Contact centers frequently choose surveying as the method to collect information from customers or employees. Collecting good, reliable survey information requires that you have a properly designed survey instrument so that every respondent interprets each question the same way and that you have a sufficient sample of respondents for the results to truly represent the overall group.

This series of Customer Surveying Workshops, hosted by The Call Center School and taught by industry expert Fred Van Bennekom, teaches you step-by-step how to build and create a survey program to achieve your contact center research goals. This eight-part course curriculum includes :

Course 1: Customer Surveying Overview August 4, 2010 (10am CDT)

Developing a good survey program requires understanding survey concepts and engaging in good project management. This course will provide a solid foundation for your survey program. Especially essential is the development of clear objectives for the research program. Without this, the survey project will likely not achieve your goals.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

Course 2: The Questionnaire Design Process August 5, 2010  (10am CDT)

A well-designed, valid questionnaire is most critical to generating actionable data from a survey program.  This first of four seminars on questionnaire design will focus on the process of identifying the questions to pose on the survey.  Many people mistakenly think that designing a questionnaire is a simple process and that questions just magically appear.  This class will present a structured approach to attribute identification to help ensure achieving the research objectives.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Outline the steps needed to develop a questionnaire.
• Define the three types of survey questions typically used in a survey.
• Identify the questions to pose on a survey.
• Incorporate focus groups and other research to identify the questions to ask.

Course 3:  Questionnaire Design Elements August 11, 2010 (10am CDT)

Once the attributes to be measured on a survey are identified, the instrument itself must be crafted.  This class will cover the various elements found in questionnaires and common concerns when assembling the final survey instrument.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Value an attribute library as the basis for constructing a questionnaire.
• Recognize the critical value of pilot testing.
• Outline the elements in a questionnaire.
• Describe the use of branching in questionnaire design.
• Identify concerns about assembling a questionnaire, such as sequencing.

Course 4: Questionnaire Design Principles August 12, 2010 (10am CDT)

Questionnaire validity means that the survey instrument measures what we’re intending to measure. No part of the surveying process is more critical to achieving this validity than is the crafting of the actual questions. This session will cover critical concerns in drafting questions to avoid instrumentation bias, which compromises validity. We will end with a quick overview of question formats, data types and subsequent analysis.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Identify the various types of instrumentation bias.
• Write questions that clearly measure the underlying attribute.
• Define the different data types survey questions can generate
• Recognize the impact of question format on data analysis.

Course 5: Survey Questionnaire Formats August 18, 2010 (10am CDT)

To generate the data to answer your research questions, you have to write questions that effectively solicit responses. There are many question formats to consider when building a questionnaire and this seminar will outline the different types of formats, describing the advantages of each along with critical design issues. In particular, we will address the creation of interval-rating scales. The session will end discussing different ways to measure importance of various factors toward driving an outcome such as customer satisfaction.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Define both unstructured and structured questions.
• Identify ordinal, interval, and ratio scale questions.
• Create scales that measure customer perceptions accurately.
• Design questions that accurately measure importance.

Course 6: Elements of Survey Administration August 19, 2010 (10am CDT)

With the survey questionnaire designed, the next step in the survey process is to administer the survey. Different methods exist to administer a questionnaire – phone, web, and postal mail are the best known – and each method has its strengths and weaknesses. This seminar will cover different options for administering a survey, as well as present the types of biases that poor administration can introduce into the data.  We will also cover sampling processes and the critical question of “how many responses do I need for an accurate survey?” along with how to increase response rates.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Outline strengths and weaknesses of different administration methods.
• Identify types of administration biases.
• Define various types of sampling methods.
• Discuss response rates and how to calculate statistical confidence.
• Define ways to increase response rates.

Course 7: Survey Data Analysis August 25, 2010 (10am CDT)

Once the survey questionnaire has been administered, you now have a data set that hopefully will answer your research needs. To uncover this information successfully, you will need to perform proper statistical data analysis. This class will address the basic statistics that you will perform on most any data set. The basic concepts of data analysis will be covered, along with how to perform most functions using Excel®.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Define the necessary data cleansing before analysis begins.
• Outline the type of statistics appropriate for each question format and data type.
• Define and calculate basic statistics run on any survey data set (mean, mode, median, standard deviation, confidence intervals and frequency distributions).

Course 8: Advanced Survey Analysis August 26, 2010 (10am CDT)

Once we’ve analyzed performance for each question on the survey, there’s still potentially more to learn through advanced analysis. Our approach is to identify what research question we’re trying to answer and then identify the proper statistical technique to answer the question. While not –definitely – a substitute for a college stats class, we will cover how to determine if changes in performance over time are statistically significant and how to identify the drivers of customer satisfaction, all using Excel®. Finally, the data needs to be presented in a report to drive action in the organization.

Seminar attendees will learn to:

• Identify whether changes between data sets are statistically significant (t-test).
• Generate performance data sliced by demographic group (pivot tables).
• Determine whether changes seen across demographic groups is statistically significant (Chi square test and ANOVA).
• Identify the drivers of customer satisfaction, without asking it on the survey (correlation and regression analysis).
• Construct a survey report that will communicate well the findings.
• Identify what charts to use for each question format.

8-Course Customer Surveying Workshop Series

Attend all eight of the above courses for a comprehensive how-to learning experience that will equip with the A-Z steps of planning a survey project, designing a questionnaire, administering the survey, and analyzing/reporting the results.  Buy all 8 sessions as an 8-Course Web Seminar Bundle for only $2,000 — a savings of $400 compared to the single seminar price.