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How to Use Online Surveys Do them right, and online surveys can be very revealing.

By Melissa Campanelli

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

By now, you've probably used some sort of online survey tool to quiz site visitors. These tools--offered by companies such as QuestionPro, SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang--allow you to find out what your customers like and what they don't. And with costs generally ranging from free to about $20 a month, web surveys are a cost-effective tool.

"Gathering feedback from customers has [a] great impact on any organization's business model," says Esteban Kolsky, a research director at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut. "Feedback, when used correctly, can increase cross-sell and upsell transactions by 15 percent to 20 percent."

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of implementing web surveys without a concrete strategy--which can actually reduce customer satisfaction and provide a less-than-ideal experience for customers. Getting effective and usable results, according to Kolsky, means you should:

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