Are Blog Surveys Useful?

I just took the survey about voice that was posted on the blog. I can't see how useful it is at all. It was clearly designed simply to show the hypothesis that X% use voice and X% find that it enhances SL. But I don't think it is helpful consumer feedback to LL at all.

The survey missed key questions like, "You've indicated that you have used voice. Now, how likely are you to continue to use voice in future interactions?"

Just seemed more self-serving for PR talking points, rather than customer feedback.

Have you taken any surveys here before? Did you feel the same way? Do you think LL is gaining insights from these and responding?

All surveys are useless.

Not big on surveys on the whole, but I took that one as well when I spotted it in the blog.

Took a couple of minutes.

As to what insights they might gain from it, no idea.
But I figured it wouldn't do any harm to try and be helpful.

Most all these polls are unscientific and self serving by design. If there is a professional pollster here I would beg them to come forward. Until then I just enjoy the pie.

67% of those polled agree with this statement.

-Atashi

Surveys are a good way to find out how popular a thought/opinion is and is only as good as the way its worded.

... among a very small propertion of the of the SL population. And polls are always worded badly.

A poll on how useful polls are?

Polls are nonsense. Surveys are nonsense. Opinions rock! Is it Friday yet?

Okay, so some surveys are okay.

all polls are useful... to spin doctors.

To uses a tired cliché (hey, its Friday and I’m tired..)

There are lies, damned lies and statistics…

.d

Self-serving PR talking points are extremely useful to any business. More so than actual feedback.

All? Every survey ever done? You would not be interested in getting customer feedback if you were selling large quatities of items and didn't want to personally speak with them all about how they feel about your product?
If you were selling an item and wanted to know out of 10,000 sales a month how many were women or under 40 so you could improve your marketing approach, how do you do it without surveys? Just talk to 10 random customers and base your apporach on that?
You're also not interested in assuring your customer that you want to improve your product to their needs, by listening to their opinion?
A customer being asked to fill out a survey whether they submit it or not gets a feeling you care about them. Those who don't may just think you are just another taker of their money selling just another product.

Yes, no, no, yes (I think), nope. I think my clients are happier simply getting a good product. They'd rather not get yet another bloody survey to fill in.

Survey takers and pollsters find out what they want to find out.

Surveys are useless to those who have to fill them in. Period. Always. Every single one.

You didn't specify earlier that you mean't they were useless to the people filling them in. Businesses don't do surveys for their customers' benefit - they don't do anything for their customers' benefit. Businesses use surveys to achieve a business goal. In this instance, having a statistic that they can point to in the media and say "X% of people think something or other is great! Buy stock in our company!"

Exactly. Say what you like about cynics, but they are usually right.

So LL are better off not surveying us at all,and just thinking their clients are happy with a good product.
And because we as customers don't want another bloody survey to fill in, they will get zero feedback anyway?

Come on, Tegg, do you actually think LL takes notice of surveys and what we want?
LL is very aware that it clients are not happy with many things. Will a survey help that? Help us? No.

Surveys are useless for anything other than empty PR. And if a company needs a survey to find out what it's doing wrong, it's a bloody useless company to begin with.

And doesn't LL already get plenty of feedback?

If you ever interacted with departments like accounts and purchasing you realise that for operations departments to fight them at an upper level you have to use numbers and data, otherwise you justend up saying "the customers feel this". The accounts dept say they can save $10k a month and the accounts get what they want and what THEY think the customer wants or will put up with.
It happens to many companies as they transition from small to meduim sized

*bump*

They're sending out emails with a link to a more meaningful follow-up survey:

Q: In general, how easy is it to use voice chatting features (including in-world voice chat, person-to-person, and group voice calls)?
A:
Easy: The interface is intuitive and well-organized; I can perform most tasks with ease.
Somewhat Difficult: The interface is moderately complex; basic tasks are easy but advanced functions are not.
Very Difficult: The user interface is confusing; I am unable to perform basic tasks or functions.
Technical difficulties have prevented me from using voice chat.

Q: How do you primarily use voice in Second Life? (pick one)
A:
In groups of fewer than five
In groups of more than five
For one-on-one conversations
When involved in an event (i.e. educational seminar)
I have it activated but I never use it
I have never activated or used voice

Q: Do you primarily use voice in Second Life for… ? (pick one or more)
A:
Business reasons
Socializing with friends
Educational and/or academic usage
For events (music, discussion groups, etc)
Other (please describe)
I do not use voice in Second Life

Q: If there were a way to modify or alter your voice to better match your avatar or inworld presence, would you be more interested in using voice?
A:
More
Less
No change

Q: Would you be interested in having a Second Life phone number that allows people to call your avatar from outside of Second Life?
A:
Yes
No

Q: Would you be interested in any of the following new voice mail related features? (choose one or more)
A:
Voice mailbox for your avatar with a phone number
Voice mailbox for your avatar without a specific phone number
Separate voice mailboxes for business and social related phone numbers
None of the above

Q: Would you be interested in a voice feature which allowed for text to speech mixing into the voice stream? (ie: your avatar would type something and the words would be spoken aloud by the software)
A:
Yes
No

Q: Would you be interested in a voice feature which allowed for speech to text conversion? (ie: you say something in voice and the words you spoke would be typed into the text chat)
A:
Yes
No

Q: Would you be interested in a voice feature which allowed you to record voice conversations/meetings and save them directly to your computer?
A:
Yes
No

Q: Would you be interested in a voice feature which allowed you to record voice conversations/meetings and have them hosted by an external service?
A:
Yes
No

Q: Which of the following voice features would you be willing to pay an additional fee to use in Second Life (pick one or more)?
A:
Use of a regular phone number that would reach you in Second Life
Use of voice mail in Second Life
Voice morphing or changing
Text to speech mixing (you type and your avatar "speaks"
Speech to text mixing (you speak and your avatar "types"
External voice and IM client (accessible on the web or your phone)
Externally hosted recording and transcription services
Ability to send SMS from Second Life to the "real world" (ie: outworld SMSing)
None of the above

Oh joy, more breathy, alto "woman" voices

Actually, in the very short time I have been flirting ... err, talking to the FC, I think I have already developed a reputation. If you heard my voice now it would be like seeing a RL photo (see thread) that is disparate from the AV. If they could remove the hick accent from my speech, I would pay more for that

Trouble with surveys is they are often crafted to reinforce the publishers viewpoint,
rather than allow a different outcome.

I must admit I took that voice survey and it was crafted to a narrow outcome of responses.

I found people tried it, but ever use it now and never in a pucblic place, mostly 1:1 privately