In Response to Laura's Post...

Do you think that people are more likely to be honest in online, mailed or face-to-face surveys? Why?

Laura made some good points in her argument about surveys. I also agree with you that there are always going to be the people who are dishonest on there surveys. Whether they are just filling out the survey to be eligible for a possible prize or even if the person is just bored filling out random answers. Today when I was shopping for my trip to California I bought some new headphones from best buy. When the cashier finally tendered by order, she gave me the receipt saying "if possible please go to the website on the receipt and fill out the survey. You will be eligible for a cash prize if you fill out the survey." I see a couple things wrong with this reward system. I feel as though the people who think the reward is worth taking the time to fill out the survey will be the only respondents. Since only the select people who think the prize is worth the survey will be measured, makes the survey somewhat inaccurate. Referring back to the question, I believe it depends on the situation to whether or not people will more honest on a survey. For example, if you are having a face-to-face survey, and you have nothing truly bad to say, then the person will be 100% honest. But, at the same time if the customer is nervous to give negative feedback they may be dishonest in their answer. I think the mail-in survey would be the most valuable for a company. The person would have to take the time to fill it out and mail it in. If this customer has negative feedback, they may feel better without being confrontational (face-to-face). The only reason why I do not believe people will be as honest with online surveys is because people can just "click away". By click away, I mean that anyone on the Internet, bored or not, can just click a million random answers and then just click the submit button. On top of that this person would be able to easily fill out more than one of the same survey and keep submitting them. I do believe that the mail-in surveys are the surveys where most people will be honest. Do you think it is worth having an online survey with more customer feedback is more beneficial than mail-in surveys with less customer feedback? Do you believe the online surveys could be from one person taking the survey multiple times?

Surveys for Marketers

Any marketing organization must know the wants and needs of customer. It is important for the marketing firm to come up with different ways to obtain this important information. Surveys can be an ideal way to get customer feedback. In the marketing industry there are different types of surveys to forecast the customers wants and needs. There are four different types of survey techniques listed in our textbook, Marketing Express. The first type of survey useful to marketers is the customer forecasting survey. The customer forecasting survey is a survey used to find out the types and quantities of products the customer is intending to buy in a specific period of time. This survey is useful for marketers regarding ordering products within a time period. It can tell a firm whether or not to increase production of the product, not buy as much of the product, or even tell a firm to continue with the current ordering quantities. Also, it gives the marketing firm a period of time when it should be important to manufacture more of the product, or not. The second type of survey used in the marketing industry is the sales force forecasting survey. This is a survey of the firm's sales force regarding anticipated sales in their territories for a specific period. This survey differs from the first because this survey is using forecasting techniques in the firm, and doesn't need to go outside the firm for this survey to be completed. This is done by the forecaster combining the territorial estimates to arrive at a tentative forecast. Instead of surveying customers, the firm would survey the sales staff. The advantage to this method is that it can be prepared for a single region, several regions and can even divide consisting territories. The third type of survey is the expert forecasting survey. Within this survey Sales forecasts are prepared by experts like economists, management consultants, advertising executives, college professors, or other persons outside the firm. This survey gives the firm information about the company and the market. The experts prepare and present forecasts. The last and final survey is the Delphi technique. This type of survey is a procedure in where experts create initial forecasts, submit them to the company for averaging, and then refine the forecast. The benefit to this technique is that the experts will use averaged results when making refined forecasts, therefor creating a narrower range. All of these types of surveys can prevent the company from doing projects that are costly, that in fact actually do not need to be done. If marketing firms did not conduct surveys, do you believe the firm may spend more money at unnecessary times?