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U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey – The American Community Survey (ACS), administered by the U.S. Census Bureau, is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with a fresh look at how they are changing. It is a critical element in the Census Bureau’s reengineered decennial census program. The ACS collects and produces population and housing information every year instead of every ten years. Research Objective The Census Bureau needed to develop, test, and implement a large number of survey items so it tapped into a consortium of research firms. Eureka Facts, the only small business in the group, was tasked to provide recruitment of participants and testing of Spanish language items. Research Methodology EurekaFacts worked as part of a team of nationally recognized research firms (RTI, RSS and Westat) contributing to the design of the American Community Survey (ACS). EurekaFacts helped revise several questions for the ACS and conducted special population recruitment and cognitive interviewing, as well as usability studies to ensure quality of the question design and development. The study was supported by targeting audiences that included a mix of individuals from all ages, gender, races, educational attainment, etc. Multiple data collection efforts included testing of questions among low literacy groups and Spanish speakers. The EurekaFacts team completed this study successfully by meeting project specifications and recruiting and interviewing quotas set throughout various US states. Recruitment and cognitive interviewing was done in both Spanish and English. Research Impact New question items and instructions were developed for the 2016 American Community Survey and deployed nationally. Read the complete reports Cognitive Testing of the 2016 American Community Survey Content Test Items Briefing Report for Round 1 Interviews Cognitive Testing of the 2016 American Community Survey Content Test Items Briefing Report for Round 2 Interviews Cognitive Testing of the 2016 American Community Survey Content Test Items Briefing Report for Round 3 Interviews

What can an organization leader do to maximize the value of customer surveys and assessments? Every customer inquiry brings with it inherent opportunities to improve, enhance value, or better align the organization with the needs and wants of its stakeholders. It also brings along risks that can not only reduce the effectiveness of any customer inquiry, but also lessen the degree to which the information is incorporated into action plans. And there is the always a chance that erroneous/inaccurate or biased information could steer the organization in the wrong direction. Here twelve tips to make the most of your customer surveys 1. Define your primary business question and the related supporting questions. When possible, relate it to your organization’s strategic direction. The inquiry’s objectives keep the project focused throughout the research process. Information has value to the extent that it can be applied to a specific purpose. Greater clarity yields on-target research objectives and actionable outcomes. 2. Estimate the value of the desired information and the costs and risks associated with an erroneous, missing, or untimely measurement. Estimate the benefit of the activity your organization will undertake with new information. Narrowing down your business question and the value of the desired information is critical to a successful customer inquiry as it helps estimate the required precision, level of effort, timeline, sampling, and budget. 3. Identify and involve your key information stakeholders. Information will be most useful when it has involved those who will be responsible for acting on the survey findings. This sometimes includes both strategic and tactical levels of the organization. Stakeholders who are involved from early on will contribute toward better protocol design, greater utility, and use of the resulting data. 4. Equip the researcher with sufficient background information about objectives and previous efforts. If a similar survey has been conducted in the past, offer the data and share information about the challenges and strengths of the previous survey administration. This results in better protocols and survey instruments. 5. Use data that is already available. Data collection is expensive, and time-consuming. An assessment of the availability and reliability of existing data should precede new data collection. This increases efficiency and efficacy. 6. Define your survey population within your target audiences. Also, think about the subgroups you are most interested in learning about and those you need to exclude. This leads to a strong sampling and analysis plan. 7. Identify one internal point of contact and project manager. Managing the scope and facilitating the process with internal audiences can help keep a project on schedule, on target, and on budget. 8. Play an active role in promoting participation towards achieving a strong response rate. Activities that reinforce survey awareness and encourage participation improve data quality and precision. This reduces non-response biases and improves accuracy. 9. Assign adequate resources according to your information objectives and internal capabilities. Cutting costs may seem like savings, but there are often trade-offs such as lower data precision, lower quality, or increased risk. Sacrificing appropriate research techniques and advanced analytics can lead to biased, incorrect, or insufficient information that impacts the quality of the decisions that are made based on the data. An adequate budget is essential to overall quality. 10. Choose a research team that can lead the effort with strengths in quality and minimal biases. Look for expertise in survey methods, fielding, statistical analysis, and the content areas. It is often good to have an independent external researcher guide your survey to avoid internal biases. But just because a researcher is external to the organization, does not mean they are bias-free, however, they are likely to be aware of reducing biases and hidden agendas. 11. Use the information you receive. If you have effectively linked your inquiry with your business objectives and have involved the information stakeholders, the process of using the data is easier. Change is not easy, so be prepared to actively manage action plan formulation and execution not only for positive findings, but for challenges encountered as well. This maximizes information utility. 12. Let your stakeholders know you are responding to their needs and value their feedback. Research shows that customer loyalty rises among those who have been surveyed, especially when they believe their input has been acted on. Furthermore, subsequent survey response rates also rise. This enhances stakeholder relationships.

How do you determine if you need an external research firm to assist with your survey? Surveys are great tools to help you assess an organization’s culture, measure customer satisfaction, and gain critical information to help you develop effective strategies to address many organizational challenges. It’s no wonder survey platforms such as SurveyMonkey, Zoho Survey, SurveyGizmo, and SoGoSurvey have become so popular—they make it quick and easy to design, execute and report the results of your survey. But do DIY survey tools provide you with the kind of valid, reliable and actionable data you seek? Possibly; but ensuring confidence in your survey results is less about the technology employed and more about the skillset and experience of those who are designing and administering the survey instrument, then analyzing, interpreting and reporting the results. If you have the internal resources and expertise, by all means you can probably go it alone. If you’re not sure, here are six questions to ask yourself to determine if you need an external research firm to assist with your survey. 1. Are you able to ensure confidentiality? Many surveys address very sensitive topics and, often, respondents are concerned about how their confidentiality will be ensured and how their responses might be shared. For example, if employees who work in a safety conscious environment are asked to participate in a survey, they will want to be sure that if they provide honest and open evaluations of their workplace they can do so without fear of retaliation. They need to have strong assurances of anonymity and awareness that they can provide critical opinions without being personally identified. While you may be able to provide such assurances, this condition can best be guaranteed when surveys are conducted and results are analyzed by an independent, external party. 2. Will your stakeholders have enough confidence in the neutrality of the survey and its results to participate? Similarly, to ensure sufficient survey participation, it is often helpful to involve an impartial third party that can work with and reconcile the needs of different groups of stakeholders. For example, to gain wide support and endorsement of the effort, it is best practice to have a neutral party engage representatives of various stakeholder groups in the design process to ensure the validity and reliability of the line of questions. In addition, knowing that an impartial third party is responsible for data collection and analysis can provide respondents with the needed assurance that survey results will be accurate, neutral, confidential and credible. 3. Are you confident in the validity and reliability of the survey design? To provide objective and actionable assessment, it is crucial to ensure that the survey instrument is both valid and reliable. This means that the instrument must actually measure the dimensions it was designed to measure and do so accurately. The questionnaire design should follow rigorous, tried and true methodological procedures for design, review, and pre-testing. Ideally, one would, for instance, conduct a literature review of existing or similar survey results, review and map survey questions, then conduct pre-testing and revision of the survey instrument, all before it is fully deployed. Only a trained and experienced methodologist can provide such assurances. 4. Do you have the needed expertise to conduct, administer, analyze, and report survey findings? External research firms have specialists who are expert not only in design methodology but in analysis and reporting as well. Because they have extensive experience administering surveys and with the facilities and equipment required to do so, they almost assuredly will be able to provide you with better quality results—faster and at a lower cost—than you could yourself. 5. Are you prepared to conduct a survey awareness campaign to maximize stakeholder willingness to participate? We find that a well-prepared survey awareness campaign provides a significant boost in response rates and mitigates any potential stakeholder concerns regarding the legitimacy of the survey effort and confidentiality in its results. Such a campaign requires a sequence of multiple messages as well as materials that inform stakeholders about the survey effort and address how privacy, confidentiality, and aggregated reporting will be ensured. You should be prepared to conduct such a campaign or rely on others with experience doing so. 6. Would you benefit from a new perspective? When a survey is conducted by an independent and external organization, it provides the added benefits of objectivity and a new perspective. For example, within a large, diverse organization, such objectivity can provide a means of capturing a unified picture of the work environment that goes beyond the perspective of any particular individual or group, while at the same time ensuring that diversity across the organization in not overlooked. Then, assuming a consistent set of measures is applied across the organization, meaningful comparisons can be made and benchmarks can be standardized across the organization. Article adapted from Conducting Safety Conscious Work Environment Survey — The Case for Engaging an External Survey Organization.