How to best ask for computer experience in a survey?

Our business software has a heterogeneous user base ranging from tech-savvy engineers, over computer used to be salesman up to older, tech-averse craftsman.

In a coming survey I would like to ask for the computer expertise of them, in order to better sort their responses to our three main personas. I know its quite difficult and biased to ask for habits like how many times do you use or do you feel yourself a expert-user?

Thus I thought about asking for software they regularly use. And simply sum up how many programs they use. Having 9 options for mark, I would put an respondent to beginners (my craftsman) if he/she would mark only up to 4. Up to 7 used programs would be intermediate (my salesman) and more a power-user (my engineers). Using Shortcuts would give an extra point. Additionally I tried to find software, that matches computer expertise (even the understanding and naming of it). So first row for beginners, second intermediate, third pros.

How often do you use our software in a week? ________ times

What kind of software do you use often?
[ ] Outlook or other Mailclient
[ ] Internet Explorer or Browser
[ ] Word
[ ] Excel

[ ] Zip Archiver
[ ] CD/DVD Burner
[ ] CAD Software or 3D Software
[ ] Access or Database
[ ] Navision or Managment System

Do you regularly use Shortcuts? ( ) Yes ( ) No

What do you think about this approach? Any suggestions?

Or do you have any best practises regarding this theme?

Answer

It is a very difficult thing to do successfully. The problem is that some people may use shortcuts without knowing about it, and some of your craftsmen and salesmen may actually use a number of different programs, because they have to, without actually understanding them.

I would suggest, because you probably know your clients well enough, that you list a whole range of software, and ask them if they use it, with some details:

Outlook
Lotus Notes
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Excel (for spreadsheets)
Excel (programming)

etc. Then you put weighting on each choice - firefox should weigh more than IE, and Chrome slightly more, because these are unlikely to be their defaults. You can put Excel programming with a high weighting, as they are probably fairly technically savvy.

If you also include some very techy stuff - whatever is appropriate for you most techy users - you should be able to get a score, and then divide into your 3 categories - or possibly more, because it is unlikely that all of you salesmen, for example, are at the same level of skill.

And this is why it is difficult to do - because there are no simple answers. Your best craftsman may be more technically savvy than your worst salesman.