Qualtrics – Online Survey Software

Questionnaire Features

Qualtrics offers a lot of different questions types. More, perhaps, than I remember seeing in any other program. A lot of these are variations on old favorites (there are 21 different multiple-choice question types, 13 matrix type questions, 11 constant-sum type questions, 12 rank order type questions and 5 different text entry questions — and that doesn’t even include the “Pick, Group and Rank” questions, the “Side by Side” questions or the “Drill Down” questions. Without listing all of them in all of their variations, I think it is safe to say that Qualtrics has all of the standard question types covered.

1. Tyler, let’s start with a brief introduction of yours.

I am a long-time member of Qualtrics and have served in many roles throughout the company from initial sales of the product to supporting clients.  I have spent the bulk of my time managing the public relations and marketing for the Qualtrics Survey Research Suite.

2. Though we already know what Qualtrics is all about, we would love to hear it your way.

Qualtrics survey software exists to help users make decisions based upon data. In contrast with the prohibitively expensive research of the past, Qualtrics is making it easy for researchers to do the research projects they want and need to do.

Along the way, we’re making it possible for a non-researcher to do research by making sophisticated tools easier and easier to use..

3. If you have to list three features that make Qualtrics stand apart, what’d they be?

The intuitive interface, our clients, and Qualtrics University.

The interface is the most important and unique feature of Qualtrics Research Suite. Prior to Qualtrics, the market was characterized by high power tools that required a computer scientist to do anything, and low quality tools that were easy to use but couldn’t do much.

Qualtrics created an intuitive interface that allowed users to do the most sophisticated functions with great ease.

As a result, Qualtrics users can do in minutes the same things that take hours or days with other tools. For this reason, many elite researchers, as well as people who’ve never done research before, are flocking to our products.

It may seem strange to claim clients as a resource and a feature of our product, but they are.

When you license an online product, you aren’t purchasing the product as is. You are purchasing the product along with updates and development that will occur while you’re using it. When you deal with a top firm like Qualtrics, you are getting a product that is constantly gaining features and improving to meet your needs.

This is why clients matter. Our clients span the best and brightest in academia, business, government, and non-profits. Whenever they need something new in a research product, they call us. We’ve developed prominent features with the encouragement of companies like Xerox and academics like Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely.

So when you purchase Qualtrics, you are purchasing a product that the world’s leading researchers are continually helping to build.

This has helped us to pioneer many advanced functions in online survey research. These include various question types, block logic, an innovative survey flow, and many panel functions.

I can go all day about the things we’ve done with these features, but I think you get the point.

Qualtrics University is the other thing that truly sets Qualtrics apart. It is a team composed of people whose sole job is to make sure that you can use Qualtrics to its fullest potential.

Try calling the Qualtrics support line. A real person will answer. There isn’t a digital menu, and you won’t wait on hold. Instead, you’ll immediately be sent to the right person, and you can get the help you need.

But they’re proactive as well. They provide multiple free webinar trainings every day that any user may join. The topics vary. Every day, we provide a 1-hour introduction to Qualtrics Research Suite, but they also do advanced trainings that focus on specific topics.

If you aren’t interested in talking to a real person, they have also created an entire site (Qualtrics University) that includes articles and videos that are search-able and ready to help you.

They’re even putting the finishing touches on a few textbooks that teach research concepts and proficiency in Qualtrics products.

5. Qualtrics has been in the race from a very long time. What was the breakthrough point for Qualtrics?

The market changed. When we first got into this business as a SaaS who hosted user’s data in “the cloud”, we were a bit ahead of our time. The Internet was relatively new to the public, most people used dial-up connections, and Windows 98 was the operating system of choice in the United States. The idea of doing everything online was foreign to many.

As Internet access improved, new functions like emailed surveys and online panels became realistic and took over the research field. When this happened, Qualtrics had already partnered with many leading researchers to develop the best tools available.

6. Many of our readers are online business owners. What do you have to say to them about market research and conducting online surveys?

Research is for you! We have clients ranging from tiny cities with small budgets to the largest businesses and governments in the world. Each is making decisions based upon data, and therefore, knowing the outcome before a decision is made.

In the past, research was so expensive (and so dated by the time it reached you) that it was hard to use effectively. That is no longer the case.

We have users distributing surveys on the same day they sign a license with us. A two-week study is now a long one, not an impossibly short one. In one instance, we had a professional sports team collecting data during the first half, and making changes to the in-game music at halftime.

7. There are many other online survey companies. What makes Qualtrics stand apart?

See revision to Question 3.

8. What’s next? Would you like to share Qualtric’s future goals/plans with us?

There are a lot of amazing things coming out of Qualtrics.

We just launched two products, Qualtrics 360 and Site Intercept, both of which are game-changers in the business world.

Qualtrics 360 is the product of requests from the top business schools in the country. We were approached by leading business schools who said there was no product flexible enough to meet their needs.

We’ve launched it successfully and its in use by many leading business schools and a growing number of Fortune 500 corporations.

Site Intercept was developed with Xerox and completely changes the world on IT. Its designed to give a non-IT person control over their website content. It is in use with many leading businesses as well.