Problem: The pain and cost of a large-scale paper-based survey

The client wanted to conduct its annual employee benefits survey over the Internet, for the first time. The 240 question survey had been traditionally sent via mail to over 8,000 companies nationwide, and the client was looking for a way to reduce the costs of printing, distribution, and data entry. In addition, the client had experienced reduced response rates over the past few years, and also a decrease in accuracy. Ideally, the solution would provide respondents with an easy submission process for increased response rates.

The company selected SuiteSmart's for the power and flexibility of its SurveyManager product. SuiteSmart used its own SurveyManager technology to transfer the questions into digital format. SuiteSmart experts also provided recommendations to improve the quality of data, such as using selections instead of open-ended responses where possible. SuiteSmart included enhanced data validation for each question to further ensure accurate responses.

The 8,000 survey invitees received a branded email delivered by SuiteSmart's Emailer system inviting them to participate in the survey. Reminders were sent over three weeks to non-respondents using Emailer's tracking capabilities. Respondents were provided with a password-protected interface that included full administrative controls which enabled the administrator to pass on one or more sections to individuals within the organization for completion, and track completion status of each section before final submission. Section responses could be saved-in-progress for completion over several days.

The migration of this formerly paper-based survey to the Internet was a resounding success. The cost-per-complete was reduced by 85% due to removal of printing fees, distribution charges, and data entry costs. The consultancy enjoyed better response rates than ever before, due to the ease of submission and administrative controls for the respondent companies. The data came in clean, and could be downloaded directly for further analysis with third-party analytics tools.