Assembling your team is the first step to getting the most productivity and value out of your plan, but not everyone knows how—and why—to go about it. Luckily, we’re all about empowering everyone to make the most of their team seats, from the admin-in-charge to users who are inspired to rethink how they contribute and collaborate.
Leveraging your team seats comes down to three main things: making sure you’re filling the seats you have, adding more seats when needed, and being savvy about how you do both.
Filling your team seats
Your team plan includes a minimum of 3 seats for your teammates to create, send, and analyze your surveys. Not sure who in your organization might need or want access? No problem. The first step is to use our survey template to find out. Not only will this give your colleagues a chance to consider whether they’d benefit from using SurveyMonkey, it will also give those who are less familiar with it an up-close look at a survey in action. Plus, the results will help you set up your team with the right mix of Full User and Contributor seats.
So once you’ve sent your team survey, what next? Now your primary admin builds your team by inviting people to fill a seat (an account). This is a simple but critical step because an empty seat is a missed opportunity to get input from stakeholders, collaborate about your survey design, or receive the analytical help you need to get the most out of your data.
Managing your team seats
They say teamwork makes the dream work, but what, exactly, makes a dream team? There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for your team plan, and no rule that says your team is set in stone forever and ever, amen. Basically, you’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to team seat management; you can reassign team accounts (including all created and shared surveys) or start fresh at any time.
In fact, because management is so flexible, it’s a good idea for team admins to periodically take stock of their team seats. This includes:
- Checking out available seats - Do you have an unused seat just waiting for a teammate?
- Managing users - Do you need to reshuffle your seats based on a new project?
- Expanding your team - Do you need more seats for better collaboration?
Set a regular schedule to evaluate who is on your team, but make sure to also do so whenever your projects or workflow are in flux. For example, if your company has responded to COVID-19 by shifting to remote work, it’s likely a good time to see whether you need to add more users—such as stakeholders who need to self-serve data more frequently or team members who are working together across time zones. Being part of a team offers a ton of collaboration opportunities, including the ability to edit, send, and analyze shared surveys, and it’s easy to manage that collaboration at any point.
Making the most of your team seats
Rather than assigning team seats with an all-or-nothing approach, you should consider nuances like who needs access to what and when. Getting creative with your team seats is often the best way to make sure your plan is being used efficiently and effectively.
Want some inspiration to really utilize your team’s seats? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Don’t just think in terms of full-scale survey warriors. Team members can jump in to help with specific aspects of your survey creation, like the look and feel, or with tasks like setting up your collectors. They can also segment the results that matter to them, so they stay focused on what they need to know in the moment.
- You can choose which parts of a survey to share. Team members’ surveys are private unless shared, but you don’t have to share an entire survey. If you don’t want to grant a team member access to sensitive results, you can limit them to the areas that are relevant to them and their work.
- Sometimes it’s best to allocate, not collaborate. Smaller businesses often assign their team seats across different departments and don’t collaborate at all—and that’s fine! Do what’s best for your team, especially if it means empowering them to create and send surveys.
- Consider contributors. Do you have stakeholders who need to dig into your data, but don’t care about creating surveys? That’s the perfect fit for Contributor seats, which allow you to get certain people involved in survey projects and only pay for the features they need.
You can’t make the most of your team plan without making the most of your team seats. Fill your seats, add more seats, and manage everything in a way that’s right for you!
Want to learn more about team plans and Contributor seats? Check out our pricing page.
