Learning From Client Survey Results by Leah Goldstein Moses

Do you do client surveys? If so, do you quickly smile at the positive responses but give a lot of consideration – maybe even a twinge of obsession – to any negative answers, like I do? We recently closed our yearly client survey and already gathered to review results and think about implications for our work. We heard some wonderful feedback:

• Our clients rated us between excellent (83%) and good (17%) on being responsive to their needs
• Our clients also rated us very highly in timeliness, our ethical standards, and in working respectfully with other stakeholders.

No items on our survey were rated poorly, but a few people found room for improvement in the way we could help organizations sustain the work after our project is done. A few others made suggestions about refining our final reports. This feedback confirmed our attention to things we have been working on in the past few weeks as we continue to strive for excellence. Here are the steps we have taken so far:

• We have recruited a few designers and editors who we can call on, when appropriate, to take our evaluation reports and heighten their design for publication by our clients.
• We have standardized our project closing meeting to include a discussion of next steps and sustainability after our work ends; this sometimes includes capacity-building tools so that organizations can continue to do evaluation, research and strategic management within their organizations.

We were also pleased to have a great survey response rate this year; nearly 40 of our clients shared their perspectives and feedback with us. Thank you! We tested a small incentive for the first time; respondents could choose between receiving a gift card, a donation to the 501c(3) of their choice, or defer their gift so someone else could win. Our winner was Antonio Cardona of Public Allies, a program that helps people transform their passion for making a difference into a viable career path. The Improve Group helped teach Allies about evaluation for the last two years.