The Best Data Gathering Methods You Can Use for Your Website
What are the best data gathering methods you can use for your website?
- Online surveys
- Live chat
- Telephone interview
Operating your own website is a daunting task. From developing it to maintaining and improving it, there is a lot that you need to learn. Once you get a grip on how it actually works, however, you can focus your attention on constantly improving your website as time goes along. The best way to do so would be by continually collecting feedback.
One of the most popular ways to collect feedback, particularly from blogs, is using a WordPress survey tool which is an easy-to-install plugin for your website. However, just as in research, there are many other ways of gathering data that work well depending on how, when, and where they are used.
And of course, among the many data gathering methods, there are only a select few that are useful, let alone effective, when installed on a website. With that said, here are four of the best data gathering methods that you can use for your website.
Online Surveys
Websites are the primary information docks of the internet. Every piece of information can be found on websites. With that being said, online surveys are probably the easiest and most efficient data gathering method for your website.
Using online surveys comes with a plethora of benefits as compared to all the other kinds of data gathering methods. Online surveys are faster in collecting data. Since it is quite easy to find and install online surveys, data can be easily inputted and collected as well. Overall, the nature of online surveys makes it the easiest option for participants, data collectors, and analysts.
When data is inputted, it is automatically organized to make it as precise and accurate as possible. It is organized neatly based on the customizations of the data analyst and it is also displayed in a very readable way. With the many software used for online surveys, collecting, organizing, and analyzing data from them is an incredibly easy thing to do.
Online surveys are very flexible and customizable. Many survey plugins and software will let you customize the survey’s visuals to match your brand colors or to make it smoother for the eyes.
Because of how versatile online surveys are, they are mostly used in collecting feedback from those who use the services or have read articles on a website.
As one of the best data gathering methods for websites, online surveys provide a lot of benefits while also staying as one of the cheaper options in this list.
Live Chat
Live chat, one of the newer services that websites have started incorporating as well as their automated counterpart, chatbots, have become a new and upcoming platform for customer service. Live chat functions mostly as an option for inquiries. Customers usually start the conversation and ask about things that they are curious about. Through live chat, you can collect data that is highly specific and personalized, in the context of a conversation. This data gathering method collects highly valuable information straight from the curious minds of the customers.
Emails
Although not as popular as before, emails are still one of the more valid data gathering methods because of how universally used it is. In recent years, people have started to move away from social media but they will never move away from their own email. Collecting data through email can be time-consuming because you will still need to wait for your customers’ responses, not to mention there is a chance that they won’t answer your questions. Those who do respond, however, are generous with the information they provide and would definitely add valuable information to your data banks.
Telephone Interview
Telephone interviews are an older data gathering method but that doesn’t mean that they are irrelevant. Calling a customer or a participant for data is risky in the sense that the chance that they won’t answer or won’t give you any useful data is considerably high. However, a successful phone call interview can bring you a good load of useful data. When compared to the other mentioned data gathering methods, the telephone interview is the most difficult to execute but it has the potential to gather more personalized data than the others.
Key Takeaway
There are many data gathering methods that are usable for any website. Particularly for those that use blogs to their advantage, WordPress survey tools are the best option. However, there are also so other options such as live chat, telephone interviews, and emails that can also be as effective when used correctly.
When collecting data for your websites, be sure to use the most effective data gathering methods in order to maximize your efforts and get the best results.