Ask yourselves, libraries: are surveys a bit bobbins?

Tweet

We all agree we need data on the needs and wants of our users.

We all agree that asking our users what they want and need has traditionally been a good way of finding that out.

But do we all agree surveys really work? Are they really getting the job done - providing us with the info we need to make changes to our services?

Personally I wouldn't do away with surveys entirely, but I would like to see their level of importance downgraded and the way they're often administered changed. Because I know what it's like to fill in a survey, especially the larger ones. Sometimes you just tick boxes without really thinking too much about it. Sometimes you tell people what they want to hear.  Sometimes you can't get all the way through it. Sometimes by the end you're just clicking answers so you can leave the survey.

I made this. CC-BY.

How can we de-bobbins* our surveys? Let me know below. Here are some ideas for starters:

1. Have a very clear goal of what the survey is helping to achieve before it is launched. What's the objective here? ('It's the time of year we do the survey' does not count as an objective)
    
2. Spend as much time interpretting and analysing and ACTING ON the results as we do formatting, preparing and promoting the survey (ideally, more time)
    
3. Acknowledge that surveys don't tell the whole story, and then do something about it. Use surveys for the big picture, and use UX techniques to zoom in on the details. It doesn't have to be pointless data. We can collect meaningful, insightful data.
    
4. Run them less frequently. LibQual every 2 years max, anyone?
    
5. Only ever ask questions that give answers you can act on
    
6. Run smaller surveys more frequently rather than large surveys annually: 3 questions a month, with FOCUS on one theme per month, that allows you to tweak the user experience based on what you learn
    
7. Speak the language of the user. Avoid confusion by referring to our stuff in the terms our users refer to our stuff
    
8. [**MANAGEMENT-SPEAK KLAXON**] Complete the feedback loop. When you make changes based on what you learn, tell people you've done it. People need to know their investment of time in the survey is worth it.

Any more?

---

*International readers! Bobbins is a UK term for 'not very good'.

How do you get feedback from library users? (Or, Beating Survey Fatigue...)

 

John Kennerly just drew my attention on twitter, to an article about how students are getting survey fatigue. (The article is in The Chronicle of Higher Education, you can read it here.)

I'm really interested in how to get feedback - not just from students in academic libraries, but from all patrons for all types of libraries. My interest has been piqued recently because of:

• Terry Kendrick pointing out in a marketing workshop that "...it's no good asking people what their needs are; they'll just come up with some guff to help you with your survey!" Think about when you were last asked about your needs. What was your main driver in answering - expressing those needs, or just making the question go away? Even those with the best of intentions may come with answers just to try and help the surveyor, rather than truly delving into themselves to try and think about what they need. Plus, needs are based partly on what you know is possible - people might not mention stuff because they don't even know it's something the library has any ability to fulfil.
• Stephen Abram mentioning at SLA2011 how much better the focus groups he ran went when he gave everyone a $5 Starbucks card and told them to spend it and bring a coffee and muffin to the meeting I can imagine a million and one purse-string holders saying "We can't afford to spend $50 on a focus group!" But actually that's a pretty good use of $50...
• The quote from Henry Ford that resurfaces fairly often On the Model T Ford: "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they'd've said a faster horse..."
• A recent revelation at work that a survey we hadn't had time to publicise got more respondents than the previous year when we'd gone all out Could be a coincidence, of course. But maybe there's something in there about the psychology of trying to elicit feedback? .

These are all interesting points, I think. So what are you doing to ascertain what your patrons are thinking? Is there something more reliable than surveys? And if you're asking them via social media, how did you find out what social media platforms they used in the first place...?

All comments gratefully received! :)

- thewikiman