METHOD OF COLLECTING DATA FROM A SURVEY BY A SYSTEM

• US 20120282582A1
• Filed: 07/20/2012
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualtrics LLC (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: Qualtrics LLC (SAP SE)
• Inventors: RAO, BINDU RAMA
• Granted Patent: US 9,092,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

An electronic infrastructure consisting a plurality of client mobile devices, a distribution server and network that communicatively couples the plurality of client mobile devices and distribution server, wherein the distribution server collects survey questionnaires from a questionnaire source, distributes survey questionnaire to the plurality of client mobile devices. Then, the distribution server receives responses from the users of plurality of client mobile devices and analyses the responses based upon several criteria. The criteria include region based analysis, race based analysis, age based analysis, other criteria based analysis, high priority analysis and/or satisfaction level analysis.

Claims

1. A method of collecting data from a survey by a system to generate insights into people'"'"'s behavior, the method comprising:

creating an survey online or uploading the survey, by a survey source, wherein the survey comprises multiple questions that can be presented one question at a time;

specifying number of responses desired and one or more criteria for identifying targets for the survey;

delivering or presenting the survey to users, based on the one or more criteria, to the targets identified;

gathering user responses to the presented survey by presenting each of a plurality of responders individually one question at a time; and

automatically aggregating user responses from the plurality of responders into a raw data, analyzing user responses to generate a survey results, providing the raw data and the survey results back to a survey source through an online interface or via email.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a profile with demographic information associated with the one of the plurality of responders, or a reference to a profile with demographic information associated with that responder, is communicated along with the user responses, wherein the profile comprises one or more items from the set comprising a name, age, employment, address, phone numbers, race, political affiliations, salary, family size, ideology, military background and team affiliations.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein survey results are delivered to the survey source as they come in, or optionally staggered across multiple aggregated deliveries.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein survey results comprise statistical figures to summarize and interpret responses, highlight regional trends, correlation to other behavior of responders, correlation to other preferences of the plurality of responders and correlation to educational level of the plurality of responders.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the survey results comprise:

information highlighting differences in responses based on age, gender, region, experiences, ideology, military background, team affiliations, race, political affiliations, salary, and family size; and

information obtained by statistical methods applied on the responses to arrive at various statistical figures; and

statistically significant information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more criteria for identifying targets for the survey comprises one or more items from the set comprising age, employment, address, phone numbers, race, political affiliations, salary, family size, ideology, military background and team affiliations.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing an incentive for the plurality of respondents to not only provide answers to the survey but also provide details of themselves in a profile;

collecting, automatically, responder information for the plurality of responders that is relevant to the survey and using it to generate results for the survey, and also using it to determine targets for other surveys, to correlate with other behavior of the plurality of responders, as well as to analyze responses received from those other surveys and to generate other results.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

accepting payments for distributing a survey;

specifying criteria tags to assist distribution and to identify the type of analysis required on the responses received and on the results reported.

9. A client for an electronic device to collect data from a survey distributed by a system, the client comprising:

a user account associated with the user, a demographic profile associated with the user or the demographic profile reference associated with the user stored in the electronic device;

the client communicates with a distribution server that supports delivery of a survey to the client and processes responses from the client;

the client receives a survey from the distribution server and displays it to a user for selection;

the client solicits user'"'"'s input for the survey, receives the user'"'"'s input and gathers a response; and

the client communicates the response to the distribution server along with the user account, the demographic profile or the demographic profile reference.

10. The client of claim 9 wherein the demographic profile reference is a URN stored in at least one of a web portal, a server, a database and a local file.

11. The client of claim 9 wherein the client locally stores the received survey, displays the survey one question at a time even when the client is communicatively uncoupled from the distribution server, receives the user'"'"'s input and stores it locally until the user indicates completion, subsequently creates the response and finally communicates it to the distribution server when communicatively coupled to the distribution server, along with the user account, the demographic or the demographic profile reference.

12. The client of claim 9 wherein the survey comprises at least one question, the client further comprising:

the client soliciting selection by a user of an agreement level during the display of one of the at least one question by prompting the user to select at least one level of agreement from the set comprising ‘

Strongly Agree’

, ‘

Somewhat Agree’

, ‘

Neutral’

, ‘

Somewhat Disagree’ and

‘

Strongly Disagree’

.

13. The client of claim 9 wherein the survey comprises at least one question, the client further comprising:

the client prompting the user to select high priority issues from a list of issues presented to the responder during the display of one of the at least one question in the survey, making it possible for the distribution server to not only determine the issues that interest the user but also to determine which issues interest the respondents the most across all respondents to the survey.

14. A system for distributing surveys, collecting data and generating insights into people, the system comprising:

a distribution server, communicatively coupled to mobile devices and computers of users, that facilitates creation, by a survey source, of a survey online as well as the uploading of the survey, wherein the survey comprises multiple questions that can be presented one question at a time;

a database to store and retrieve the survey;

the distribution server facilitating the specification, and storage in the database, of number of responses desired and of one or more criteria used to identify targets for the survey;

the distribution server delivering or presenting online the survey to users based on the one or more criteria, wherein the users their corresponding employ mobile devices and computers to interact with the distribution server;

the distribution server gathering user responses to the presented survey and storing them in the database, or selectively communicating them to an external server associated with the survey source; and

the distribution server automatically aggregating user responses into a raw data, analyzing the raw data to generate a survey results, and providing the raw data and survey results to the survey source via email or through an online interface that is accessible by the external server.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

the distribution server receives a profile associated with a corresponding user, or a reference to a profile associated with corresponding user, along with the user responses communicated by the mobile devices and computers communicatively coupled to the distribution server; and

the distribution analyzes the results employing the profile associated with the corresponding users, wherein the profile for each of the users comprises one or more items from the set comprising name, age, employment, address, phone numbers, race, political affiliations, salary, family size, ideology, military background and team affiliations.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the distribution server delivers the survey to users based on the profile of the users and the one or more criteria set by the source for the survey.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein a subset of the users are determined to be targets for the survey based on their demographic profile data that is saved in the database, received from mobile devices or computers of the users, or accessible from an external server that manages demographic profile data.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein survey results comprise statistical figures to summarize and interpret user responses, highlight regional trends, highlight correlation to other behavior of responders, determine correlation to other preferences of responders and to determine correlation to educational level of responders.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein the survey results comprise:

information highlighting differences in responses based on age, gender, region, experiences, ideology, military background, team affiliations, race, political affiliations, salary, and family size;

information obtained by statistical methods applied on the responses to arrive at various statistical figures; and

statistically significant information.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein the survey also provides downloadable content such as an image, an audio and a video clip that the users can download and store locally in their respective mobile devices or computers.