Let SurveyShop help you get BEST VALUE out of your surveys
November 2005
As well as being the authors of Snap survey software, did you know we also have an outsourcing division, SurveyShop? We are experts in the UK Local Authority sector and offer a full survey management service with over 20 years’ experience. Have you started thinking about your Best Value surveys for 2006/07? Read on to find out how SurveyShop can help to ease the burden of this project.
What do SurveyShop offer that differentiates them from the rest? Answer: They care about you, the customer and understand the importance of communication. With regular progress reports, and a qualified team of researchers and data management specialists on the end of the phone, you can be assured that you will receive a professional and personalised service.
SurveyShop offer essentially three options to help take the strain out of your BEST VALUE project. In addition to these, and to give you complete flexibility, they are happy to tailor any other combination of options to suit your specific requirements. These can range from benchmarking, assisting with translation and advanced analysis. Unlike other providers they provide you with the raw data file in Snap, in addition to all the files required to satisfy the Government’s requirements. This means you can make use of the raw data to conduct additional analysis so that the survey can serve a further purpose and become a real tool for improvement.
The options available are:
Option 1 - Full service – outsource the whole process and SurveyShop will manage the entire project for you, returning a full set of tables and the data in ODPM format.
Option 2 – Data entry & provision of ODPM data – if you want to handle the printing and mailing yourself, SurveyShop will carry out the data processing for you and will return the data in a suitable format for submission to the ODPM.
Option 3 – Converting data to ODPM format – if you have completed the survey yourself we will convert the data for you into the correct ODPM format.
SurveyShop have already worked with a number of Local Authorities on their consultation and BEST VALUE projects. A consortium of councils, which included Redditch Borough Council, Bromsgrove District Council and South Staffordshire District Council commissioned the team to administer their BEST VALUE surveys. The full service option was chosen, which consisted of full project management of the General, Benefits and Planning surveys for all three councils; additionally they carried out the Tenants surveys for both Bromsgrove DC and Redditch BC. This service consisted of:
- Regular progress reports
- Advising on questionnaire design including the insertion of additional questions
- Designing and branding of the questionnaires with personalised letters
- Carrying out random sampling or census of target respondents
- Arranging the printing and mailing of paper surveys with reply paid envelopes
- Providing large print copies and making provision for foreign language versions
- Monitoring questionnaires, as they are returned and sending out two reminder mailings to non-respondents
- Data entry and verification of paper surveys
- Meeting requirements for response rates and confidence levels for performance indicators
- Providing Excel files and metadata information for submission to the ODPM. Additionally provided full set of tables electronically, which consisted of questions broken down by subgroups specified by each council e.g. age, gender, working status etc
- Adhering to ODPM guidelines throughout
Gill Bromwich, part of the Policy Team at Bromsgrove District Council gives some feedback on the service they received, “We felt the help and support provided by SurveyShop when we conducted the most recent BEST VALUE survey was excellent. We were kept informed every step of the way and all our worries and anxieties of the survey being produced were painless for us.”
Our software and services are used by 83% of Local Authorities, so by choosing SurveyShop to conduct your Best Value surveys in 2006/07 you’ll be commissioning the social research experts with a proven track record of providing the best value solution.
To receive a free, no obligation quotation or for further information contact one of the SurveyShop team on +44 (0) 1454 280 860 or e-mail projects@snapsurveys.com.
Note: All of our research work is undertaken in accordance with the MARKET RESEARCH SOCIETY CODE of CONDUCT and our researchers are all members of the MRS. We are registered under the data protection act 1998 and ISO 9001:2000 and BS7911:2003 quality standards.