6 Great Survey Tools and Poll Apps for Startups

Startup and expansion stage technology companies would love to have the market research power of some of their industries’ behemoths, tapping in to customer feedback, industry trends, and useful data.

But that capability isn’t a reality for most smaller businesses. So, let’s assume you don’t have the time or money for a full-fledged market research project, but would still like to cheaply collect feedback from your customers or gather information from your prospects.

Online surveys are by far the fastest – and often most affordable – method for collecting that valuable information.

I’ve used several different tools and apps, each of which have some unique features. Here is a list of some of the best online surveys and polling apps early stage companies can use to learn more about their customers, prospects, and employees:

Polldaddy

In the field of online democracy, Polldaddy is very popular. It has an easy-to-use survey editor, powerful reporting and filtering capabilities, and it lets you customize the look of your survey. You can send out the survey link in an email, use it in a banner on your website, or use the iOS app to collect responses from users on iPhones and iPads.

• Free accounts: Available
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Not available

Zoomerang

This software lets you build your survey quickly with free access to more than one hundred professionally designed survey templates. After collecting data, Zoomerang allows you to create customized charts and share them on your blog or website. You can also export the data to Excel, PowerPoint or a PDF. The Pro and Premium versions let you brand and customize the survey with your logo and create end pages. The Premium account comes with support and training help.

• Free accounts: Available
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Available

Wufoo

Wufoo is an HTML form builder that helps you create contact forms, online surveys, and invitations, allowing you to collect data, registrations, and online payments without writing any codes.

• Free accounts: Available
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Available

eSurveysPro

This option has a lot of excellent features, including a great survey editor tool, 18 different question types, and control over the flow of the survey. eSurveysPro provides:

• Free accounts: Available
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Available

ConstantContact

One of the more popular and well-known customer feedback survey tools, ConstantContact offers 40 customizable survey themes, allows you to promote your survey on Facebook and Twitter, and lets you track and see reports very easily.

• Free accounts: Only Free Trial
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Available

SurveyMonkey

Popular among a wide range of users (students, marketing professionals and human resource managers, to name a few), SurveyMonkey can be used for customer satisfaction and employee performance reviews, course evaluations, and various other forms of research. The company also boasts great customer support and a satisfaction rating of over 99 percent.

• Free accounts: Available
• Customization options: Yes
• Ready-made templates: Available

Time to Get Started

Those are obviously just a handful of some of the options out there (I didn’t even list these other great tools: Acepolls, Pollcode, Twiigs, MicroPoll, 99Polls, FreeOnlineSurveys, Mineful, Checkbox, GetResponse, Inquisite and LimeSurvey).

So, how do you find the right one for you?

Some of it can be achieved through trial and error. Each of the survey tools I listed above offer either free accounts or free trials, so test each one until you find the option that best suits your needs.

Online survey site SurveyGizmo helps you cut through the noise a little bit by providing a list of questions and features to look for when partnering with an online survey company. They would obviously prefer you chose them, but it’s a pretty objective resource that lets you make your own assumptions and decisions.

For example, the company suggests paying attention to a survey product’s:

• Survey feature set, including its flexibility, question types, survey logic, and response limits.
• Pricing structure. It’s important to know what you’re getting for your money and whether or not there’s a contract.
• Customer support. Does the software outsource its support? If it’s not included, how much do you have to pay for that support?

Those are all important things to consider. As a smaller startup with limited resources, it’s essential to ensure that the product aligns with your goals, needs, and budget.

Once you’ve found a great vendor, make the most of their product. Online surveys can be a great way to unearth incredibly valuable customer feedback data. As a small company, that wealth of information will allow you to quickly tweak and position your product to better meet the market’s needs.