We send a link to a web-hosted questionnaire to 100 of your (target) users asking : - what they think of your brand
- how easy they find your site to use
- how satisfied they are with your customer care
- or whatever you want to know.
-> repeating the same survey every 6 months can help you track changes in their responses as you change your site
Benefits
Quantitative and subjective: potentially large number of responses, if access to many customer email addresses is available
Measures brand concerns (customer perceptions of the software and the company, depending on the questions asked)
Can help you understand future user needs (feature requests, software capabilities, requirements)
Limitations
Self-report about behavior is suspect and limited by users' memories
Complex usability information cannot be gathered this way: observation of usage is required for a complete understanding of customer usability issues
Detail is limited: customers may rate software as "ok" overall, but in actual use, some parts are more difficult to use than others
