Surveys Vs Polls

From customer experience surveys to friend’s social media polls these days it seems everyone wants your opinions. But what is the difference between a poll and a survey? 

[As an aside, neither one is crowdsourcing which is another approach to collecting perceptions with MANY limitations…we will address in a different blog post]

Let’s start with the similarities:

First – and in general – surveys and polls capture or gather people’s opinions about a subject or experience. This can range from opinions about a product or service to beliefs about socio-cultural issues or intentions toward a certain behavior. No matter the topic, surveys and polls share the goal of gathering information like feedback and opinions from a particular group of people.

Second, surveys and polls often rely on closed-ended questions – meaning they ask questions and provide a scale or set of options to select from; “On a scale of “strongly satisfied” to “strongly dissatisfied” how would you rate your experience?” And “On a scale of “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” how much do you agree with the following statements?”

Third, surveys and polls can be conducted in a variety of shared ways such as by phone, mail, and the internet, but also on street corners or in malls. Have you ever been stopped by someone standing outside of a grocery store or on your way out of an event that asks you about your experience? Those quick questionnaires are examples of the kind of quick information that can be gathered in surveys and polls.

So, how do we tell the difference between these two tools? 

1) Look at the length of the questionnaire AND the depth of the questions asked. Generally, surveys are multi-variable questionnaires that help you understand your target audiences while polls focus on just one question (maybe two) to get a snapshot of your audience’s opinion on a given subject. For example, let’s say your organization is working on improving its community communication – a survey would ask multiple questions that address multiple variables or factors related to your organization’s community communication, like knowledge about the organization, the channels of communication people use to gather information about the organization, and perceptions about the quality and quantity of the information given in the organization’s community communications. A poll, however, would be one or two quick questions that ask about one variable and capture just a snapshot of the topic. For example, your organization might poll its community members about a recent message – something like, “Have you seen this message?” and “On which channel or platform did you see it?” The big differences here are the quantity and depth of questions.

 2) Surveys and polls both generally rely on close-ended questions, but they differ in the types of questions asked. For example, polls usually rely on single-choice, multiple-choice, or open-ended text questions, while surveys use a range of question types such as multiple-choice, ratings, matrix, ranking questions, and more. 

3) Surveys and polls differ in their overall purpose and intended use. Polls are generally used to make a simple and quick decision as they consume less time and resources. Surveys are used when you need to make a detailed analysis of the responses gathered. This relates to the depth of data and information gathered, but this also speaks to the purpose of the data and why it’s being gathered – do you need quick, surface-level data to make a decision, or do you need more capture various dimensions of feedback and multi-layered data to inform your decision? The type of information you need drives which tool you use. 

To summarize: 

Surveys and polls can look a lot alike as they commonly ask for people’s opinions and experiences, they rely heavily on quick short-answer or closed-ended questions, and we often find them in the same places or on the same channels, like online or via calls or text messages. However, their differences lie in their length, depth of questions, and overall purpose. Remember that polls are short, surface-level assessments that get a snapshot of people’s opinions or experiences, while surveys are longer, more in-depth assessments that ask about multiple variables and dimensions of a topic. Importantly, both of these types of tools can help you gather much-needed data to inform progress, change, and/or make decisions.

Elevator Pitch Your Strategic Plan

An elevator pitch is a concise summary that communicates a clear idea of a person, a business, a product, or a service within a short amount of time. Usually the elevator pitch can be shared within the span of a quick elevator ride - think one or two floors, not a whole skyscraper!

How do you communicate the idea of your strategic plan to others? 

Can everyone in your school community explain the essence and focus of the strategic plan?

To start, ask your leadership team the following questions that address the purpose for communicating the plan, what the plan is for, and its unique “selling” proposition (i.e., how the plan is different from what exists elsewhere). Then combine the answers into a single “pitch.”

1. What do you want others to know and remember about the strategic plan? Why this focus and why now?

2. What makes the school’s strategic plan unique to your institution?

Combine the answers in a 30-second statement (or two) that would make sense to someone who doesn’t live in the community or doesn’t know anything about your school. An extra consideration: can you give your pitch to a student and will the student understand the purpose of the plan?

Let’s think about a sample institution that identified the need to increase graduation through persistence and retention efforts. There was a completion gap between first generation students and other students. The strategic plan prioritized persistence to improve outcomes for students. Here is a sample “elevator pitch”:

At Sample University, we recognize that students, especially first generation students, have barriers to completing their academic goals so our five-year strategic plan focus is on persistence, specifically removing obstacles to making progress and providing supports that address each student’s needs.

What do you want others to know and remember about the strategic plan? The University wants each student to succeed.

Why this focus and why now? Students - especially first generation students - are not meeting academic goals.

What makes the school’s strategic plan unique to your institution? Plan is based on evidence (“we recognize”) of need and efforts include removing obstacles and providing supports - for each student it serves.

Bonus: Create a Tagline

Sometimes there isn’t enough time to give the whole elevator pitch so what is a short tagline can be delivered and used as a way to brand your plan.

A tagline is a final thought that sticks with others. What is the core focus or priority of the plan? A good idea is to have your shared-decision making team or a team with representatives from all groups identify this central idea. Can students embrace the central theme as much as the Board or staff or the families? Can businesses and local organizations see a role in the plan based on the tagline?

In Byron-Bergen Central School District located in western New York, their strategic plan tagline and district mantra is “Many Bees, One Hive,” coined by an administrator during planning meetings. The school mascot is a bee, and the priority of the plan is consistency and collaboration to ensure everyone feels a sense of belonging in the district. Thus, the tagline embodies the core theme of the plan and resonates with all stakeholders.

In our sample school described earlier, the tagline “Pursue, Persist, Prosper” could communicate that students attend the school to pursue their goals, the institution is focused on helping them persist toward their goals, and in doing so, they will prosper. Another idea could be “Clear the Way Everyday” emphasizing that the purpose of the plan is to remove obstacles to achieving success, and it has to be the focus or the lens by which everyone operates on a daily basis, not just when an issue arises or when it is on a meeting agenda.

To work with Alla Breve and get your institution L.A.S.E.R. focused,

fill out the form here and let’s get started!