News & Insights

Top 6 Reasons Member Satisfaction Tracking is Moving Entirely Online

The new year will bring new changes to the Member Satisfaction Tracking System: surveys conducted entirely online. This move comes after a three-year transition from telephone-only surveying and is spurred by the increasing costs of phone surveys and declining participation.

This move will provide you with results more reflective of your membership and provide your members with the opportunity to deliver feedback at a time convenient for them and on a device of their choice (smartphone, tablet device, PC, laptop, etc.). 

Here are the top six reasons Member Satisfaction Tracking is moving entirely online:

  1. Cost savings for your cooperative. Online surveys are less expensive than phone surveys.  For most participants, you should expect to see savings on your overall investment in the member satisfaction tracking system for the foreseeable future.
  2. Satisfaction scores reflective of your membership.  Recent analysis of satisfaction data from 2020 shows consistency in satisfaction scores for phone and online respondents.  Further analysis reveals that members up to age 64 are completing the satisfaction surveys in significantly greater numbers online, relative to their most senior counterparts.
  3. More depth to member comments.  Online survey participants provide more in-depth and insightful comments as they have more time to assemble their thoughts as opposed to phone surveys where comments are generally minimal.
  4. Quicker turnaround on data collection.  We expect the transition to 100% online will provide quicker turnaround from initial data collection to final reporting.
  5. Eliminate complaints.  Online surveys eliminate calls from members complaining about unwanted phone calls or concerns the survey may not be legitimate.
  6. Consistency with major industry metrics.  Conducting our satisfaction surveys online provides consistency with industry leaders, such as the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and JD Power and Associates, which now also exclusively conduct online surveys.

One final note:  As we prepare to move forward with our online methodology, we encourage you to grow your database of member email addresses.  A recent finding from the National Survey on the Cooperative Difference indicates the majority of members prefer to receive cooperative communication by email, a sentiment supported by a recent custom market research effort.  Increasing your cooperative’s penetration of email addresses not only helps our survey outreach, but also provides an important touchpoint with members for important co-op messages.