Create an Online Survey Using Google Drive

When we launched Mommy HQ last May, Mommy Issa and I were excited to promote and sell cloth diapers online. For the first month, it was so quiet, you could hear the crickets. Later on,  questions (and orders!) started to trickle in.

Apart from the sales, we find joy in answering the queries and researching the trends.  And we also have questions of our own that only other people can answer. We really needed  to do market research – having knowledge of what your customer wants lowers our risk of running around like headless chickens. *I could just imagine the faces of our husbands while reading this…* 

Anyway, a  few days  ago, we decided to conduct an online survey to have an idea on what cloth diapering parents really prefer.

First, we formulated the questions based on the things that we wanted to find out:

• Basic profile of a cloth diapering parent
• What types and brands of cloth diapers they have tried so far
• What type and brands they prefer

Next, we have to find the best online application to use. The first thing that came into mind was surveymonkey. It’s been a while since I last looked it up, and I was delighted to find out that you can create free surveys. Even better, you can add it as a custom tab in you Facebook page.

The only thing that prevented us from using it is that the free survey can only have 10 questions.

Fortunately for us, there’s Google Drive.

Mommy Issa and I use Google Drive for our online collaboration. Because she’s based in Davao City and I live in Makati, it’s important for us to have a FREE repository of our files. Yes, free being the most important consideration since we’re just starting out. :)

Anyway, before I start to wax poetic over Google, it is good to know that you can create a free online survey using Google Drive. And questions are unlimited!

I was amazed at how easy it was for me to create a survey form. For those who wish to create one, here are the steps:

Step 1. Login to Google Drive 

Go to Google Drive.

Tip: If you’re currently logged in to your Gmail account, click Drive.

Step 2. Create a Form

Step 3. Choose Title and Theme

Step 4. Add Survey Questions

Tips:

• You can add page breaks if you want to group your questions per page.
• Don't forget to check the Required question if you think that the answer is important.

Step 5. Spread the word

Get the link to the live form and publish it to your blog or other social media accounts.

Tip: To make things exciting for your survey respondents, give them incentives. :)

Step 6. Monitor

You can check out the results using the Summary of responses menu. Charts are displayed based on the current survey data. Pretty neat, huh?

I would love to see more features for this, but for basic surveys, it is a very helpful tool. Mommies, if you're thinking of conducting an online survey for your shop, I would recommend using Google Drive.

Till the next post! ^__^