Everyone loves a snippet of information from a survey to get an insight or an interesting metric that may assist them in their everyday personal life or business activities.

Surveys are not all encompassing and not defacto…  I am sure I have not burst your bubble on that statement…

So why are surveys used? – simply because they are a cost-effective way to gather data from large samples. Whilst not perfectly accurate, they can still provide valuable insights into people’s and companies’ attitudes and behaviours.

Surveys can be both qualitative and quantitative, depending on the type of questions they use.  Quantitative surveys use closed-ended questions with predefined answer options (like multiple choice, rating scales, or yes/no), which generate numerical data that can be analyzed statistically.  Qualitative surveys, on the other hand, use open-ended questions that allow for in-depth, descriptive responses, often in the form of written text.

Surveys can be small and concise or large and all-encompassing – they take considerable time and effort to formulate, further effort to replicate in an online survey tool or application, and then extensive effort to take the respondent data and produce something informative, interesting, and insightful.

Whilst producing surveys is extensive and time-consuming, answering and responding to a survey also takes time and effort.

Surveys take effort – from the production of the survey to the responding of the survey – I fully understand and respect that.

Pulling on someone else’s research from a survey, the average attention span for adults suggests a typical concentration span on a task is between 15 to 20 minutes.

So if that is the case, all surveys need to be completed within 10-12 minutes to be safe that the survey will be completed and answers are accurate. Surveys also need to be targeted in their content, including the targeting of the potential respondents, as they are the ultimate audience of the outcome/report that will be produced.

You have done it I am sure, I have done it I know, started a survey…  after a quick active start and flourish of concentration and positivity… effort and willingness starts to wane and you may not even finish or complete the survey before abandoning for a caffeine infusion, call of nature or distraction on your phone. There are many reasons this may occur, the incentive to respond (a discount, prize, etc.) has swayed your initial eagerness to respond, the duration of the survey is simply too long, the questions not relevant, the content of the survey is not of interest to you…

Survey success rely solely on the respondent’s willingness to give some of their precious time to answer the survey and also rely on the detail the respondents are willing to provide and how truthful, detailed, open, and accurate the answers are. Therefore, the survey needs to be relevant to the respondent.

Being personally involved in undertaking the formulation of surveys with Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), I fully understand the considerable efforts that go into producing a study, but that effort is sadly wasted if we cannot persuade respondents to open that survey link.

So I call upon you, when you get that survey request through via an email, phone call, or LinkedIn message, that the topic of the survey is in your domain, triggers an immediate interest, is linked to your work responsibilities, do not be annoyed, scared, or indifferent, but think…

'I could possibly assist here, I could multi-task, maybe whilst I get that much needed coffee and contribute to this survey and get some insights back from my peers'. 

Your time spent now may provide some insight later when you see the consolidated responses, maybe individuals or companies are approaching things differently, maybe some questions have highlighted aspects you have not thought about, maybe you will be satisfied that your own activities are represented elsewhere by your peers…

CFCA recently undertook a focused survey on Account Takeover Fraud (ATO), the report is available to CFCA members.

CFCA have now launched their more comprehensive Fraud Loss Survey, This has been optimized to ensure only minimal time is needed to respond

The CFCA Survey Task Force need your input, CFCA Carrier members, please get in touch with fraud@cfca.org and support this great initiative.