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3 types of industry survey a company could run

The 3 major types of industry surveys that a research company might run

GrapeData
Jul 7, 2022
B2B market research

Why and how to run industry surveys?

Industry surveys are the best way to judge what’s happening in the ground realities of a market. These types of surveys can help a business understand supply demand, forecast financial returns and consequently future growth. They also help to understand consumer needs and preferences. Traditionally companies like McKinsey were leaders in the world of industry surveys. However, these days a lot of tech based startups are also emerging as big players in the realm of information services. We recently shed light on one of the industry surveys that we did, as a tech-based survey solution provider. 

There are a few things to consider though when doing an industry survey. Here, we are going to give a bird’s eye view of the process. The first step in the process is to plan out the objective of carrying out an industry survey. Consider why you want to do the industry survey in the first place. Is it to track trends or understand customer needs? The next thing you want to know is, who your target audience is. Industry surveys fall into B2B and B2C categories. In a B2B industry survey the target audience are professionals like C-suite executives, Managers, Directors, Founders and many more. Whereas, in B2C industry surveys the target audience is much wider because it includes consumers. But there’s a lot more to the target audience than B2C and B2B. Even within these categories, industry surveys typically include screening questions so that the survey is tailored to the profile that the client wants. 

When designing an industry survey, consider programming and scripting options so that the questions are as clear and specific as possible. When it comes to methodology, you can choose between qualitative and quantitative industry surveys. Qualitative surveys are a good option when you need opinions, likes/dislikes, preferences and thoughts of consumers or professionals. On the other hand, quantitative surveys work when you need to make data driven decisions. Lastly, you’ll have to consider what is the best way to analyse your data when you have it. 

3 Types of Industry surveys 

There are multiple types of industry surveys that a company might need. Each different sector needs a different type of information to obtain. Thus, we look into the 3 types of industry surveys below that a panel provider might produce.

Healthcare Industry surveys

Essentially, the main aim of conducting industry surveys is to improve the patient's experience. The importance of providing a smooth patient experience has grown so much that a study found that 58% of healthcare institutions employ a Chief Experience Officer. Let’s analyse the different types of healthcare industry surveys that one can conduct. 

Gaps-in-care surveys

Gaps-in-care surveys, as the name suggests, are helpful in locating inadequate or incomplete patient services. By conducting these types of industry surveys, healthcare professionals can see which patients are overdue for services and then call them to schedule appointments.

Health monitoring surveys

Next, we have health monitoring surveys. These industry surveys are useful for monitoring high-risk patients and people with chronic conditions. They are also useful for checking patients’ progress between visits and seeing if they are taking medications correctly. Healthcare professionals also use these surveys to ask patients for health data such as weight or blood pressure.

Risk assessment surveys

Healthcare providers use risk assessment surveys to see health risks and deploy personalised care for patients based on their individual health data and risk levels. Typically, these surveys are conducted right before the patient goes for an annual check up.Then, a healthcare worker can use their patient engagement software to send online surveys to patients before they come in.

Patient satisfaction surveys

Lastly, we have patient satisfaction surveys, which of course are industry-agnostic and can apply to any industry, not just healthcare. These industry surveys provide data that can be used to initiate improvements and thereby increase satisfaction. The key is to use satisfaction surveys along with the other types of healthcare industry surveys. This will allow a holistic view to improve overall patient experience.

Education industry surveys

You might be wondering why an organisation like a school needs an industry survey. The answer is simple. Education industry surveys serve as a method to gather information from teachers and students alike to improve the entire process of delivering learning. Schools like any other organisation need funding to run and they need to show investors that they are growing in an upward trajectory. 

Let’s look into the different types of education industry surveys.

Alumni and graduate feedback industry surveys

First, we have the alumni and graduate feedback industry surveys. These are for the students who have either graduated or are in their final year of studies. For instance, each year the PTES is conducted in the UK. The Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a national survey conducted by over 100 institutions to gain insight from postgraduate students about their learning experience.

Course feedback surveys

Then, we have the course feedback surveys. At the end of each module, students are requested to answer questions about their experience with a subject. Questions can include the pace of teaching and the ease of engaging with the professor. Additionally, it can be about how much prior knowledge students have about the course content.

Teacher and student satisfaction industry survey

Lastly, we have the teacher and student satisfaction industry survey to measure contentment with overall schooling procedures. Schools can measure how teachers feel about their working environment, career routes and fellow colleagues. The same case applies for students. The results from these surveys can be moulded into a satisfaction score for quantitative analysis.

Technology Industry Surveys

The major application for technology industry surveys is to track customer usage patterns of different technologies. Because of the breadth of technology solution providers, consulting companies are interested to know the customer buying journey. Next, technology industry surveys can also solve the problem of identifying emerging trends in the market. To elaborate, a consulting firm may want to know about the current state of neurology equipment supply and market trends in Poland.

In this industry, there’s also cross overs from the finance industry i.e. Fintech. Because Fintech is a relatively new space, typically startups are looking for entry strategies in this area. To illustrate this, let’s look at a use case from our company. A Chinese digital wallet offering mobile payment solutions to integrate payments made in Chinese currency into the US economy was looking to enter the open banking space. But to do this, they would need expert insights on several aspects of the fairly new industry. We were able to identify and recruit 12 experts from the US market with knowledge of open banking, the regulatory landscape. Ultimately, the client discovered actionable insights to make a more confident and informed market entry decision. 

Similarly, crossovers can also be seen from the healthcare industry, i.e. HealthTech. For example, A PE firm looking to acquire a tech company may want to know which IT software is preferred by healthcare professionals and why.

At Grapedata, we are industry agnostic, meaning that we conduct B2B and B2C surveys from any and every industry. So we are sure to provide a solution for your data needs. Contact us here if you would like to see how we can help you.

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