Survey and Questionnaire Websites
An example of something new would be E-bay, that has brought sellers and buyers together in a manner that was not possible to do before; an example of a revolutionised process would be in conducting surveys and questionnaires.
There are very few people who would ever argue against the benefits of a questionnaire when they are used to determine the level of customer or employee satisfaction, gauge public opinion or provide market research.
However, traditionally the reason that surveys have been used sparingly was that the effort required to create the survey in the first place was cumbersome, and the effort and cost needed to distribute the survey software questionnaire, gather the results and then analyse the results were certainly not insignificant.
For many, the results, no matter how helpful they were, were more often than not tinged with a 'never again' feeling having experienced the quantity of effort that was required.
Then along came the Internet to revolutionise the whole process.
Preparation
Though a word processor holds untold advantages over paper and pen for normal writing and correspondence, in the case of something particular like writing and designing a survey it's to some degree as practical as using a slippery eel.
It can be done, in the same manner as a hammer can be used with a screw, it's far from perfect. Word processors are good for documentation, correspondence and basic writing; spreadsheets are perfect for dealing with numbers and online survey websites are ideal for creating questionnaires.
With a web based survey web site surveys and questionnaires can be created, designed and simply modified using any browser by using quick and simple interfaces. All the difficult formatting is taken care of as, unlike a word-processor, the questionnaire software is aware of all there's to know about surveys.
Distribution
The Internet is the most effective form of world communication known to man. Gone are the days of printing hardcopy surveys, stuffing them into envelopes and mailing them, all costly and time consuming. With the online survey as soon as it has been created they're good to go often by sending the link to the survey in an email or by establishing a link to the survey on a web site; processes that are both fast and just about free.
Collating
Where as in the past completed surveys and questionnaires needed to be returned and then collated by entering the information into a database either manually or by utilizing some form of optical reader, on-line questionnaires update the database in real-time.
The Internet has revolutionised the whole process and in doing so has made something that used to be thought of useful, but expensive and cumbersome, into a resource that is so fast and simple that questionnaires can be used to bring advantages to many different everyday areas.
With survey web sites the boundaries to conducting surveys have been torn down. Now they provide a cost effective and easy resource that is open to not only the small charity and local community group but additionally the biggest of the world's multi-nationals.
No longer are geographical borders of any concern a survey can now be published to the entire world as easily and for a similar cost as a local or internal group.
Easier to Test
In addition, surveys can now be easily tested from start to finish to make sure that not only is the survey straightforward for the respondents to complete but in addition that the information gathered is in the precise format to provide the required intelligence.
Easier to Complete
No longer is there the need to ask respondents to skip specific questions based on their earlier responses, with on-line questionnaires you only need to ask respondents the questions which are relevant to them as based on their responses irrelevant questions can be skipped with the respondent automatically being directed to the subsequent relevant question.
Partially Completed surveys and questionnaires
Previously if a respondent did not fully complete a survey they would rarely bother sending the partially completed survey back. With on-line surveys there isn't any problem as the data is collated in real time so information from partially completed surveys and questionnaires can still be counted.
In short online survey websites have revolutionised the world of surveys.
In summary online surveys and questionnaires are fast, they are simple and they are cost effective.