Surveys are powerful tools when used in appropriate manners. But too frequently the ubiquitous survey is used as a “Hail Mary” attempt to win the game without knowing which game is actually being played. In order to gain any advantage in a competitive business world, surveys should only be used when there’s no clear path to the goal on your own and

Surveys are great ways for businesses to get valuable information, but only when they are given to the right groups of people. For a survey to have valid meaning, businesses must first accurately identify and then qualify the people they believe possess the most knowledge and insight about the topic at hand. It is logical and might even seem easy..

When it comes to maximizing the value of market research and using it to make smarter, faster and more profitable business decisions, a critical -- though often overlooked -- aspect is screening the right participants, and weeding out those who are unqualified.

If potential participants are not properly screened, then the insights they provide..

Developing an optimized set of screening questions involves striking a fine balance between filtering out the wrong research participants and ensuring that your sample size isn’t too narrow based on selection criteria.

On the one hand, the questions must effectively filter in/out potential research participants; otherwise, they are simply not..

Building surveys that give you highly accurate responses that pertain to the focus group is a challenging task. Tightening up your script and working hard to make one question flow into another will go a long way in helping you engage and keep your respondents. Keep your audience in mind and understand that they do not know or utilize the jargon..