How can I involve clients in analyzing survey results?

Focus groups can be a useful tool to probe deeper on patterns in your survey. A crucial part of developing your focus group will be to determine first what you are hoping to learn, then build questions off of that. In this article, we’ve suggested a draft outline for building a focus group around the L4G survey, but suspect the majority of the focus group will be focused on questions specific to your organization.

Before holding your session, see this article for tips on running a successful focus group.

Overall Instructions / Set Up

• Consider sharing a few slides / examples of data responses.
• Bring printed out copies of the survey so constituents can reference the questions if you are going to probe why respondents said what they did.

Introduction

• Re-introduce the purpose of the survey.
• Thank constituents for taking the time to complete it and helping the organization. Explain how valuable their feedback is to the organization and where you are in responding to the feedback.
• Start off with an ice-breaker – for example, ask each client about their connection to your organization or a light-hearted opinion unrelated to the topic at hand. This helps prepare clients to share out their opinions.

NPS Question

• The first question on the survey asks how likely you would be to recommend our organization. XX% of those who responded said they would….
• Does this seem high, low, or just right to you?
• When you answered this question, what influenced your decision to recommend or not recommend the organization?

Strengths / Weaknesses

We heard XX mentioned most frequently as a strength of ours. Do you agree?

• If so, could you explain a bit more about why it’s a strength?
• What do we need to do to maintain that as a strength?
• If not, could you tell us why?

We heard XX mentioned most frequently as a weakness. Do you agree?

• If so, could you explain a bit more about why that’s a weakness?
• How could we do better?
• If not, could you tell us why?

The bulk of your focus group should focus on questions of your choosing where you want greater input. Did results to any question surprise you? Was there a particular group who experienced your services differently and you’d like to know why? Employ a similar structure to the above discussion of Strengths and Weaknesses, but tailored to your needs.

Ending / Wrap-up

• Of all the things we discussed, what to you is the most important takeaway?
• Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
• Are there things I didn’t ask about yet but should have asked about?
• Time permitting, consider spending some time at the end of your focus group getting input into your feedback practice – whether it be brainstorming how to respond, how to get higher response rates next time, and/or brainstorming how to close the loop with clients. This helps ground the focus group and keep it actionable.

Focus groups are a great strategy to increase client engagement in your organization.