{"id":814,"date":"2012-12-16T17:51:19","date_gmt":"2012-12-16T17:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?p=814"},"modified":"2022-11-21T05:41:55","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T10:41:55","slug":"online-surveys-and-the-alabama-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/online-surveys-and-the-alabama-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Surveys and the Alabama Effect: Never Ask What You Already Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, my friend Bill purchased a new computer over the internet. To his delight, three days later, it is waiting for him when he got home. After he set up his computer, there was an survey from the company waiting in his email.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Design<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the survey began by asking him the model of the computer he just <\/em>purchased. Hmm \u2014 shouldn\u2019t they know this already? As he struggled to find this information, he spilled his coffee all over his desk.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The company angered a valued customer because they didn\u2019t take the simple step of filling in Bill\u2019s known information.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t do this. Some of your customers will drop out of the survey, while others will be reluctant to answer identifying questions \u2014 which could introduce the GIGO effect into your survey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is best illustrated by the Alabama Effect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And no, we\u2019re not talking about what happens when you drink too much moonshine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Americans are asked in surveys to indicate the state in which they reside, a disproportionate number of people choose Alabama. If you\u2019re thinking only Alabamans answer surveys \u2014 that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And you\u2019ve probably already guessed the reason, Alabama is the first option on the list.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Studies show that a lot of people just don\u2019t feel comfortable providing personal information in surveys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the bad news. The good news is if it\u2019s your customers, your employees, your partners, someone you\u2019ve interacted with before, you probably have a whole range of background information about them. Why ask what you already know. Simply pre-populate it in the survey so it\u2019s there when you\u2019re analyzing the data.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pre-what?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pre-populate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pre-Population<\/a>, or linkage, is a feature we designed so you could take your surveys to a new level of clarity, convenience and respect for your customers, while conducting more powerful analysis.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You create a question, tell the system that the answer will come from a list that you built and hide the question from the survey participant. For instance, a participant receives a 10-question customer satisfaction survey. But, three or four questions (such as demographic information you already have) are included in the survey from another data source.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the purpose of your survey is not to profile individual respondents, you do <\/em>want the ability to segment the data based on any number of variables such as gender, location and product purchased.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pre-Population also has the advantage of shortening the survey by removing questions that participants either won\u2019t answer, or feel uncomfortable answering. In the past, people were using surveys in brute manner \u2014 ask questions, get answers. Pre-Population goes beyond brute force by creatively merging data from different databases.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The benefits include higher participation rates and better quality data. By \u201celiminating\u201d the questions respondents don\u2019t feel comfortable asking, you ensure that they will be more honest when addressing product or service related questions in the survey. Also, you can use this feature to update databases and conduct ballot<\/a> initiatives.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pre-Population is a flexible feature with many practical uses. It\u2019s an important tool for creating a smarter, more efficient organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, my friend Bill purchased a new computer over the internet. To his delight, three days later, it is waiting for him when he got home. After he set up his computer, there was an survey from the company waiting in his email.   Unfortunately, the survey began by asking him the model of the computer he just purchased. Hmm \u2014 shouldn\u2019t they know this already? As he struggled to find this information, he spilled his coffee all over his desk.   The company angered a valued customer because they didn\u2019t take the simple step of filling in Bill\u2019s known information.   Don\u2019t do this. Some of your customers will drop out of the survey, while others will be reluctant to answer identifying questions \u2014 which could introduce the GIGO effect into your survey.   This is best illustrated by the Alabama Effect.   And no, we\u2019re not talking about what happens when you drink too much moonshine.   When Americans are asked in surveys to indicate the state in which they reside, a disproportionate number of people choose Alabama. If you\u2019re thinking only Alabamans answer surveys \u2014 that\u2019s not the case.   And you\u2019ve probably already guessed the reason, Alabama is the first option on the list.   Studies show that a lot of people just don\u2019t feel comfortable providing personal information in surveys.   That\u2019s the bad news. The good news is if it\u2019s your customers, your employees, your partners, someone you\u2019ve interacted with before, you probably have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[280,105,258,103,39,60],"yoast_head":"\nOnline Surveys and the Alabama Effect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sogolytics\u2019s Pre-Population feature lets you save your respondents time by pre-filling information that you know about them in the survey .\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/online-surveys-and-the-alabama-effect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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