The most efficient way to get good quality feedback is to conduct a professionally designed survey.

Background
A department of a local authority asked us to help evaluate one of its services. We recommended feedback from customers and strategic partners should be an important element of the evaluation.

However the department works with around 100 organisations. An in-depth evaluation of all customer relationships would be an expensive process. Working to a limited budget we needed to design a cost-effective, quick method of gathering the relevant information.

Using a tried and tested application, we developed an online survey. Customers were emailed an invitation to take part in the survey by clicking a link in the email. This took them direct to the survey form.

The simple, clean design of the form made it immediately obvious it wouldn't take long to complete. This approach achieved a 35% response rate.

The results of the survey were instantly available to the department even while it was running. Responses were tabulated in a simple summary report and a database contained raw data and narrative comments.

Because most of the survey administration and reporting were automated, the limited budget was used where it was most effective: in developing and designing pertinent questions.

Results
The department has identified a number of areas where it can take action to improve performance.
Some of these actions were suggested by the survey respondents.

Without the survey the department wouldn’t have known there was a problem until they began to lose customers and the goodwill of stakeholders. It plans to run the survey annually to measure the improvements it is making.

If you would like to talk to us about running a simple, cost-effective customer survey, please email us. or take a look at an example survey .

Example survey