QUISH (QUANTIFY! Integrated Survey Handling package)
If you already have a questionnaire design, this package might provide everything you need It includes:
- Use of the QUANTIFY business reply service if needed to allow confidential post-paid responses.
- Response receipt, sorting & unpacking.
- Configuration of our computer software to handle your survey.
- Manual keying of coded and numerical data.
- Definition and analysis of subset results.
- Outputs in your choice of our standard formats no later than two weeks after you decide to close the survey to further responses. That's guaranteed, or there's no charge for the whole project.
- Confidential destruction of questionnaires after data keying.
Services Menu
Other services you may choose:-
- Questionnaire development
- Validation
- Questionnaire design & printing
- Sampling
- Response enhancement
- Business reply service
- Mailing
- Incoming mail handling
- Data capture
- Subset analysis
- Reports & graphs
- Analysis of free text comments
- Significance
- Interpretation and action
- Benchmarking (Norms)
- Training
- Reports delivery
- Plain English "translation"
- Surveys on the web
See also our QUISH (QUANTIFY Integrated Survey Handling) package.
Questionnaire development
You tell us what issues you want to measure. We discuss them with members of your management team. You might ask us to run focus groups with a number of potential informants. This helps you make sure that no important topics are left out. (There is nothing more frustrating for someone completing a questionnaire than to reach the end of it without being asked your opinion on the one burning issue of the day - for you.)
Then we compose the questions (items) for you, expressing everything in plain English and if necessary translate them into foreign languages.
You get a professionally developed measuring instrument and avoid the pitfalls which lie in wait for the inexperienced questionnaire writer. Not included in QUISH.
Validation
When you have a draft questionnaire, you might want to check that it really does measure what we want to measure (validity), and that it gets the same result each time we use it (reliability). Depending on the rigour you need, you may ask us to conduct a pilot survey and review of the questionnaire items. If you are developing a new questionnaire, and you expect to want to establish a trend by running the same survey every year, you should avoid changing the survey questionnaire much from year to year. So it makes sense to do all you can to be sure that it is right the first time. Not included in QUISH.
Questionnaire design & printing
Once the text of the questions and the manner of answering have been settled, together with any instructions which may be necessary, you may ask us to design the actual form to be used, and supply artwork on paper or as a print optimised .pdf file. The response rate will depend among other things on the design of the questionnaire and the quality of the printing. You need the questionnaire to be as inviting as possible, and produced to a standard which is in keeping with the importance you attach to the views you are gathering, without being unduly ostentatious or extravagant.
You get a questionnaire which is attractive and easy to complete rather than intimidating to the informant. You also avoid any risk that we might impose a surcharge for handling a non-ideal questionnaire design. Not included in QUISH.
Sampling
If you need to estimate the views of a large group of people by asking only some of them to complete the survey, the selection of the sample to be asked is crucial to the accuracy of the estimate. You may want advice on the sample size and sampling methods according to the uses to which the results are to be put; the required limits of accuracy (sampling error) and confidence level. Or we can handle the whole process for you. Not included in QUISH.
Response enhancement
There are many techniques you can use to encourage people to complete and return the questionnaire. You may want advice on this vital subject, and help with putting it into practice. Advice is included in QUISH. Other help is extra.
Business reply service
You will probably choose to include pre-printed postage-paid QUANTIFY reply envelopes in the questionnaire mailing. We have two versions; one for use within the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and another for use internationally. They can improve the volume and the honesty of responses because informants don't have to find a stamp, and because the envelope is addressed to us, not you, informants will often feel happier about filling in and returning the questionnaire, knowing that only people in an independent third party organisation will see it. You pay for the envelopes and for postage on questionnaires actually returned. The service itself is included in QUISH.
Mailing
You may choose to handle the distribution of the questionnaires through your internal mailing service. Or we can handle mail merging, envelope stuffing, franking and posting for you. Not included in QUISH.
Incoming mail handling
Opening, unfolding and sorting out what might be thousands of questionnaires is a chore you will be pleased to leave to us! Included in QUISH.
Data capture
Experienced staff using specially developed survey management software key in responses. This provides ideal error trapping and speed of entry - data entry staff are fast, but they can also read between the lines when necessary, to see what the informant meant to say, which might not be exactly what they did say. Included in QUISH.
Subset analysis
We define the subdivisions of the total response that you need to see to get the best value out of the survey. We can suggest the subsets which you should have, or we can set up exactly what you tell us to. You get the analysis you want without spending hours with a calculator, or crouched over a computer. Included in QUISH.
Reports & graphs
You choose how you wish your results reported. For lowest cost, QUISH includes one standard report of your choice relating to each subset.
To meet a particular need, you describe to us how you would like your outputs to appear. We choose suitable software and set it up to produce the bespoke report or graph you visualised. This service is not included in QUISH.
You get quality outputs to suit your organisation and give you power to bring about change.
Analysis of free text comments
When you invite informants to write in their free text comments, many will take up the invitation but only a few of them will express unique or original thoughts. So though they may all express it in different words, many informants will make the same comment.
We examine each comment, paraphrase and classify it to bring like thoughts together. Each new idea is placed appropriately in the classification system When we find another example of a thought already recorded, we record it as another instance. By this means, we are able to report to you, when the task is complete, how many informants expressed each thought we have identified, and what percentage they represent of the total response to the survey. We can report category by category, or in descending order of the number and percentage of informants mentioning a particular thought, so you see the most often repeated remark first. Reports can be filtered to show only comments mentioned by more than, say, ten informants, or we can report separately the comments coming from subsets you specify. Not included in QUISH.
Significance
You may want advice on the significance of any seeming findings of the research. It may appear that people in one group have different views from those in another. Is the difference a real one or just the result of sampling error? Several of our standard report layouts highlight significant differences.
Glossary entry | Services menu
Interpretation and action
You may want help deciding which are the really important findings for the future of your business, and developing and putting into effect action plans based on the survey findings. Not included in QUISH.
Benchmarking
We can provide a Benchmarking comparison report to allow you to put your employee satisfaction survey results in context, by comparing your results with other clients' responses to a similar question (item). We suggest that you treat the comparison with caution, though, because whenever you use benchmarking comparisons (ours or anyone else's) you can be pretty sure that you won't be comparing like with like. For full details see our Norms page.
Training
You may ask us to run a training course so some of your people can acquire the knowledge and skills they need to produce a first draft of a survey instrument and cut out much of the cost involved in having us develop survey instruments for you. Not included in QUISH.
Reports delivery
You may choose to have your survey outputs printed on paper in the traditional way. Out of consideration for the environment however, we recommend that you request delivery as Adobe® Acrobat® .pdf files sent as email attachments. .
