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Surveys of clients: hardcopy or electronic – or both?

An April 2002 report at page 3 by Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability about Florida’s Department of Legal Affairs, a massive department with 1,253 full-time equivalent positions and a budget exceeding $135 million, makes a useful observation about how best to drive up response rates on client satisfaction surveys.

When the Department electronically surveyed its 124 clients in 2001, 25 percent responded. By contrast, two years before a paper survey found a 54 percent response rate, or twice that of the later online round. The report did not state that the two surveys were substantially the same or that they went to substantially the same positions, but I will assume that. Possibly, 2001 was at the dawn of e-mail or online database comfort; possibly an electronic survey on the same terms in 2005 but with a more techno-savvy client group, would rebound to the higher figure.

Meanwhile, law departments who wish to find out what their clients think should offer clients both methods of responding.

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