Item: Google Surveys
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I've actually used Google Surveys more with the nonprofit group I'm with than in my career position, but all the times I've used it I found it easy to set up. I've also found it easy to get results, you can share within the Google Docs environment and you can add other users to help with the survey. We have used Google Surveys for everything from (at my job) collecting student data in regards to particular focus group functions, regarding program activity and engagement, and about the location of our college, in general. For the nonprofit, we've used Google Surveys to gather information about our members, ask members specific questions regarding individual teams and their work or visits they've attended with their therapy animals. We've also collected voting data for our board elections, and otherwise and generally have used it to measure the pulse of how our members are feeling (during the pandemic) about continuing with Happy Tails as a member or if they felt more comfortable waiting until after the pandemic is over.

Pros and Cons

Measure the pulse of how our members are feeling (yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions).
Learn how students are doing with specific projects (textual-based questions, essay-type answers).
Run an election for board members (use of the "other" notation so that people can write in their own choices).

It's a little cumbersome in its "form" in that you might have to wait a bit for something to come up for you to choose.
Using Data Studio is great but if you don't have experience with it there's quite a learning curve.
It's more digital than printable...

Return on Investment

It has given us easy access to simple questions that we needed to ask our members/students, etc.
We like how the data is displayed (results) - it has helped people see the visual aspects of what we are trying to accomplish.
We've been able to get surveys out to people quickly in the time of the pandemic to ask the questions we need to ask without having to sign up for any time of membership (pay per survey, basically).

Alternatives Considered

Qualtrics CoreXM, SurveyMonkey and involve.ai

We used Google Surveys a couple of times because it was easy to set up a quick set of questions. We also liked that it created a visual of the data and fed our analytics. But overall, we've remained with Qualtrics because many of our surveys are complicated and found it difficult to use Google Surveys for more complicated types of questions (nested questions, question trees, etc.).

Key Insights

Do you think Google Surveys delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Google Surveys's feature set?

Yes

Did Google Surveys live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Google Surveys go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Surveys again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe PhotoShop, OneNote, Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint, Canva

Usability

Google Surveys has been great for small projects such as yes/no questions and other simple surveys. It is very easy and quick to set up so when we need something quick we'll use Google Surveys. We also like the connection to Data Studio and the analytics we can get out of it and that we can share it with other Google users.

Support Rating

Well... getting support from Google is tough, though there is a phone number to call. Usually, if we have questions about how to do something we use the Google support forums or search for answers to the questions we might have. They also have a chat function if people need help. As we've been mostly using Google Surveys for simple yes/no questions, or other simple questions, we haven't used their help function - the chat or made a phone call.

Likelihood to Recommend

I do appreciate the ease of use and connection Google Surveys has with other Google products - that's a huge plus. While I'm a fairly digitally-minded user, some of our users are not, so that becomes a challenge if you want them to see the Data Studio reports or be able to print something for them. But if you're completely digital, gaining insight from the reports is very valuable. We've mostly used Google Surveys to generate answers to questions we have on how things are running or to collect information from our users/members/students on how they "feel" about particular topics, situations, or their work, in general. For that, it's been a breeze. But we're finding for more specific surveys that may have decision trees associated with the answers (if they answer "this" then send them to "that") we work more with Qualtrics. But you can't beat the price of Google Surveys when you can begin one for $50.

Google Surveys is great for quick answers to simple questions

Overall Satisfaction with Google Surveys