Launch for 'Pollpass' Chatbot-Led Survey Tool

London-based research company GlobalWebIndex has launched new survey software called Pollpass, which uses a chatbot-led, rewards-based messenger format to communicate with respondents.

The firm maintains a global panel of more than 22 million connected consumers and provides audience profiling data across 44 countries, and raised $40m in July in its first round of funding - plans include the opening of more offices across the Americas and Asia Pacific. Pollpass is billed as a means 'to generate bespoke data sets and insights in real-time from any demographic, in any location' - including younger Internet users and those naturally disinclined to participate in surveys.

According to Chief Research Officer Jason Mander, 'this new way of collecting survey data is designed around the most common online habits and behaviors. It's about enabling a more proactive approach to market research and making these engagements feel entirely organic by mirroring the conversational style audiences are used to'.

In research among nearly 4,000 of its UK and US subscribers, the firm found that having to answer initial survey questions before being told they don't qualify for a study was an annoyance for 61%, while the ability to pause a survey halfway through and return to it later was important to 54%. Pollpass learns from the information offered up by each respondent, the firm says, to continaully streamline the survey process and only engage relevant segments - and it allows suspension and resumption of surveys. GlobalWebIndex says it already has a bank of 20 million answers from more than 50 thousand active users.

CEO Tom Smith is pictured. The company is online at www.globalwebindex.com .