When thinking about Groundhog Day, many of us conjure up that Bill Murray movie where an irascible TV weatherman gets stuck — not only in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — but in time. His day repeats endlessly until he learns from his experience.

As research technologists and as survey practitioners, we suggest doing what Bill Murray’s character did: take a close look at your research process and those flawed surveys and find ways to improve them. Rather than living through the same challenges over and over again, why not use technology to adjust your processes. You don’t have to relive your research nightmares.

Just as the groundhog emerges refreshed after a long winter’s nap, market researchers can now welcome a day where technology is changing the way we operate. New solutions streamline cumbersome processes, real time data collection reduces man hours, and responsive design makes collection tools and information available across multiple channels and many devices. It’s time to be creative with our tools to think bigger and smarter.

At Jibunu we open the door for researchers to use new tools and features to customize their content. We allow them to experiment with creative ways to gather, process, and report on information. As a result, they are seeing stronger sustained interest in their surveys and better completion rates. Not to mention, lower man hours and more time focusing on what is most important.

Here are some of the many tools that might help:

• CLONE (Consistent Layout, Only New Elements) : If you’re running very similar studies over and over again, CLONE can lift the burden of recreating the wheel each time. We can create efficient templates, reusable frameworks, and automated survey update tools that can save you time and money. These can be used again and again, modified as needed, with a faster turnaround and lower cost for you.
• CATE (Client Adjustable Testing Environment): Don’t test the same things over and over again. With CATE, skip past sections that are already complete and test only the things you need. CATE also features a language toggle, allowing you to switch languages. This allows you to test changes quickly, without having to go through the survey for each language.
• ReGG (Respondent Grid Generator) : This Excel-based tool allows those working with data to quickly and easily create sheets only containing the most important pieces of information for all respondents. ReGG is often used when running qualitative screeners, and all the data you need will be right at your fingertips in an easy-to-use format. Also, as new data is added to the tool, the grid updates automatically using the preferences from your convenient one-time setup.
• STAN (Scheduling Tool with Automatic Notification): Don’t rely on asking respondents their 2 or 3 preferred interview times and having them all pick the same ones. STAN will show your respondents only the time slots remaining, removing the risk of double booking. Once a time slot is selected, STAN will immediately remove the option so future respondents can’t select it.

All in all, no one wants 4 more pages of survey questions any more than they want 6 more weeks of winter. So make like the groundhog. Step out of the dark, wake up to the possibilities, and embrace the dawn of new research technology. Without a shadow of a doubt, we think you’ll love it.