In most situations, even the busiest of people will go for a five-minute activity. It’s usually a manageable amount of time and provides a quick break. Understanding the busy lives of survey respondents, a microsurvey is designed to respect their time, and in turn, ensure high data quality.

Microsurveys are short, easy surveys that take between two to five minutes to complete. They allow you to capture busy respondents and quality data—challenges that most frustrate the practice of market research.

“By keeping it to this short, brief window of time, we ensure that people can really concentrate and give the best answers possible,” says Philip Moyer, Senior Director of Crowd Operations at InCrowd.

Because they’re brief, microsurveys can be easily done over a mobile device and sent to respondents when they’re on the move, with answers provided in real time. Participants don’t have to spend 40 minutes or more filling out a lengthy survey, and companies don’t have to wait weeks for results.

The fundamental key here is treating respondents with respect—being mindful of their busy lives, and creating a dialogue over time that eliminates the need to ask the same questions over and over again (like profiling and basic screening questions).

Insights from an effective microsurvey can sway a strategy, add important data points to a longer report, or simply provide a quick pulse on the marketplace.