SurveyGold guides you through the process of creating and conducting your survey with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and familiar features that help you get the results you want, quickly and easily...with no additional charges.  

SurveyGold Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I create web surveys?

• How do web surveys work?

• Can I customize the way my web survey looks?

• Which kind of license do I need to purchase? Individual? Site?

• What kind of questions can I create?

• What is the privacy policy regarding web survey responses collected via the SurveyGold web site?

• Are there limits to the size of a question, a response, or the number of questions or responses?

• Can I conduct more than one survey at a time?

• Are there any additional costs associated with SurveyGold process my web survey responses?

• Where can I purchase SurveyGold?

Q: Can I create surveys for the web?

 

A: Yes. SurveyGold can create a web survey form. It is a single web page that can be placed on any web server on the planet. It can also be distributed as an email attachment or (for surveys of staff at a particular organization) placed in a common network folder. 

 

The web survey form that SurveyGold creates can process submitted responses in one of two ways.

 

Web Survey Processing Option 1: Receive Responses Via Email
SurveyGold emails survey responses directly to you. This is ideal for online registration forms and questionnaires that do not require analysis. If you choose this option and want to report and analyze the results, you must enter the results manually via the Conduct Survey feature of SurveyGold.

 

Web Survey Processing Option 2: Automatically Collect Responses
SurveyGold automatically collects web survey responses into the product for analysis and reporting. This feature, referred to as a "round-trip" web survey, eliminates the manual entry of survey responses into the product.

 

Distributing Your Web Survey
Your SurveyGold web survey form is a single file that can be distributed in the following ways:

• On your web server - ideal for surveying respondents via the Internet
• On a network folder - ideal for surveying respondents within your organization
• Via an email attachment - ideal for when a web server or file server is not available

 

Customize Your Web Survey
You can customize the look and feel of your web survey form. Choose your own color and font preferences. Specify which questions are required and which are optional. You can even use display your own custom confirmation message. SurveyGold web survey forms optionally provide a "ballot-box stuffing" feature which prevents a respondent from submitting more than one set of responses to your survey. 

 

Easy Does It
No knowledge of HTML or web programming is required. Users inside of companies do not have to hassle with getting Information Technology staff involved as there is no software to install on your network servers. No email program is required for the respondent who is completing the survey. You can conduct any number of web surveys at the same time. SurveyGold keeps track of which responses go with which surveys.

Q: How do web surveys work?

A: Web surveys can be processed in one of two ways. Both ways require that the respondent's browser be connected to the Internet at the time they push the Submit Your Responses button in the web survey form. This is because the program (called a script) that processes the responses resides on the surveygold.com web site.

 

The first way a web survey response can be processed is via email. Simply said, when the respondent clicks on the Submit Your Responses button in a web survey form, the responses are emailed immediately to the survey originator. (Note, unless you are conducting surveys for someone else, you are normally the survey originator.) SurveyGold knows the email address of the survey originator because it requires it at the time the web survey is created. The net result is a message in the survey originator's email In Box that contains web survey responses from a particular respondent. These responses must then be manually entered (via the Conduct Survey tab) into the SurveyGold product in order to create reports, analyze results, export to Excel, etc. 

 

The second way, referred to as a "round-trip" web survey, provides relief from the re-entry of responses into SurveyGold. When a respondent clicks the Submit Your Responses button in a web survey form, the responses are stored temporarily in a file on the SurveyGold web site. Each newly submitted web survey creates yet another file. For example, if 50 people submit responses, then 50 web survey response files get created on the SurveyGold web site. These files are in a folder that only the survey originator can access. To be more specific, the only way to access this folder is via the survey originator's SurveyGold product by clicking the Get Web Responses button in the CONDUCT SURVEY tab. (It couldn't be easier or more secure.) 

 

Here is what happens when the survey originator clicks on the Get Web Responses button in SurveyGold:

1. SurveyGold connects to the surveygold.com web site
2. SurveyGold downloads each web response file to the PC
3. SurveyGold permanently deletes each web response file from the surveygold.com web site
4. SurveyGold automatically imports the contents of each web response file into the SurveyGold product that resides on the survey originator's PC.

 

Q: Can I customize the way my web survey looks?

A: SurveyGold provides you with many options for customizing the look a web survey. For questions with choices, you can customize how they appear via the Response Style tab in the question properties sheet. Here you can specify the number of responses required. If "Only one response" is selected, the choices can be displayed as either radio buttons or a drop-down menu. If "Any number of responses" is selected (or if you enter a number other than 1), the choices can be displayed as either checkboxes or a drop-down menu allowing multiple responses. 

 

For questions without choices, you can also customize how those responses appear via the Response Style tab in the question properties sheet. Here you can specify the number of responses required. If "Only one response" is selected, the response field can be displayed as one-line text box or a scrolling text box. If you require a specified number of responses, enter that number and SurveyGold creates that number of response fields as either a one-line text box or a scrolling text box depending upon which you choose. If "Any number of responses" is selected, SurveyGold creates three response fields as either a one-line text box or a scrolling text box depending upon which you choose. 

 

You can also choose color and font preferences for every type of element in the web survey form. You can even define your own custom visual formats and recall them for later use on any web survey form.

Q: Which kind of license do I need to purchase? Individual? Site?

 

A: Simply said, each author must purchase a SurveyGold license. An "author" is someone who defines surveys, conducts surveys, collects responses and creates reports using collected survey responses. SurveyGold licenses may be purchased on an individual license or site license basis. Determining which kind of license you need to purchase comes down to the following factors:

 

• Are you purchasing as an individual or on behalf of a business/institution?
• If you are purchasing SurveyGold for an institution:
  • How many people need to author surveys?
  • At how many sites do you wish to install the SurveyGold software. 
    (The term "site" does not refer to a web site. Rather, it refers to a 
    specific geographic location where the computers that you will install 
    SurveyGold upon exist.)

   

The following chart recommends the correct type and quantity of licenses to purchase.

 

Which Kind Of SurveyGold License Do I Need To Purchase?   Purchasing For Number of Survey Authors Number of Sites Recommendation Individual 1 -   Individual License Business/Institution 1 -   Individual License Business/Institution 2 - 12 1   Individual Licenses Business/Institution 13 or more 1   Site License Business/Institution 13 or more More than 1   Individual Licenses*

 

Individual License
An individual license allows you to install SurveyGold on a specific author's computer. So, if you are an individual or are the only person in your business/institution that needs to author surveys, then you only need one individual license. If multiple people in your business/institution need to author surveys, then you need to purchase one individual license for each of those authors. . 

 

Note: It is not necessary to purchase a site license to conduct web surveys. You can conduct web surveys with an individual license.

 

Site License
If you have more than 12 people at a specific location who need to author surveys, then it is more economical to purchase a site license. A site license allows you to install SurveyGold on any computer at a specific site. .

 

*Volume Discount on Purchases of 13 or More Individual Licenses
If your needs require SurveyGold to be installed at multiple locations within the same organization (e.g., geographically disbursed offices or campuses), then you may consider either purchase a site license for each location or you may purchase multiple individual licenses at a discount. When purchasing 13 or more individual licenses, volume discounts apply.

Q: What kinds of questions can I create?

A: SurveyGold supports the following kinds of questions:

• single-choice

• multiple-choice

• ranking

• fill-in-the-blank (up to 16,000 characters per response)

 

While conducting a phone or paper-based survey, SurveyGold also allows you to capture any comments a respondent may make or write on the survey form.

 

When conducting a web survey, questions and respondent data fields can be specified as required or optional. If you choose to make some questions or respondent data fields required, then the web survey form can only be submitted successfully when all required questions or respondent data fields are completed by the respondent. If a respondent inadvertently omits a required question or respondent data field when they click the "Submit Your Responses" button, they are informed of the missing information and prompted to complete the required fields. 

 

Note: SurveyGold automatically creates a politely-phrased message instructing the respondent which required web survey fields are missing and how to go back and complete them. If you prefer, you can also specify your own custom message.

 

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Q: Are there limits to the size of a question, a response, or the number of questions or responses?

 

A: SurveyGold excels in this area. SurveyGold organizes surveys into groups of questions called sections. Each survey must contain at least one section. A section can have an unlimited number of questions. There is no limit to the number of respondents that can participate in a survey. There is no limit to the number of choices for a given question. There is no limit to the number of individual responses that you can allow for a given question.

 

Questions can be phrased with up to 16,000 characters. Likewise, each individual response provided by a respondent to a question can be up to 16,000 characters. This applies even if a question allows multiple responses to a question. Each individual response can be up to 16,000 characters in length. So, there is really no practical limit to the length of an individual response.

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Q: Can I conduct more than one survey at a time?

 

A: Absolutely! You can conduct as many surveys concurrently as you like. You can even conduct the same survey using the Web, paper questionnaires and over the phone.

 

Regarding Web surveys, SurveyGold automatically detects which responses are associated with a particular survey. When you download responses by clicking the "Get Web Responses" button, SurveyGold automatically associates the responses with the appropriate survey for reporting and analysis.

 

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Q: Are there any additional costs associated with SurveyGold process my web survey responses?

 

A: The only cost to you is the price of the software. Unlike other web survey software products, there are no pay-per-response charges. You may conduct any number of surveys for yourself or others with a single copy of SurveyGold.

 

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Q: Where can I purchase SurveyGold?

A: Golden Hills Software, Inc. distributes and sells SurveyGold exclusively via the Internet.  The product operates in a 30-day time trial mode. When you purchase a product license you receive a registration code which you enter into the product. This ends the time trial mode for the product that you downloaded from surveygold.com. Any survey data you have defined or collected during the trial period is not lost.

 

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In Brief

• compares SurveyGold to the competition.
• Google show you examples of web surveys created with SurveyGold.

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