Lars,
Would suggest you google 'statistics' 'survey' ('guidelines' &/or 'best
practices') 'analysis' for more complete information on this subject.
That being said however, yes I'd say a group of 25 (per week) is fairly
representative of 3500. Any undergraduate statistic course/book will
give an algorithm for defining how big any survey set should be to
represent a group of a certain size (this way you don't
under-represent, nor waste extra time and money). An example would be
watching US News (CNN) surveys on a given subject. They usually
involve surveying around 1,000 (nore or less) people to represent the
'average' person's opinion.
After you collect your surveys and create the data tables, how you
analyze them is solely up to you and your/company priorities.
Next, yes Excel is decent for displaying data (in a pivot table). If
you already own MS Office, then their is no need to re-create the wheel
and/or purchase separate software. Excel has in-depth help files on
how to create a pivot table, as well as a wizard that will help you set
one up.
Personnally, reports (that are being sent up to managers) are better
created via reporting engines, but this can leave you with a static
view for a single particular question. Pivot tables allow you to
dynamically change your view based on different criteria. (Not a great
definition, the one in MS Excel is more thorough.
Finally, tracking historically past surveys (or just accumulated
results) can not only show trends (I like to use not only quarterly for
fiscal planning, but monthly/weekly to show detailed peaks and valleys
that can equate w/ seasonal or holidays), but also be a good basis for
justifying fiscal issues (bigger budget?, more work force?).
Hope this helps,
-Chris
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