User Survey

You can view, create and delete User Survey systems on ASM Core. Each survey system includes a set of rules about how the surveys are to be sent out.

Surveys can be automated based on a predefined threshold and closing or logging group criteria, or they can be sent on-demand/ad-hoc

There is no limit to the number and kind of survey systems you can have and you can do:

• Quantitative Surveys

• Qualitative Surveys

• Mixed/Hybrid Surveys

Benefits

Conducting surveys directly from your ITSM system offers several benefits:

1. Direct Feedback for Service Improvement: It allows you to gather firsthand feedback on IT services, identifying areas of excellence and those requiring improvement.

2. Measuring User Satisfaction: Surveys serve as a tool to measure the satisfaction levels of your users, helping you understand their expectations and experiences.

3. Alignment with ITIL Practices: Integrating surveys within your IT service management processes aligns with ITIL best practices, enabling continuous service improvement.

Best Practices for Survey Frequency and Question Number

1. Frequency: Aim for a balanced frequency that gathers enough feedback without overwhelming respondents. Post-service resolution or quarterly surveys are effective strategies.

2. Number of Questions: Keep surveys short and focused. Ideally, 5-10 questions are sufficient to gather meaningful insights without causing survey fatigue.

Example Questions to Measure Specific Aspects of Your Services Delivery

Here are some example questions to include in your ITSM surveys, aimed at measuring specific areas:

• Service Delivery Satisfaction: "How satisfied were you with the resolution time of your recent support request?"

• Quality of Support: "On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the knowledge and helpfulness of the support team?"

• Ease of Access to Services: "How easy is it to request IT support through our portal?"

• Overall Satisfaction: "Overall, how satisfied are you with the IT services provided?"

• Improvement Areas: "What is one thing we could do to improve our IT services?"

Including these types of questions in your surveys will help you accurately gauge user satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and align IT services with user expectations.

Analyzing Survey Questions: Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Quantitative Questions - Measurable/Numbers

• Quality of Support: "On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the knowledge and helpfulness of the support team?"

  This question asks respondents to provide a numeric rating, making it quantitative as it yields measurable data.

Qualitative Questions - Descriptive/Categorical

• Qualitative data is used to understand the underlying reasons, opinions, or motivations behind a phenomenon, adding depth and context that quantitative data alone might miss.

• Improvement Areas: "What is one thing we could do to improve our IT services?"

  This open-ended question encourages descriptive answers, collecting subjective data, thus it is qualitative.

Mixed/Hybrid Approach Questions

This approach is used to leverage the strengths of both data types, providing a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem.

• Service Delivery Satisfaction: "How satisfied were you with the resolution time of your recent support request?"

• Ease of Access to Services: "How easy is it to request IT support through our portal?"

• Overall Satisfaction: "Overall, how satisfied are you with the IT services provided?"

  These questions, while appearing to seek ratings (suggesting a quantitative approach), depend on the survey's response options. If they're based on a numeric scale or Likert scale (e.g., dissatisfied to satisfied), they're quantitative. If they solicit open-ended feedback, they become qualitative.

Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Questions in Surveys

Having both types of questions in the same survey can provide a balanced view, integrating measurable data with rich, descriptive insights for a comprehensive understanding.

Segregating them into different surveys might be beneficial when targeting specific feedback types separately, but generally, a mixed approach within the same survey enriches the data and actionable insights.

The scope and frequency of the surveys, and the fields contained within them, can be configured to obtain exactly the information wanted.

Automated Surveys

Surveys can be configured to send automatically based on the following Criteria:

1. According to the group that closed the call or request

2. According the the group that logged the request

3. By Organization

4. By Date Range

5. A specified percentage of the time/threshold

6. A specified number of days between surveys for each recipient

Ad-Hoc or On-Demand Surveys

Analysts also have the option to send ad-hoc surveys. Users are able to submit surveys that have been sent to them from the call or request in the Self-Service Portal.

User Surveys for Calls and Requests can be configured to be manually sent to any Closed Call or Request. Analysts can manage reminders to ensure survey completion and also bulk send surveys. End Users are able to complete the surveys directly within the Self Service Portal.

Creating a Survey System

Before you start

As some parameters are read from the database at application start-up, we recommend that there are no Analysts logged on when you make changes to system settings.

Ensure you are in the correct partition before applying the settings.

You must have IPK Setup selected in the Admin tab of your General Access Security Role in order to configure any IPK administration settings.

1. Select ≡ > Admin > System Administration. The System Administration window appears.

2. In the Explorer pane, expand IPK Management.

3. Select User Survey to open the window. Existing User Surveys are displayed in a browse table. You can adjust the column widths if required.

4. Select the Plus icon. This opens the New System window.

5. Type the name of the survey system

6. Choose whether the survey is for calls or requests

7. Click OK.

8. This opens the User Survey Details window.

9. If this will be a Manual User Survey - tick the Manual Survey Box.

10. Once all details have been completed, select the Save Icon. The names of all the current survey systems are displayed on this window, along with the final date from which closed calls are used to generate surveys for that system.

The User Survey Details Window

This window has three tabs:

Distribution Tab

By default, this view opens, allowing you to select the options used to determine how the surveys are sent out.

1. Manual Survey -

2. Calls Closed From - Select the starting date from which Open-Resolved or Closed calls will have surveys generated. No calls with a date earlier than this will be selected for surveys by ASM Core.

**Selecting a past date may result in a large number of surveys being generated on the first survey cycle as it includes calls that are already closed/resolved.

**Selecting a future date results in no surveys being sent until that date and only for calls closed/resolved after that date.

When editing an existing Survey, this field displays the date that was set at the previous Save. If changing the selection criteria, such as Group or Organization, consider the closed/resolved date of the calls the new criteria will be applied to:

• To apply the new criteria to calls closed/resolved after the date of the edit, change the date value to today's date.

• To apply the new criteria to calls closed/resolved since the past date displayed, and potentially generate a large number or surveys, the date does not need to be changed.

3. Logged Group - Select the checkbox to specify one or more support groups (the groups who logged the calls) for this particular support system. Select the group(s) to be included in the survey and use the buttons to the right of the table to include/exclude the groups.

4. Resolved Group - Select the checkbox to specify one or more support groups (the groups who closed or resolved the calls) for this particular support system. Select the group(s) to be included in the survey and use the buttons to the right of the table to include/exclude the groups.

5. Boolean Operator AND/OR - Select AND to apply the survey to calls linked to both the group and the organization listed below, or OR to apply the survey to calls related to the resolving group or the organization.

6. Organization - To link the survey to a particular organization (typically this represents the User base for the survey), check the box then search for and select the organization.

7. Min Time - To specify a minimum number of days between email messages for each User, select Set Minimum and specify a minimum number of days you want to set as the minimum in the Days field. By default, a system is set with no minimum. Setting a minimum time prevents Users from receiving the same survey if multiple calls for the User are closed in a short period of time.

   • No Minimum

   • Set Minimum to __ Days - For the purposes of calculating the minimum number of days, ASM Core checks the last time the User was sent a survey email, not the last time a call was closed. This distinction may be important, depending on how often you are running the polling service.

8. Percentage - To reduce server load or database size, specify a particular percentage of Closed or Open-Resolved calls that should generate the survey. ASM Core will only send out that proportion of survey email messages (that is, the total possible number multiplied by this percentage). For example, enter 50 if you want to send out half the number of potential surveys. ASM Core applies all other filters first (minimum number of days, group, organization, etc.) before excluding calls based upon the percentage. Calls are excluded according to an arbitrary selection process. Users who do not have a valid email ID are not included in the total count of calls against which the percentage is measured.

Content Tab

Enables you to specify the survey form to use, and set the survey URL that Users will use to complete the survey.

1. Survey Form - Select an option to determine the survey page the User will complete. When the User Survey email is sent to a User it contains a URL link to this survey form. The URL in the email will be similar to the URL used for logging into the ASM Core application. The survey form can be a default, a custom, or any other form.

   • Custom Survey - Select to use a custom survey form you have designed. Type the URL for the survey in the Use Custom URL field at the bottom of the window. This URL will be included in the email sent to the User. The Custom URL is used to point to the specific URL of the survey page.

   • Standard Survey - Select to use a standard survey form, that is, one of the built-in survey forms in ASM Core. Then select a survey in the list. This updates the name of the survey in square brackets after the Standard Survey option.

2. URL - Specify the URL for the survey.

   • You can either use the default MMA URL defined for your system, or

   • You can specify a custom URL

Use MMA URL derives the survey URL from the MMA URL configured in the Server Console for the ASM System.

"Use Custom URL" activates the Custom URL field where you can specify a fully qualified URL to point to the location where your survey form is located. This URL must point to a valid ASM System.

You may choose to use a URL other than the MMA URL in cases where User Survey respondents have different permissions or are located outside of the network. In this case, an alternate URL might be more accessible or may perform extra checks on the survey respondents.

The naming convention for the URL is http://server/virtualdirectory/surveyname.asp

where:

• Server is the name or address of the application server that ASM Core is installed on

• Virtualdirectory is the name of the virtual directory that is set up for the surveys

• Surveyname.asp is the name of the survey you are using

Email Tab

Enables you to define the message template to use for the email sent out for the surveys.

1. Select the Email tab to display the email options.

2. At Message Template list, select the template that is to be applied to the message for this survey. Message templates can be configured in ASM Designer by analysts with the required permission.

3. Set Reminders - Allows ASM to send reminders for the surveys sent. When you select to set reminders, ASM will need information about when and for how long to send reminders to the users to complete their survey.

   • Repeat Reminder every __Working Days - Select the interval between working days reminders should be sent to the user. For example, you may want a reminder to go every 5 working days.

     • End after __Reminders have been sent - Select to end reminder emails after a specified number have been sent. For example if after three reminders, there is still no response, ASM will stop sending reminders to take the survey.

     • Until Survey Received - If you want reminders to go out in perpetuity until the survey is answered/received, select this option.

Editing a Survey System

1. Select ≡ > Admin > System Administration. The System Administration window appears.

2. In the Explorer pane, expand IPK Management.

3. Select User Survey to open the window. Existing User Surveys are displayed in a browse table. You can adjust the column widths if required.

4. Select the system you want to edit and select the pencil icon.

5. This opens the User Survey Details window.

6. Make the necessary changes.

7. Save the changes.

8. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.

Deleting a Survey System

1. Select ≡ > Admin > System Administration. The System Administration window appears.

2. In the Explorer pane, expand IPK Management.

3. Select User Survey to open the window. Existing User Surveys are displayed in a browse table. You can adjust the column widths if required.

4. To delete an existing system, select the row and select the delete icon.

5. Save the changes.

6. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.