Are you planning on gathering information by conducting a survey? Then, you probably need to find a quality, dependable, and easy-to-use survey software tool.
There are many such software programs to choose from and luckily you have the internet to help you find a program to match your needs.
Survey software is designed to help you plan and execute a survey, and collect and analyse the results.
Survey software can be used to obtain feedback from your employees or from visitors to your website, and from your customers, who can give their opinions on your business and your products.
Surveys can be conducted in several ways:

• By putting a survey on your website using a link or a pop-up.
  
• Conduct a survey by email.
  
• Using a PDA survey.
  
• By producing a paper survey which is conducted face-to-face with the public.
  
• Conducting a telephone survey.
  

Most websites offering survey software provide plenty of information to help their potential customers in the form of sample surveys, explanatory videos and tutorials.
It is well worth the time spent going through these to ensure that what the company has to offer is right for you.
Some companies will host the service for you on their servers, with others, you can download and run the software on your own computer or server.
Most companies offer free survey software options which take 3 forms:

1. Use of free online software which will be suitable for small, simple surveys but will have fewer features than their paid software.
   
2. A free survey software download which will be a limited version of the software but will allow you to try before you buy.
   
3. A free download which has a time limit during which you can use it.
   

Other features to look for when choosing this type of program include:

• An option to use different languages.
  
• The availability of ready-made survey templates and the option to create your own so that the template harmonizes with your website design or business stationery and logo.
  
• Help with managing your email list if you are doing an email survey.
  
• The option to have questions answered in various ways such as multi-choice and single-choice responses; whether the customer can amend their response, and limiting how often a customer can respond.
  

While there seems to be a lot of work involved in obtaining customer feedback, using survey software can make the task much easier and provide the quality of data you need to make informed decisions about your business.