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Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Research
Author: DSS Research
Link: DSSResearch

The Good

Online survey research has several advantages over more traditional forms of market research like telephone and mail surveys:
- Least expensive research methodology. For a given sample size, online surveys or Internet surveys can be executed for less costs than any traditional forms of research. Some reasons for the costs savings are:
- No outgoing or return postage costs which increase with sample size.
- No paper, staples, envelopes or other materials needed.
- Answering machines, caller ID, call blocking and no answers do not prevent delivery of the survey request.
- Surveys can interact with users without the expense of computer assisted interviewing or disk-by-mail approaches.
- Access to high-income, high-tech, professionals. These, and other business people who are normally difficult to identify and reach via other methodologies.
- Reach early adopters of new products and new technologies. Getting the opinions (and possibly approval) of these valuable people can be very helpful in gauging the potential success of new products and services.
- Faster turnarounds possible. Instantaneous electronic distribution of survey materials and electronic return of completed surveys give the fastest possible opportunity for responses. With pre-recruited online panels, surveys can be distributed and returned in hours, compared to days for telephone and weeks for mail surveys.
- Interactive surveys are now possible. Java applets, JavaScript, VBScript and ActiveX technologies are making truely interactive surveys possible. Upcoming questions can be constructed based on responses to previous questions.
- Preferred customer and intranet uses. Online surveys lend themselves to obtaining quick feedback from clients with whom you have a close relationship and your own employees who might be scattered over many departments or throughout the world.

The Bad

Every survey methodology has its weaknesses, and online surveys are no exception.
- Not sure who is answering the survey. Like mail studies, it is difficult to insure the desired person actually answers the survey.
- Not representative of the population. The Internet population has a slight bias towards younger, more computer literate users, though this is changing all the time and becoming more representative of the population.
- Long surveys are more difficult. The personalities of today's online users makes it difficult to coerce respondents into completing long surveys.
- Not a "mainstream" research methodology, yet. With more experience and comparative analyses of online surveys versus mail and telephone results, online surveys should reach the same level of acceptance as other methodologies.
- Difficult to pay incentives online. Until some form of "electronic-cash" becomes widely used, it will be difficult to directly credit respondents for their participation. Currently, incentives have to be mailed to respondents or some form of lottery is used to dispense gifts.

The Ugly

Some problems with online surveys go beyond their accuracy and reliability.
- Flames. Online users have developed a culture where unsolicited messages, regardless of the purpose, are loudly denounced. It is very easy, and quite common, for email recipients to fire off nasty responses ("flames") to the surveyor or even post the surveyor's address for others to flame as well.
- Letter Bombs. More proficient and disgruntled recipients may resort to letter bombs or other tactics which can replicate or expand within the surveyors' mail server, causing the system to crash. This prevents any legitimate surveys from getting through until the letter bomb is removed and the email server is restarted.

Conclusions

Despite some definite problems, online research has many more advantages than disadvantages. When surveying populations, which mimic the demographics of online users, online research can be a primary means of information collection. With other populations, online research can be effective as a supplement to more traditional survey approaches or as a quick impression of your customers (much like qualitative approaches are used).

As the reach of the internet expands to include a greater proportion of the general population and many more small businesses, online surveys will become more representative of the population at large.

Electronic cash payments will open up many more opportunities for conducting online surveys. Researchers will gladly compensate respondents for their time and energy if an easy, straightforward system is established. It is cheaper to pay respondents $10 or $15 up front than attempt to recruit survey participants via mail or telephone and then complete a 15 or 20 minute survey.