First off, the SurveyCTO platform gives you a great deal of flexibility, but also support to ensure that you have the resources you need. They also are always one step ahead of the curve, building out new functionality before you even know you need it, that adds a great deal to our internal capacity. SurveyCTO has saved us countless resources in terms of in-house programming and technical expertise, and is a service we are excited to be partnering with for the long term.

The customer service (online support is what I've used most frequently) is extremely fast and so helpful. It has made all the difference when troubleshooting in some very time constrained situations. The documentation available on the site is very well-written and makes learning new tricks easy to pick up. The enhanced functionality beyond the ODK basics, and the ability to handle some pretty complex logic and constraints. Some of these include the concatenation functions, pulling data from earlier repeating groups, and importantly, the pre-load features including search. For multiple rounds of surveying, the amount of headache avoided by being able to preload data is incalculable. I know some users prefer an interface that doesn't require programming (eg many softwares provided user-friendly online interfaces with dropdowns, etc.) and this makes sense for a lot of users. However, I actually do prefer using the excel-based form for programming because I don't want to rely on having an internet connection to be able to work on the survey (although of course it is needed for actually uploading the form). Also, SurveyCTO includes a whole host of sophisticated quality control features including audio audits, speed limits, and other data quality features that in my experience go beyond what other platforms can offer.

Being able to simultaneously access all our data, the diversity of data quality controls and the excellent costumer service they provide!