SurveyMonkey’s new report, Adapting in Times of Crisis 2020, highlights the impact of two key traits for businesses navigating a crisis
San Mateo, Calif. – September 15, 2020 – SurveyMonkey (Nasdaq: SVMK), a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback, today announced the findings from Adapting in Times of Crisis 2020, a new research report identifying the top characteristics needed for companies to successfully navigate the pandemic: curiosity and agility.
The study polled nearly 4,000 Americans nationwide, including over 2,500 currently employed adults and nearly 1,800 who had hours cut or income reduced as a result of the pandemic. The findings illustrate key elements that have impacted companies’ ability to adapt during the current coronavirus pandemic. Agile companies—defined as companies that can adapt quickly to change in order to be successful—were positioned to outperform their peers in the study. Fifty percent of those surveyed at agile organizations say their company is extremely or very prepared to withstand an economic downturn, while only 10% at less-agile companies say they’re prepared.
Agility seems to be in short supply in 2020, but curiosity is more abundant. According to the data, just 30% of employees say they are at the most agile companies. At the same time, 59% say they are at curious companies—those that use new and creative ways to adapt to changing circumstances. Alongside agility, being open to new ways of operating appears to give companies an advantage in meeting customer needs. More than seven in 10 (72%) employees at companies that value using creative ways to adapt to change have been able to meet customers' needs during the pandemic, compared to just 44% of those that stick to tried-and-true methods.
“Resilience is a new requirement for businesses in 2020,” said Tom Hale, president at SurveyMonkey. “This research makes it clear that agility and curiosity are essential ingredients to survive and thrive during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond. This is true for organizations ranging from early startups to mature enterprises in nearly every industry. No matter where you work, creativity and agility are solving problems and driving growth like never before.”
The report also includes profiles of companies and government organizations that illustrate the powerful impact of agility and curiosity on their success.
“Earlier this year as federal, state, and local governments began implementing lockdowns as a result of the coronavirus, we realized we had to quickly change our mindset and the way we were operating," said Nina Herold, chief product and operations officer at TripActions, the corporate travel and expense management company profiled in Adapting in Times of Crisis 2020 while navigating a tremendous dip in worldwide business travel as a result of the pandemic. "Collecting and listening to our customer feedback and then acting on it with rapid innovation to solve customer needs has been critical to staying agile through this crisis and emerging as the industry leader."
Key findings of the report include:
To download the full research report for free, please visit surveymonkey.com/2020.
About SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a leader in agile software solutions for customer experience, market research, and survey feedback. The company’s platform empowers over 17 million active users to analyze and act on feedback from employees, customers, website and app users, and market research respondents. SurveyMonkey’s products, enterprise solutions, and integrations enable more than 335,000 organizations to deliver better customer experiences, increase employee retention, and unlock growth and innovation. Ultimately, SurveyMonkey's vision is to raise the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices.
Survey Methodology
This SurveyMonkey Audience survey was conducted online from June 12 - July 9, 2020 among a national sample of 3,917 adults ages 18 and older living in the United States, including 2,588 employed adults and sample boosts for key industries. Respondents for this survey were selected from the over 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.
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