Planning and Implementing Surveys

ASM Ships with 96 fields for conducting both quantitative and qualitative surveys.

Planning Considerations for Your Survey System

Before you dive into building your survey system, it's crucial to have a well-thought-out plan. You can use anything to plan your system from a simple excel spreadsheet or Word document, to a scrap piece of paper! The idea is to take the time to consider the following before you begin so that your efforts are maximized:

1. Objective

   • Clearly define the purpose of your survey.

   • What insights are you hoping to gain?

   • List the Survey Questions that will support this data.

2. Target Audience

   • Identify who will be taking your survey. Understanding your audience can help tailor the survey to their needs.

   • List the user groups or organizations that you will target and the frequency they should receive the surveys.

3. Survey Type

   • Decide between a qualitative or quantitative survey based on your objectives and the kind of data you wish to collect.

   • Will you need a hybrid type?

4. Questions Crafting

   • Ensure your questions are clear, unbiased, and designed to elicit the most valuable responses.

   • Ensure your survey is not too long.

5. Distribution Method

   • Consider how you will distribute your survey for maximum reach and response rate. ASM will email a Survey notification that includes a link to the self service portal.

   • Will you want ASM to send survey reminders for incomplete surveys? If so, how many times?

   • Will you link with a third party survey utility instead? You will need to collect the URL for the Third party system and connect it the survey system in ASM.

6. Data Analysis Plan

   • Have a plan in place for how you will analyze the survey results to draw meaningful conclusions.

   • How will you report against the data? Will you use ASM's native dashboard utility or connect in to Tableau or Bold BI?

Documenting Your Survey System

When it comes to documenting the setup and deployment of your survey system in Alemba Service Manager, a systematic approach ensures clarity and compliance:

1. Change Request: Creating a Change Request in Alemba Service Manager is advisable. This allows you to document the implementation process, associated risks, and approval steps. It ensures that changes to the system are managed in a controlled manner.

2. Documentation: Draft detailed documentation of your survey system’s architecture, including its integration points, survey distribution mechanisms, and data collection methods. This documentation should be accessible for future reference and updates.

   • Attach the Documentation to your change request

3. Communication Plan: Develop a communication plan for stakeholders and potential survey respondents. This could include:

   • Pre-implementation Notice: An email to all users informing them about the upcoming survey system, its purpose, and how it will impact them.

   • Implementation Notice: A notification at the time of rollout, with instructions on how the survey system will be used and support contacts for questions or issues.

   • Feedback Mechanism: Establish a way for users to provide feedback on the survey system, helping you to make continuous improvements.

Taking the time to methodically plan your survey system and document its implementation in Alemba Service Manager, followed by clear communication, will lead to a smoother rollout and higher engagement from your target audience.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Surveys

When you build a survey screen, you need to determine if this will be a qualitative survey, or quantitative.

Qualitative Surveys

Qualitative surveys focus on gathering non-numerical data to understand concepts, thoughts, or experiences. Through open-ended questions, they allow for in-depth insights into the subject matter.

Use Qualitative Surveys when aiming to improve or innovate IT services. They help understand user experiences, pain points, and satisfaction levels in depth. For instance, when launching a new IT tool within the organization, qualitative surveys can provide rich insights into how users interact with the tool and any challenges they face.

A qualitative survey is just as important as a quantitative because it allows for users to communicate directly with you, the organization in plain language. This can often be far more revealing than quantitative surveys. Have you ever taken a survey and just put the neutral answers on every question just so you could be done with it?

The data from these surveys is available from ASM and can easily be sent to the tool of your choice for advanced analysis such as word mapping.

Fields available for qualitative analysis:

1. Data String 1-12. These are string fields, limited to 255 Characters.

2. Data Int 1-12. Numbers only – no text. Negative numbers are allowed.

3. Data Float 1-12. This field can store fractional data.

4. Data Memo 1-12. A memo field, sometimes referred to as a text field or a memo data type, is used to store large amounts of textual data. Unlike string fields, which have a fixed length, a memo field can store variable-length text data, typically allowing for much longer content to be stored. Memo fields are often used for storing paragraphs of text, notes, or other lengthy descriptions.

5. Data Date 1-12. Displays a date control to capture key date values from the Survey participant.

Benefits:

• Deep Understanding: Provides comprehensive insights into feelings, attitudes, and behaviors.

• Flexibility: Respondents can express their thoughts freely, offering unexpected insights.

Drawbacks:

• Analysis Complexity: Responses are harder to categorize and quantify for analysis.

• Time-Consuming: Collection and analysis of data require more time and resources.

Quantitative Surveys

A quantitative survey is perhaps what you are most familiar. Quantitative surveys capture responses on a scale of 1-10, generally, and you are then able to build reports and dashboards that quantitatively aggregate responses to give you a very good idea of the results of what you are measuring. Typically, we call this the CSAT, or Customer Satisfaction Score.

Quantitative surveys collect numerical data that can be quantified. Use Quantitative Surveys for measuring the performance of IT services, compliance with SLAs, or tracking improvements over time. They are valuable in assessing the effectiveness of IT interventions, user satisfaction scores, or adoption rates across a large user base. For example, after implementing a change in the IT help desk process, a quantitative survey can quantify the impact on resolution times and user satisfaction.

1. Data Scale 1-12

2. Data Yes/No (String) 1-12. This data is stored as a string in the Database

3. Data Checkbox 1-12. This data is stored as a 1 or 0 value (True or False) in the Database

Benefits:

• Statistical Significance: Enables the measurement of data statistically to represent the larger population.

• Quick and Cost-Effective: Easier to administer to a large group and straightforward in analysis.

Drawbacks:

• Limited Depth: May not provide deep insights into the respondents' feelings and motivations.

• Inflexibility: Fixed responses may not capture the full range of respondent opinions.