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Determining Survey Content
This article takes you back to the beginning of the survey process—determining what you will measure.
Walk into any restaurant or hotel these days and you are given the opportunity to complete a "customer satisfaction survey." Too often, a casual reading of the questions on these surveys suggests that the survey author randomly thought up questions and put them on the form. Consequently, one is left wondering about the value of the data collected and what the establishment hopes to do with it.
Imagine the following conversation.
Boss:
Say, I read in [insert hallowed business magazine title here] that customer satisfaction surveys are an important part of business today. Do we have one?
You:
No.
Boss:
Well, get one.
You:
Sure.
Boss:
And I want results to share at the Director's Meeting next quarter.
You:
Sure.
Boss:
And make sure we look good.
While none of us would like to admit that this scenario actually occurs, the sad thing is that it occurs all too frequently. No matter what the impetus, all too often, surveys are developed before key issues have been thought through. Take a step back and determine why you are surveying, what you want to know about and what you hope to do with the information. This information is the keystone of any successful customer satisfaction program.Why Are You Surveying?
If you can't answer this question in two sentences or less, you probably shouldn't be doing a survey. Before you begin surveying you should have a clear idea of your goals for the survey project. Start by answering the following questions:
- Why do we want to survey our customers?
- What do we hope to accomplish by doing this survey?
- Do we have the systems in place to act on the data we gather?
If not, can we put the systems in place?
Too often, people rush into the process of surveying and worry about the execution of the survey without stopping to ask these questions. Our experience, however, has shown us that taking the time to really think about the answers to these questions goes a long way toward ensuring a quality survey project. Once you have answered these questions, it is time to start thinking about the next group of questions: What do we want to know?
What Do I Want to Know About?
Once you have determined why you want to survey, you can begin to translate those ideas into the general content area of your survey.
In this step you carefully examine your reasons for conducting the survey and start defining the information which will allow you to attain those goals. For example, if, for some well defined reason, you are interested in finding out how your customers feel about the service they are receiving from technical support, you need to start defining what you want to know about the technical support you provide. Reasonable issues here might include: response time, returning of phone calls, quality of service, etc.
It is important to remember that in this step you are simply beginning to determine the content domain of your survey -- you are not writing the questions. In this step you clearly define the issues you want to gather information about and ensure that they match the reasons you want to survey.
What Will I Do with the Data?
Now that you know why you want to survey and what you want to know, you need to consider what you will do with the data. Too many surveys have ended in failure simply because nobody took the time to figure out how the data would be used. To avoid this you need to ask yourself:
- Who will need to use the information gathered in the survey?
- What are their requirements?
- What will be my next steps?
There are no single right answers to these questions. But you need to answer them to ensure you can meet the goals of your survey program.
For more information:
Call: 1-800-447-3269
E-mail: info-ncs@pearson.com
Survey.PearsonAssessments.com
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