Surveys and How to Make them Actionable

At SRG we take continuous improvement very seriously. It is part of our culture. We have a Continuous Improvement Team that is always looking for ways to improve our customers’ experience. To do this effectively we must understand how our customers are responding to our services. For this information we rely in part on our annual satisfaction surveys that we conduct with our 3 customer segments: clients, internal employees and our team members working onsite at our clients. The customer experience can change moment to moment and is dependent on the most recent interaction. Surveys provide us with a snapshot in time of the customers’ pulse. This is an opportunity for us to look at our processes and systems and to analyze the results for trends over time that could have a negative impact on our business. I know when I fill out a survey I often wonder what they do with the information collected and if it was worth my time to fill it out. I see surveys as an opportunity to learn from our customers and effect change. I thought I would share some of my insights from our most recent surveys.

CLIENT SURVEY – WHAT WE LEARNED

In 2016, almost half of our clients responded to our survey and overall we did quite well. Our Communication category and Team Member Fit were up from the prior year but our Service category was relativity unchanged, which could indicate an area for improvement. Our clients’ biggest challenge right now is the lack of qualified team members available in the market. This could have contributed to our overall service score. Another interesting insight is that our clients now feel a need to use multiple services to try and meet their labor requirements. Over half of our clients surveyed now use multiple services and 70% of those indicate that supply is driving this business decision.

TEAM MEMBER SURVEY – WHAT WE LEARNED

Our Team Member survey participation rate has been trending down year over year and is currently less than 10%. According to Survey Gizmo’s website, the average response rate for this type of survey is 10-15%. This is certainly an area for improvement for us. Our pay competitiveness has improved each year which is our lowest rated category. Only about 50% of the team members surveyed liked that we offered self-funded benefits which was added a few years ago based on some survey comments. About 50% of the survey participants have checked out our new website and Indeed.com remains the top used website for job seekers.

INTERNAL EMPLOYEE SURVEY – WHAT WE LEARNED

In the last four years, we have been working hard and see that our overall survey results improved by 10%. 2016 results revealed that 96% of our internal employees would recommend SRG as a good place to work. We are extremely proud of that number and will continue to try to improve it. In general, we see that our communication has been trending up each year but dipped a little this past year. Also our employees scored work/life balance high overall but not quite as high as previous year. This is an area we need to be mindful of to ensure a downward trend doesn’t develop.

I have been tracking and analyzing our surveys for the past 10 years and although I would be the first one to speak to their importance I must also caution you with a few tips:

• Focus more on the comments then on the number. The comments will define your actionable areas for improvement.
• Look for trends – don’t just compare the results but rather look at trending. Remember this is a moment in time and not the same people year over year. Perceptions are their reality but be careful not to make high-impact, rash business decisions based on a sole person’s responses. Look for trends and dive deeper if you see a red flag.
• When it comes to process improvements one cannot rely on data alone to understand the problem. You must go and see for yourself – a philosophy I learned from our Japanese manufacturers called Genchi Genbutsu.
  • Wikipedia defines Genchi Genbutsu: (現地現物) means “actual place, actual thing” and it is a key principle of the Toyota Production System. It suggests that in order to truly understand a situation one needs to go to genba (現場) or, the ‘real place’ – where work is done.

Surveys are an important tool used in our continuous improvement activities and we analyze each of them for actionable insight. As mentioned, I see them as a heartbeat of our clients and our ability to deliver consistent service can have an impact on this. So the next time you are asked to complete a survey, rest assured I am reading them and taking your input seriously.

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