Survey research is an integral part of mapping mass psychology for the sake of formulating national or corporate policies. Peoples’ thought processes relating to buying decisions, market trends, satisfaction level as customers etc. are captured effectively through the means of conducting research surveys. In these surveys, people are questioned or interviewed based on the ethnic and demographic groups to which they belong, so as to get a clearer picture of how the different stratum  of society are thinking/acting with regard to a certain policy or action. Survey research (also called ‘market research’), has now become an integral part of policy framing in corporate management teams, and is hence indispensable. Survey data entry services are now frequently outsourced by big companies. Some of the most potent reasons why surveys should be carried out are enumerated below:

Cost: The Surveys are quite cheap and free of cost to carry out. In particular, online and mobile surveys have a very small cost per person surveyed. And even if incentives are offered to people in exchange for responding, the total cost calculated per response, is usually far less than the expenses incurred in the process of administering a survey on phone or on paper, and the potential responses can number in thousands or more.

Extensive: Surveys can be pretty efficient in describing the characteristic features of a considerably large population. There are very few other people-research methods that can provide such a broad spectrum of view taken from a panoramic angle of demography, which ensures a more accurate sample to gather the desired results in which one could draw an appropriate conclusion.

Flexible: A survey could be carried out in a number of varied modes, which include: online surveys, electronic mail (or e-mail, to put it simply) surveys, social media platform surveys, newspaper surveys, mobile surveys, telephone surveys, television surveys, video surveys and also interview surveys (conducted on individual basis, done face to face).  In case a company wants to target remote or hard-to-reach respondents, they can use a mingled mode of survey research, that is, surveys which are administered both online and on paper to derive responses and compile the survey results into one data set, which is then sent to laboratory for the sake of processing and analysis.

Dependable: Since most surveys are conducted keeping the respondents’ names under wraps (or, in anonymous mode), this allows the respondents to reply with more candid and valid answers. In order to secure the most dependable data, there is a need for respondents to come forth in a manner which is as truthful and honest as possible, with their answers. Those surveys which are conducted anonymously provide a way for more honest and unambiguous responses as compared to other types of research methods, especially if the clause clearly states that survey reports would be kept completely confidential.