The first fruit of the partnership is a study of the banking industry, focusing on Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citibank and Wells Fargo. Each firm is scored on their staff, their product, their price and whether customers would recommend them. Google’s results dashboard can be used to drill down into the data.

Banks not covered in the initial survey can run their own survey to compare scores for $4950, for which they get 300 responses per question, of which there are five standardised questions in total. Questions are presented to web users as gateways to free content on Google’s network of partner sites.

As the service expands to other sectors, the partners say it will operate a similar model. “With each release, the Harris Poll will provide detailed survey results for industry leaders that will be used as a benchmark against which smaller businesses can compare their own results upon purchase of their own study,” Google says.

“When a business purchases a study through the Harris Poll and Google Consumer Surveys product, the system will automatically target survey questions to respondents in the service areas for that particular business. For example, for each bank who purchases their own survey in our September 2012 Retail Banking Study, questions will automatically be distributed only to respondents in the states and zip codes in which that particular bank operates.”

Google Consumer Surveys product manger Paul McDonald said: “This is a really great addition to our self-service offering. Thousands of large and small businesses, in dozens of industries, have used Google Consumer Surveys to get easy, affordable and precise market insights. I’m thrilled that we’re working with a leader like the Harris Poll to give businesses access to a new benchmarking offering. We believe it’s a huge validation of our technology, a huge boost for businesses of all sizes.”