Google is a great resource for finding information on the web, but did you know it is also a great resource for getting information from your coworkers?  Through Google Drive’s Forms tool, you can make fantastic and quick survey’s to poll your staff or clients, and easily view the results with little effort.  And the best part is that it’s completely free.  All it takes is a Google account.

First you setup a Gmail account, and if you aren’t already using Gmail for your personal email, shame on you!  Once that’s done you head over to http://drive.google.com.  Here is where you have access to Google’s suite of programs, like Docs, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, and of course, Form.

Once you select Form, you will have the ability to name it and choose a theme.  You can then start creating your survey questions, and Google provides no shortage of ways to do that.  You are able to adjust the question title, any instructions you wish to accompany it, the question type, and the possible choices if there are multiple answers.  You are also able to make questions required, so that staff cannot continue until they have answered it.  The question types include:

  • Text Box
  • Paragraph Text (simply a larger text box)
  • Multiple Choice
  • Checkboxes
  • Choose From a List
  • Scale Grid
  • Date
  • Time

You can even add page break and section headers, allowing you to separate questions into groups by topic, or simply to not overwhelm your staff.  Questions can be rearranged on the form simply by dragging and dropping where you want them to go.

Once you are finished creating all the questions for your survey you have only one step before you are ready to send this out.  At the top you will see an area that says “choose response destination”.  This is basically asking where the answers to the survey should go. Google makes this very easy.  Simply click that button, and a box will come up prompting you create a Google Spreadsheet to store the data in.  You hit Create, and it is ready.  You can now Click “View Live Form” at the top to see your survey.  The link on the top of the live form is what you want to place on your website or intranet site, or email to your coworkers to be filled out. Make sure not to send them the URL of your editing page.

 

Once you get some responses in, the button that used to say “Choose Response Destination” will now say “View Responses”. When you click it, a spreadsheet will open up.  From here you can filter the responses, color code them, make notes, and print it all out.

This tool is incredibly simple but effective and robust.  There is no reason you shouldn’t be using it to gather more information on your staff, from your partners, and especially from your customers.

Feel Free to take my test survey here.