Snap the choice for Professional Market Researchers
Snap Survey Software boxWhile there are now many different reasons people use Snap to carry out surveys: customer satisfaction, employee relations, consultation, feedback and so on, the latest version of Snap has not forgotten the group of users it was first created to serve: professional market researchers.
With Snap, 'simple to use' does not mean simplistic. A wealth of expert features will support the specialist in quantitative research through every stage of the research process, from survey design through to presentation and dissemination of the findings. Neither will the package buckle under the strain of large and complex surveys since it is designed to handle surveys with hundreds of questions and tens of thousands of respondents with ease.
Professional support at every stage of the research process
Snap's modular design means you can add functionality as and when you require it, such as for optical scanning of questionnaires, to conduct surveys on the Internet or to migrate to handheld CE devices for data collection in the field.
A choice of data entry methods, including a rapid, keystroke-efficient interface for data entry specialists with validation and verification support, allows you to capture data to the highest levels of accuracy. Snap will even report accuracy and timings for each project.
The range and depth of analysis options in Snap is staggering
The range and depth of analysis options in Snap is staggering. All the basic features required by the professional user, such as the ability to weight data, to cross-tab anything (with anything else or with everything), to work with sub-samples and define complex filters and to present the results graphically as well as in tabular form, are not only there but are all easy to do.
Unlike many other tab packages, tables and charts are of presentation quality and export easily into other packages such as PowerPoint, Excel and Word. Despite having to meet the needs of thousands of wildly different clients and projects over the years, Snap is the only tool used by Snap's own analysis bureau, The SurveyShop.
Load Snap onto your laptop, and you will be able to deal with any impromptu enquiries and at the presentation, instead of having to 'get back tomorrow'. The reduced 'Results' edition of Snap is ideal for you to provide to your client with a set of the data so that he or she can derive even more benefit from the research.
Snap's powerful import and export capabilities ensure easy and reliable transfer of data and texts between Snap and other packages you may be using in-house or that your suppliers or clients may use.
Case Study: Snap provides all the answers on top PR Survey for Impulse Research
Impulse Research is a full service market research firm located in Los Angeles, California, serving clients throughout the United States and beyond. In addition to offering a wide range of custom research activities carried out by telephone, mail and on the Internet, the company is responsible for the prestigious Thomas L Harris/Impulse Research Public Relations Client Survey.
This syndicated survey of the top twenty public relations firms in the United States relies on a representative sample of 2,000 communications and public relations professionals throughout the world. It is prepared and published annually using Snap. Participants can choose to complete a comprehensive questionnaire either on paper or on the Internet. All the results, whether they were entered by hand from mailed-in questionnaires, or gathered automatically from the Snap Internet module, reside in the same database, so there is no complex conversion or re-coding to perform in this mixed-mode survey. The survey is presented as an overall report and then a series of individual, highly detailed reports are prepared for each of the twenty PR companies in the syndicate.
"...without Snap we could not do it. We've used other cross-tab packages in the past, but we shifted over to Snap because it does a better job."
Bob Novick, President of Impulse Research commented, "Frankly, without Snap we could not do it. We've used other cross-tab packages in the past, but we shifted over to Snap because it does a better job."
Bob singled out several features that, as a professional market researcher, he found invaluable: the ease of creating additional variables for analytic purposes; the "painless" way he can transfer data to other packages such as stats packages; also the ability to process the answers to open-ended questions by creating more new variables and the ability to weight or re-weight the data.
"When you do research on the Internet, weighting is very important because the sample population is often demographically different from the total population," Bob observed.
Impulse Research uses Snap to handle all of the surveys it carries out throughout the year. An in-house data entry team enters data directly from mail or telephone surveys and data from Internet surveys are imported automatically. "We used to subcontract fieldwork but when we switched to Snap we found it was more cost efficient and did not take any more time to enter the data ourselves. It gives us a lot more control as our people understand the survey better and when typing in open-ends they can do a better job."
"...I have been using it for years and I still have not used all of its capabilities."
Bob Novick concluded, "Snap is so versatile that I don't think even the designers have figured out all of its potential uses. I have been using it for years and I still have not used all of its capabilities."
A summary of the latest Thomas L Harris/Impulse Research Public Relations Client can be viewed at www.impulseresearch.com
Case Study: Snap lets On-line Marketing Network bridge the Qual/Quant divide
On-line Marketing Network (OMN) is a small, independent research agency based in Evesham in South-west England. It provides quantitative and qualitative research services to a wide variety of clients from many different sectors, including Internet services, telecoms, agriculture, leisure, executive recruitment and charities.
OMN makes extensive use of Snap in its quantitative research activities, both to design surveys and also to analyze the results. Fieldwork and data entry usually are subcontracted out, but data files are returned in a Snap-compatible format for analysis using Snap.
Because Snap is a tool that everyone engaged in research can use for themselves, it means that researchers are better able to design their research so that the qualitative and quantitative phases can fit together perfectly.
Bill Gourlay, Principal Consultant at OMN commented, "Snap opened up a whole new area and meant I could get into questionnaire design. With my associates, I can offer a broader range of services and integrate them, so it is the same team that works on both quant and qual." The ability to offer such tightly integrated qualitative and quantitative research services gives OMN real strengths over its competitors. Because Snap is a tool that everyone engaged in research can use for themselves, it means that researchers are better able to design their research so that the qualitative and quantitative phases can fit together perfectly.
Bill found Snap easy to learn and use. He did some of his basic learning simply by reading the manual and covered more advanced aspects in a one-to-one session with one of the specialists at Snap Surveys. "It is very good in that you don't need to be using it all the time. If I do have any hiccup at all I can pick up the phone to Snap support and that means I always have the confidence to use it. I have found the support to be very good."
As a professional researcher, Bill is delighted with Snap's capabilities for analysing and presenting data. He will normally weight the data using Snap's built-in weighting
As a professional researcher, Bill is delighted with Snap's capabilities for analysing and presenting data. He will normally weight the data using Snap's built-in weighting module then make extensive use of cross-tabs and filtering to identify subgroups and carry out segmentation. "The grid table facility can also be very useful. It just gives you more analysis options, especially when looking to identify groups and patterns of behaviour." Charts are generally produced in Snap, though exporting to Excel gives Bill even more options. He singles out two charts he now uses a lot. "The radar charts are fascinating for looking at different patterns of attitudes or behaviour. And I find the 3D charts, especially if looking at grid ratings by subgroups, make the information easily intelligible."
"I have yet to have a problem in the way I present my information that I have not been able to resolve using Snap."
Bill explained, "Different people assimilate information in different forms. I want to present my data and findings as simply as possible so that it can be understood and assimilated as widely as possible. I have yet to have a problem in the way I present my information that I have not been able to resolve using Snap."
Bill Gourlay is in no doubt about the benefits Snap has brought to On-line Marketing Network. "Snap has meant we can offer a thoroughly professional service. It has allowed us to be more self contained and offer the service that I, in my former years as a client, would have liked."
Conclusion
Snap strikes the perfect balance between offering something that is quick to learn and easy to use on the one hand, with the heavy duty, 'must be able to do anything' needs of the research professional. Even though Impulse Research's Bob Novick has used it extensively on many difficult projects over many years, he knows Snap still has capabilities in reserve. Snap's flexibility at the analysis stage means he can use his professional judgement on how best to present data to any particular audience.
At OMN, Snap has allowed Bill Gourlay to exercise as much control over his quantitative projects as he can over qualitative ones. In many different ways, he feels he can provide a more professional and more responsive service to his clients.
Both companies have been able to bring previously outsourced activities in-house, with the scope for reducing costs and increasing the margin and profitability of these activities. When the pressure is really on, both have found that Snap's friendly HelpDesk experts have provided the answers to ensure the job got done.
With such a comprehensive range of features offered by a program designed for non-technical users and designed to cope with high volumes, Snap is the perfect choice for research professionals throughout the industry. You can rely on Snap to take care of everything your research business needs, from the topline report right through to a healthy 'bottom line' in your accounts.
March 2001