The question remains: why is a website is so incredibly important to companies. After all, they could simply stick to a web presence on social media platforms by maintaining a Facebook or Instagram page. According to Facebook statistics on Statista, social media platforms had more than 2 billion monthly active users in the last quarter. Statista also reports that Instagram had more than 1 billion monthly active users in the last month alone. These are some pretty impressive numbers.  So, why do organisations still struggle with designing and building websites? It turns out, there are, in fact, a number of reasons. The Benefits of a Professional Business Website Unlike a social media business page, your website is your main communication channel with your prospective and actual customers, leaving it fully up to you how you use it to communicate. Platforms will specify certain guidelines and rules of conduct, as well as predefined features that allow you to communicate in restricted ways. Your website belongs to you.  You carry responsibility, hence, you decide how it is used. Customer communication possibilities are endless, ranging from chats, forums, ticket systems, marketing campaigns, emails, surveys, phone contact, content in the shape of whitepapers and case studies and much more. In today's digitised world, the majority of online shoppers conduct searches and draw comparisons before purchasing products or booking services. In addition, the higher the investment in a product or service, the more extensive this research phase tends to be. It is, therefore, extremely important that you provide a website that remains greatly optimised for search engines to ensure that your pages will rank high on the search engine results page when someone is looking for your products and services. When it comes to search engine optimisation, you have many more possibilities and exposure when ranked with your own website as opposed to business pages on platforms. Your own website gives you full control over design, functions and content while lowering your dependence in terms of vulnerabilities and instabilities on other platforms. Full customisation and personalisation with regard to branding and website structure are great ways to emphasize your professionalism and company mission. Any website functions imaginable are possible with the appropriate code and can be implemented with your own preference and initiative. This gives you great power and flexibility to be creative with your site and, if necessary, redesign whenever you want. Two of the most crucial factors for winning new customers and retaining existing customers are trust and credibility. To ensure you are conveying a trustworthy and credible image outward, you require a professional, transparent and coherent website, as it is usually the first point of contact a prospective customer makes with your business and brand. You will then become a part of people’s brand awareness.  And if you can subsequently impress with a great product or service experience to visitors who become customers, you will have a shot at becoming the top-of-mind awareness brand. A Website is a Never Done Once your website has been set up and is live, it is important to be aware that it will never be fully completed. There is always work to do.  There are always changes to be implemented regarding the optimisation for search engine indexing, as well as for facilitating usability and improving user experience. Ways of boosting your search engine rank can be studied and applied by going through endless literature and content on search engine optimisation (SEO). However, making your website easier to navigate and access is a trickier endeavour. To truly understand how your visitors feel about the experience on your website, you will need to ask them first-hand. Our best suggestion? Run a website feedback survey on a frequent basis and get results about your website over time to identify weak points and determine the effectiveness of your implemented changes. We also have a great template you may use which we will walk you through in this article. Setting up a Website Feedback Survey There are several aspects of a website that need to be taken into consideration when considering its impact on visitors and customers, such as comprehensibility, aesthetics and navigation ease. We have incorporated all these vital aspects into our website feedback survey template to help ensure that you receive the well-rounded feedback necessary to improve your website. "How often do you visit our website?": This question aims at getting more data on the frequency of a person's website visits to determine the degree of familiarity with your page. The more frequently someone visits your website, usually the better these people know what it has to offer due to more and oftentimes longer page sessions.   "How well do you rate the following aspects of our website?": This array question provides respondent feedback on the quality of many website essentials such as design, search function, navigation, content and more. This will give you an idea of which parts or functions are rated poorly and require some attention.   "How easy was it for you to find what you were looking for on the website?": This question in combination with its follow-up question ("In the end, did you find what you were looking for?") help you learn what visitors think of the website navigation. The easier and more intuitive your website navigation, the easier it is for people to find what they are looking for.   "How easy was it for you to understand the information on our website?": Content comprehensibility is the central concept measured with this question. If you cannot properly convey your message to website visitors, they will not convert to customers and simply disappear, probably without ever returning. Scoring high on all these questions will boost your website visitor experience and increase your sales, possibly even induce high-quality word-of-mouth potential. If you are offering a product or service that truly adds value to peoples' lives, it’s that simple - an amazing website experience will lead to substantial and long-lasting business growth. LimeSurvey offers a Website Feedback Survey Template which includes the aforementioned questions. Since it is a template, it is fully editable and serves as a general survey framework. If you want to give us feedback, comments or suggestions regarding our website feedback survey template, feel free to send us an email.

Businesses, especially start-ups, are desperate “to start pushing for growth […] due to demands from taking venture capital or […] because the company needs to prove itself in order to raise capital, or generate revenue”* to survive. However, sustainable business growth requires a relevant company strategy which must not be ignored at the expense of fast and forceful growth initiatives. A company growth strategy should target not only short-term, but also long-term growth. Ultimately, any growth or strategy is contingent upon an organisation’s product or service and the market or customer it serves, i.e., the product-market-fit which is strongly impacted by the user experience (or UX). Often companies believe they know with utmost certainty which features or aspects of a product or service their customers will love; however, in most cases they are wrong. This is a core reason for 90% of all start-ups worldwide failing and, thus, going out of business. Fortunately, for larger organisations, this will not lead to survival issues. Nevertheless, deciding on the wrong strategies may also lead to immense financial crises in larger enterprises. So how do you close this knowledge gap in order to achieve optimal product-market-fit and spark the required growth? Re-evaluating Product-Market-Fit Whether a company has just been founded and is in the start-up phase trying to figure out its place in the market and the true value of its product or service for potential customers, or whether a company is an established market player acting in a highly dynamic and competitive surrounding that is driven by constant innovation and new product releases, there is a constant need to re-evaluate a company’s product-market-fit to ensure ongoing business growth. In order to determine your product-market-fit, the product needs to possess a must-have status, meaning the product requires certain characteristics that a large group of people would love. This group of people is a pool of potential customers to convert. More specifically, “why is a product must-have and who must have it?".  In other words, what is a product’s core value, to which customers, and why?”* If a product has achieved the aforementioned must-have status, it becomes crucial to dig into user data to identify your product’s Aha! experience which will turn early customers into die-hard fans. The Aha! moment “is the moment that the utility of the product really clicks for the users; when the users really get the core value – what the product is for, why they need it, and what benefit they derive from using it”*, ergo matching the must-have product with the user’s perception and experience of the product’s value. The question remaining is how to find out whether your product is must-have and ultimately how it conveys the Aha! experience to your customers. Oftentimes, this is a tricky question to answer; however, a “must-have survey”* has been developed which can help address this challenge. This survey will ensure the collection of user feedback on customers’ product experience and evaluation of data for similarities, as well as patterns of how they use the product, i.e., in which way this generates the optimal value for them. Setting Up a Must-Have Survey The following survey questions are merely a framework for determining must-have status and the Aha! experience which were developed and successfully tested by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown. Modifications of these questions and the adding of further questions can be undertaken according to a company’s individual goals and context. However, this short survey will prove to be an effective guide on how to get started when measuring crucial metrics by addressing several items relevant to growth. If the answer option “Very Disappointed” in question 1 hits a response rate of at least 40%, chances are extremely good that your product has a must-have status. 25% to 40% response rate for that same answer option require some minor modifications to the product or communication. Anything less than 25% of very disappointed respondents requires major modifications to the product or target audience. Whether a must-have level has been achieved within the first question or not, the remaining questions can give good insights on your users’ impression and satisfaction with your product. Question 2 can deliver insights about your chief competitor from you customers’ point of view as well as desirable features and services said competitor offers. Question 3 may point to aspects of your business you should be focusing on to maintain or improve for your customers. Question 4 is the well-known Net Promoter Score to assess your customer satisfaction by means of your recommendation or word-of-mouth potential. Question 5 may help you uncover fitting customer niches to target effectively, and last but not least, question 6 “can identify both glaring issues with the product that make it a nonstarter for broad adoption and opportunities to enhance the product that the company might not have thought of on its own”.* By analysing and evaluating your must-have survey data, you should get a good idea of who your target audience is, what the core value of your product is to this audience and why they are in need of your product. At the same time, your customers are reminded of the quality of your business which reflects in the Aha! experience with your product. Maintaining your growth momentum As has been described in the previous sections, a small amount of market research in the form of a customer must-have survey can ensure a more effective product-market-fit before (!) a complete public launch and hence contribute to more strategic short-term as well as long-term growth. It is, however important to maintain the aforementioned momentum in a highly dynamic and innovative business environment by frequently, e.g., annually, taking a step back to get feedback on the strategic direction you are heading in by those that matter most to you - your customers. *Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown (2017): Hacking Growth; Crown Business, US.  

Hence, a Likert scale is the sum of responses on several Likert options. When conducting a survey, the response on a Likert scale represents either the intensity of agreement to disagreement ("Extremely agree" vs. "Extremely disagree") with the question statement, making it a bipolar rating method, or the intensity of just an agreement or just a disagreement ("Extremely agree" vs. "Not at all agree" or "Extremely disagree" vs. "Not at all disagree") with the question statement, making it a unipolar rating method. It can be designed as an uneven-point scale, e.g., a 5-point or 7-point scale, with a neutral middle option, or as an even-point scale, e.g., a 4-point or 6-point scale, omitting a neutral option and forcing a more positive or more negative response choice. Either of these two options require full symmetry, i.e., ensuring bilateral symmetric distances from an existing or an imaginary neutral option and equal numbers of positive and negative options. How to Present Likert Scales in Online Surveys Ultimately, a Likert scale question may be arranged vertically or horizontally. However, there have been researchers investigating the possibility of something called a left-side bias when displaying a Likert scale question horizontally. Essentially, left-side bias means that when placing answer options on the left side of the Likert scale, there is a tendency among respondents to select these options, said tendency being somewhat stronger for positive options on the left side than negative options. Furthermore, there has been equivalent research showing a similar, yet even stronger selection bias for vertical Likert scales as respondents tend to skip lower displayed answer options and more often select the top options. Based on these statements, certain scale layouts appear more suitable to avoid survey bias and sloppy question answering than others. Horizontal Likert Scale: According to the Likert scale bias matrix, to keep the bias as low as possible in a horizontal order, it appears best to place negative attitude options on the left side of the scale and positive attitude options on the right side of the scale. Vertical Likert Scale: According to the Likert scale bias matrix, to keep the bias as low as possible in a vertical order, it appears best to place negative attitude options at the top of the scale and positive attitude options at the bottom of the scale. In addition, Likert scales can be modified to hold 7 or more answer options depending on the level of refinement that is required for a specific question or survey. Horizontal 7-point Likert Scale: Vertical 7-point Likert Scale: Creating Likert Scales in LimeSurvey There are several possibilities in LimeSurvey to create Likert scale questions either in a horizontal or a vertical order. To create horizontal Likert scales with text items, you may, for instance, use the array or array dual scale question types. To create vertical Likert scales with text items, you may, for instance, use the radio button list or the dropdown list question types. If you find it difficult to come up with Likert scale items, check out this marvellous overview of different Likert scale items that measure a variety of different attitudes. When to use Likert Scales? Likert scales have a variety of purposes and advantages when used in online surveys. They are ideal to capture attitudes, opinions, emotions and feedback on virtually any topic. Likert scales are thereby great to get very specific on a topic rather than getting lost in generic questions. Furthermore, Likert scales are universally applicable, easily evaluated and quickly completed by respondents, thus, avoiding survey fatigue.  

Over the years, contextual experiences lead to personal preferences, which explains why most people rank and have a favourite colour.   Colours are highly attractive to us.  They stimulate brain activity and are processed in the visual cortex’s colour centre of our brains. Furthermore, they are powerful influencers, as they can set a certain mood, induce physiological processes or trigger certain behaviours. In fact, there is a widespread consensus among researchers that colours are essential to fields such as marketing, market research, branding etc. So how does this colour psychology apply to survey design and survey-taking?   Colours in surveys: beneficial or detrimental? Colours can be utilized in surveys in different ways and may evoke different emotional reactions. Font Colouring: adding colour to the font of your question texts or answer options Theme Colouring: customising the overall survey theme including, e.g., overall background colour, font colour, and question background colour Image Colouring: questions and answer options may both contain images and dispense with text altogether if desired These colouring options can be based on various motivations or goals. Logos with company colours, for instance, tend to aim at ensuring brand awareness and recognition. Organisational colours may dominate survey themes to elicit comfort and trust in respondents. Images within question texts or answer options may be used to visually simplify the effort for respondents when testing brand, packaging or advertisement alternatives. This is just a small fraction of possible areas where the use of colors can be applied.  However, determining the extent of benefits or detriments is strongly case-dependent. Factors that determine whether colours in surveys lead to higher or lower response rates and better or worse response quality are characteristics like target audience culture, residence, age, gender. There are also other factors such as survey format, e.g., a market research survey or a survey in the form of a quiz, a survey with a goal such as data retrieval or a survey for entertainment purposes. Therefore, the question remains whether to use colours in surveys, and if so, how to use them.   6 tips for using colours in surveys As there is a lack of research dedicated to colour usage within survey design and its implications towards response rates and data quality, we can’t profess to know the right way to deal with colours when creating a survey, as there is no scientific evidence to back it. Nevertheless, we have gathered 6 valuable tips that can give you a good orientation for the usage of colours in surveys to ensure a more strategic approach. A/B Test: If you are not certain whether to integrate specific colouring into your survey or not, there is always the possibility of A/B testing. Set up the same survey in different variations, i.e., split a survey into one with colour options and another with a more neutral look and feel. Test these on two smaller subgroups of your sample group to get an idea which version performs better. Readability: It is essential that text in your survey is easy to read. The lighter the font colour the harder it becomes to read. If you decide to use font colours, select darker colours, as they facilitate readability. Minimalist Design: When in doubt, go for a minimalist design when it comes to using colours in surveys rather than a maximalist design. Too many colours and images may create a cluttered effect, which looks unprofessional. Colour Contrasts: Make sure to apply colour contrasts in case you are working with background colours and font colours at the same time. I.e., avoid using the same colour for both elements, otherwise the text might become partially or fully invisible. Colour Intuition: Avoid a response bias by making a conscious effort to not use colours in a misleading way. For example, a coloured response scale should go hand in hand with an intuitive colour distribution. I.e., a more positive response expression (e.g., “Strongly agree”) should use green colour shades and not red ones, and vice versa for a more negative response expression (e.g., “Strongly disagree”). Colour Harmonisation: From a design perspective, it makes sense to combine colours that harmonise well to maximise the quality of the survey feel. Shades of the same colour, for instance, will harmonise better than using two or more bright colours from different ends of the colour palette.   Don’t forget to do your research! It is vital to do your homework before splashing colours around in your survey. Always bear in mind that colours can have completely different meanings in different countries and cultures. Hence, you have to be sensitive to your target audience's cultural background to avoid pitfalls and collect the best data possible in terms of quantity and quality. Fortunately, nowadays there is a wealth of information available on colours, cultures and psychology on the internet. For example, the creative platform Shutterstock, which provides images and videos to the public, has a good grasp on colours in media, as well as the emotional effects of colour, posted in a clear and insightful article on the Symbolism of colors and color meanings around the world. Check it out for yourself. Better safe than sorry!     If you want more useful tips and information, simply subscribe to our newsletter