Whether you’re looking for a polling software for your upcoming conference, internal business meeting, town meeting, or client interaction, you want a system you can trust.
Choosing the right software with the right tools can save you from counting hands and headaches over accuracy— but that’s not all you should consider when shopping around for the best polling system.
Here are five things to consider to make sure your real-time audience polling system fits your specific needs. Ask yourself, does this software offer:
1. Assured Accuracy
Voice votes, paper polls and standing counts aren’t just time-consuming to tally, they’re also vulnerable to mistakes. You want your polling software to remove these human errors, but how does the system promise accuracy?
When researching a real-time audience polling system, ask how the software tabulates results. At Option Technologies, our two-way personalized messaging system confirms votes were registered and our system stores results for later review, ensuring the results are correct and give you access to the data.
2. Simplicity & Compatibility
When using a polling software, you don’t want to sacrifice your audience’s engagement by choosing a complex operating system. During your presentation, you want to ask a quick question and get quick results to steer the conversation. Because of this, your audience response devices or keypads need to be user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Maybe you’re presenting in a dark room and your voting device needs a bright screen. Or perhaps you need a straightforward interface without all the fancy gizmos. Our polling devices come in four varieties, the G4, K4, Micro4 and iPad, all with their own set of advantages.
Also consider looking for a polling software that’s compatible with your audience’s personal devices, like our VVoter add-on. This tool removes the “foreign object” fear and gets more people involved on their own phones or tablets.
Is the system compatible with your presentation platform? It’s important to choose a system that provides a seamless experience for you as the presenter, but will also serve your audience. Instead of closing your PowerPoint to pull up a separate voting tool, choose a polling software that easily integrates with PowerPoint, generating a result screens without interrupting the flow of your presentation. The OptionPower system uses native PowerPoint objects and picks up on the fonts, backgrounds, charts and design templates you are already using to maintain a seamless look.
3. Interactive Capabilities
If you are giving a presentation, asking for the audience’s opinions is a great way to keep them engaged and learning more. Seeing their results instantly projected on screen can create impact and help them understand the crowd’s shared consensus.
Does the polling system let you and your audience be creative? Most will simply let you vote on the choices presented, but another special feature of the OptionPower software is the intelligent free-form options. It welcomes all types of open-ended responses and gives presenters more flexibility to lead the presentation in a better direction based on audience feedback.
Also consider a polling software that can function as more than just a survey system for the biggest return. Our Group Competition add-on allows these same devices to be used for productive yet playful interactive games. If you’re interested in getting your audience more involved in your speech, here’s 5 Presentation Ideas For Great Audience Interaction.
4. Privacy & Security
You want a real-time voting or polling system that’s secure, but security comes in many different forms. Ensure your polling software has audit systems to check results for accuracy. Voting systems should use encrypted transmissions and unique device authentication protocols giving you additional privacy options. There is also personalized confirmation text messaging transmitted back to the device also adds additional security and provides each voter with confidence their vote was tabulated as cast.
Also, in many voting situations, participates may want their votes t o remain anonymous. Read more about our extensive protective practices here.
5. Support
Does your live polling software come with technical support? Let’s say you’re setting up for your presentation, and after testing your connection, you notice your polling devices aren’t transmitting votes. Or maybe you’re having troubling integrating it with your presentation platform. You could buy or rent a polling system and have to troubleshoot alone.
With Option Technologies, our service extends beyond your purchase or rental. From software updates live telephone and email based support with a real human beings, we’re here to ensure your presentations run smoothly.
Opt for a Multi-Functional System
The right polling system should make tallying easier and boost audience engagement. When on the hunt for the best software, remember to choose a comprehensive product you can rely on for your every polling need.
We offer audience voting systems for every occasion, including software add-ons that can help boost team-building, accuracy and facilitate honest feedback. Leave behind the days of hand counts or shuffling votes in a box and choose a real-time audience polling software. Explore OptionPower today.
