Do You Need Instant Leverage Over The Competition:
Client, Customer, Employee, Constituent and Vendor Feedback You Can Depend On: Implement Real-Time and Just-In-Time Surveys for Sound Business Trajectory!
BY: Dr. Chris Wright and Dr. Jeff Magee

Do you really have a pulse on your organization's reality or the needs of your market and its trends? Your ability for instant connections and feedback can serve as instant course corrections and additions to what you do, thereby giving you significant market leverage!

Or are you destined for colossal mistakes? The steps a business of any size can take to implement an on-line opinion survey is both easy and critical to thriving in the market place today. When a management team or an executive group decides to gain a better understanding of those they serve and their viewpoints, they look to internal and external contact surveys.

Before outlining the implementation steps, consider a couple points. First, you want to avoid making a common mistake, which is to conduct a survey just for the sake of conducting a survey. Second, if you go to all the trouble of asking for feedback, it is critically important that you are prepared to:

1. Communicate the results of the survey to all vested stakeholders.
2. Take action to address the opportunities for improvement identified by the survey.

In order for a survey to be successful, the project must have clearly defined objectives. Although they may seem like ‘no-brainers,’ see how you would answer the following:

1. Can you identify what you want to accomplish with a survey?
2. Can you identify your survey goals?
3. Can you acknowledge that you are prepared to make appropriate changes, if the responder to the survey tells you they want to see changes made?

If your organization can answer the above questions with confidence, you are ready to invest in an on-line survey platform, system, matrix, or assessment. Here are 4-Critical Factors in staying instantly in-touch with your deliverables throughout your supply-chain matrix:

First, Find a Reliable and Trusted Professional Partner
As you are aware, the Internet can often overwhelm us with marketing pitches for various sophisticated software products, tools and resources. Where surveys are concerned, an organization is better served by knowing that a survey has been developed by a trusted consulting group or by a behavioral or organizational psychologist with an advanced degree in his/her field.

You want survey questions, for instance, that are well written, and are psychometrically sound with a commonly used response scale. If you plan to benchmark your survey results against external sources, these factors become much more critical. Your partner must be an expert with a proven track record to make sure your question development is sound in order to get quality results. Many quality survey software products (www.zipsurvey.com) include climate, market, employee, trends, etc. survey templates that were designed by experts.

Second, Determine the Best Methods for Administering the Survey
As you consider how to administer your survey, you have multiple options. Obviously Web-based surveys are popular. Online surveys are also very attractive because they represent the most cost-effective method of conducting a survey. If you choose this option, make sure that all intended parties have access to the Web. If some do not, you will need to accommodate those individuals. This can be done, for example, by providing temporary kiosks that also ensure privacy. Or, you can provide paper-based or phone-based administration options.

Third, Prepare for the Analysis and Reporting Phases
These critical phases require extensive specialization and companies are best served by hiring consultants, statisticians or behavioral psychologists who have special training in statistical analysis. These professionals are trained to get the most out of your survey data. You want an in-depth analysis of your data, and they know how to "slice and dice" the data in different ways to provide the most accurate picture.

Fourth, Gear Up for the Feedback and Action Planning Phases
If you or the organization isn’t willing to do something with the survey data, there can be a few unintended consequences. For one, by ignoring the feedback, a message is effectively sent to others that, "Hey, we heard you, but we do not care." You also run the risk of losing credibility should you ask for their feedback again at a later date.

So it’s really critical that the feedback and action planning phases take place. It’s also important to get all vested parties involved, as you want their buy-in and help in implementing changes which improves engagement with others. If they are vested in the process, they are more likely to actively participate in any change efforts you want to later implement. Research also shows that engaged employees, customers, vendor-partners, constituents, etc., are usually more productive.

The Bottom Line
Most leaders, individuals, and organizations do not really connect, stay connected, or truly care about those they assert to be serving – actions are louder than words. With proper preparation and effective implementation, a survey is a valuable tool for soliciting feedback and can help your organization become more successful – instantly!

BIOs:
Chris Wright is the founder, President and CEO of Reliant. Dr. Wright leads the development of Reliant's Strategic Talent Management products and content. Jeff Magee, is the founder, President and CEO of JMI, Inc., and is a Best Selling Author and Group-Publisher of PERFROMANCE Magazine