry specialists and IT departments in global corporations and Market Research agencies, and has become the platform of choice for organizations conducting feedback and research programs around the world.

Some of the reasons I ALWAYS support Confirmit as the best survey tools:

1- Robust Scalable Platform.

2- Excellent Training Support.

3- Cutting edge technological innovations.

4- State of the art data security.

5- Can easily handle voluminous survey projects.

6- Unmatched detailed reporting tool features.

7- Easy Quota management.

8- Innumerable add-on features.

One small drawback however is that you need to be well versed with programming knowledge to fully utilize its immense arsenal of features.

Website: www.confirmit.com

Address: 330, Seventh Avenue, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10001, United States, Tel: +1 212 660 1800.

Why should you utilize their services: Well let us put it this way “Give me ONE reason why you should not utilize their services”? One word: AWESOME!!

NEBU

Founded in 1992 Nebu has an interesting journey of becoming one of the dominant players in survey research tool industry. I have personally utilized Nebu software in one of my previous organizations to create panels as well as design questionnaires and have found it to be very user-friendly and feature loaded platform.

Dub InterViewer allows you to conduct surveys using different modes:

1- Web based surveys.

2- Telephone surveys.

3- Face to Face surveys.

Salient features of Dub InterViewer:

1- Simple & Fast survey creation facility.

2- Users can dig into the ‘pre-designed’ survey templates.

3- Supports multilingual surveys.

4- Multi-mode data collection platform.

5- Flexible as well as scalable.

6- Robust database management.

Dub Knowledge is an advanced panel management tool. Some of its salient features are:

1- It is a web based panel management platform.

2- Based on cutting edge innovative technology.

3- Can easily support voluminous panel base.

4- Seamless integration with Dub InterViewer.

5- Can create custom reports on panel members.

In case you are looking for a complete affordable solution – NEBU is highly recommendable!!

Website: www.nebu.com

Address: Assum 16a, 1911 ML Uitgeest, The Netherlands, Tel: +31 251 311 413

Why should you utilize their services: One word: ALLROUNDER!!!

SURVEY MONKEY

One word: ‘GAME CHANGER’!!

SM is one of the world’s leading providers of web based survey solution. It is SIMPLE &EFFECTIVE and has literally introduced the word ‘DIY surveys’ in the market.

The reason customers LOVE Survey Monkey is its ease of use. The results are fast and even a person with no programming skills can quickly design a survey and get started. For small business owners with limited or non-existent research budget – SM came into the market as a game changer. I have personally met few small enterprises that were able to get good insights on their target customers by utilizing Survey Monkey tool.

Some of the salient features of Survey Monkey:

1- Ask unlimited questions.

2- Your own branded survey.

3- Customized themes.

4- Pre-set visual themes.

5- Survey invitation can be sent via: weblink, email or twitter.

6- Embed your survey into a page or on your website.

7- Effective email management feature.

8- Enhanced Security (SSL).

9- Cross Tabulation.

10- Share your responses.

If you are looking for an effective ‘easy on your pocket’ tool – Survey Monkey is the best in the market.

Website: www.surveymonkey.com

Address: California Office, SurveyMonkey.com, LLC, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 500, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Why should you utilize their services: EASY to USE loaded with features DIY survey tool.

ZOOMERANG

3 words which separates Zoomerang from the crowd – EASY, FAST & FLEXIBLE!!!

It is truly a ‘one stop shop solution’ for all your survey needs from creating an interactive questionnaire to sourcing a thriving active panel community – Zoomerang provides it all under one roof.

How it is helping researchers or entrepreneurs? – it EMPOWERS them to design questionnaires without touching a line of code.

Survey programming features:

1- You can create unlimited, fast, easy surveys and polls.

2- You can send your survey via multiple channels like email, web and social media.

3- Robust real time reporting via charts and analytics.

4- You can also share your survey results or you can keep them private – the choice is all yours.

5- Personal branding is enabled on all the surveys you create.

6- Advanced quota management system in place.

7- You can use their FREE version before committing anything.

Panel sourcing solution:

1- Gain access to more than 2 million opted-in respondents for your survey.

2- Some of the target groups you can reach – IT professionals, Pet owners, Moms, High Income Group, Young audience.

3- Competitive pricing for the sample.

4- Highly profiled respondent base.

Website: www.zoomerang.com

Address: Zoomerang, a SurveyMonkey business, 285 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 500, Palo Alto, CA 94301

Why should you utilize their services: Simplicity is at core of their tool but haven’t compromised on the functionality or usability.

KINESIS

The company was founded in 2003 and has been in the forefront of new technology development in the area of survey programming. The survey tools in its arsenal offer ease of use and competitive return on investment. Kinesis helps create an ‘engagement’ with your respondents via use of integrated flash, drag and drop functionality, and other interactive question types, resulting in increased completion rates, more rapid survey fills, and lower project completion costs.

Tools on the offer are:

Kinesis Survey is one of the leading solutions for the mobile ad testing along with many other types of browser based research on mobile devices. It provides advanced survey functionality in conjunction with a robust real time reporting tools. Kinesis has invested heavily in developing innovative tools serving both mobile and web research.

Kinesis Panel is one of the best tools available for panel management with its advanced panel management features. It is able to support a growing panel base and provides effective checks and balances to create an updated and active panel community.

Kinesis Community is a great tool for creating a thriving web based panel community. It has quite interesting advanced features which enables administrators to provide an interactive environment to the community members.

Website: www.kinesissurvey.com

Address: Headquarters / Austin, 8140 North MoPac, Suite 120, Austin, TX 78759, USA, phone: 512 590 8300

Why should you utilize their services: Awesome features loaded mobile survey solutions!! Plus a good panel management solution.

Source: Onlinemr