Are surveys useful or should you have the conversation instead?

Karen Meadows, Owner of Safety In Action, is looking at launching a new service for parents who are considering which pre-school nursery to send their children to and we have been talking about how best to find out whether the service is one that is in demand. We both think so but what is the most accurate and speedy way to find out?  

Karen is thinking of using Survey Monkey to put together a questionnaire that can be sent out to parents. Whilst an online version may be quick in terms of collating the results for Karen, it may be that going into places where groups of parents can be spoken to face to face would result in a more compelling conversation with Karen and she can find out much more about the types of things that affect the parents decision.

Its got me thinking about the value of the conversation...and does Karen need numbers and figures to give the new project the go ahead or juicy indepth content that will help shape the project? I would be interested to know if anyone else has used online surveys at the product development stage –and were they useful? Or do you think face to face conversations are the way to go?

You can find out more about Karen Meadows and Safety In Action here