What makes a tool a true benchmark tool?
Almost every survey tool calls itself a benchmark tool somewhere these days. Usually it means: you can compare your overall score with an industry average from the vendor's database. That is useful, but it is something different from benchmark research as consultancies, industry associations and research agencies mean it.
In true benchmark research, every participant compares their own answers with those of similar organisations, and every participant receives a personal report of that comparison. The comparison is then not an extra for the client, but the core of what every participant gets in return. That is the difference to watch for when comparing tools: who gets to see the comparison, only you or all of your participants?
Category 1: the survey platforms
SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Survalyzer and comparable platforms are first and foremost survey software. Benchmarking here means: setting your results against industry figures from the vendor's own database, for example for employee engagement or customer satisfaction. SurveyMonkey has a separate feature for this, Qualtrics sells it as XM Benchmarks.
These platforms are a fine choice if you mainly want to send out surveys and do the analysis yourself. The limitation: the participant gets nothing back except a thank-you page, and the comparison is based on someone else's data, not on your own participant group.
Category 2: the assessment tools
Pointerpro and Scoreapp are one step closer: here the participant does get something back. With Pointerpro you build an assessment or scan yourself and every participant receives an automatically composed PDF with their own scores. Scoreapp does the same in a lighter form, as a quiz with a scorecard, mainly intended to collect leads.
These tools are strong for marketing scans and self-assessments that you want to build and manage entirely yourself. They are do-it-yourself packages: the quality of the questions, benchmark and report depends on what you make of it, and recruiting participants is entirely up to you.
Category 3: the benchmark tools
Then the tools where benchmark research is the main product. In the Netherlands there are exactly two: Compare2Compete and BenchLab. Both focus on consultancies, industry associations and franchise organisations that want to compare participants with each other.
The differences lie in approach and price. According to its own site, Compare2Compete charges several hundred euros per month, depending on the package. BenchLab starts at €99 per month, including the personal report per respondent in your own brand style. A second difference: BenchLab integrates with all major research packages. So you do not need to switch survey environments, BenchLab handles the benchmark and the personal reports on top of the environment you already use.
How to choose the right tool
Walk through these four questions and the choice narrows itself. Does every participant receive a personal report, or do only you get an overall picture? Overall only: choose a survey platform. Does that report need to look professional in your own brand style, without needing a designer yourself? Does the software need to integrate with the research package you already use, so you do not have to switch environments? And finally: what may it cost, one-off and per year?
If your answers to all four questions point towards personal reports, brand style and guidance, you end up with a true benchmark tool. In that case, always request a sample report, because that is where you see the difference faster than in a feature comparison.
Further reading
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