My boss is big on numbers and surveys. He has asked me to do another Facility survey again this year. I did one last year asking how the department was at response times, communication ect. I also asked some questions on building appearance and cleaning issues. I didn't find many surprises in this survey. Seemed like more work than worth. I am wondering what types of survey's others may have, and how you get them distributed and calculated. I did it in word format and did all the calculating on my own. I have 20 locations we serve currently.
bnovi,
Have you tried surveymonkey.com? Depending on how complex your survey is, this is a free tool, very easy to use and analyze results. I think surveys are critical to stay on top of what the customer wants/needs since this is such a customer-service oriented business. Without their buy-in, our jobs are more challenging than they need to be.
I've never done a facilities survey online but our organization has used zoomerang.com to do surveys of staff for all sorts of things but not facilities issues. There's an annual fee but it isn't unreasonable. There's probably lots of sites that offer the same features, maybe at no cost. Seems to be a lot of open source software out there now that does this.
I have used CMMS software that had this as an available feature but I've never actually used it, just played with settings. You might want to check with your software vendor to see if a module is available for this. If your company uses enterprise level business management software, there might be a survey tool hidden in there somewhere, or available as an add on.
We do send out an annual paper survey to all employees asking if there are any needed repairs in their areas and if they have any suggestions for for capital projects, improvements, construction, etc. We get about a thousand back that want window shades replaced or trash cans emptied more often. There isn't usually much of real value that comes back other than it helps us keep up with repairs we may have overlooked.
A couple of our sites have chosen to do the above mentioned maintenance repair surveys of their staff via email and they get almost no response. Paper surveys, although less convenient for everyone, gets more people to respond. I can't tell you why.
20 years fixing, building, and managing facilitiesPreventive Maintenance
Try http://www.startasurvey.com/. This website was developed by our IT support person at UNLV and it's easy to use. It will also automatically tally your results. We run both customer surveys and employee surveys using this application.
My best experience with surveys came with the use of a mathematical point-scoring system for site selection, the points adjustable depending on the proposed development (for example, the presence of a rail siding would be worth more in some situations than others). One of the virtues of a point-based evaluation template is that, if your client wants a validation of his pre-selected outcome, getting him to approve your point-template before starting the survey deflates the pressure to find for the wrong site later.
Martin Harris
Over the past 10 years, our Open Plan Working Group has developed across the web surveys that measure organizational quality, work task quality, comp quality and environment quality. They are accompanied by site based measures of daylighting, lighting, acoustics, thermal comfort and IAQ.
They have been validated and used broadly. Let me know if you are interested.
Steve
Feedback is incredibly challenging to do and do well. You have to know what you want from the feedback, and you have to ask in such a way that it adds value to the respondents as well (or they will be less likely to reply). Plus managing the results, doing the calculations, etc... Takes a lot of effort.
I've spent the last six years building a feedback business targeted at designers, engineers, and facilities managers. Our Client Feedback Tool (www.designfacilitator.com) has already been pre-configured to do what you're asking. Our team of experts has built hundreds of template surveys, provides all the tracking you need, will deliver reports automatically, can send alerts when problems arise - and it takes literally two minutes to use.
We've helped businesses across the US and Canada engage their clients/tenants with feedback quickly, simply, and cost effectively. Give me a call at 919-882-3843 or email at ryan(at)designfacilitator.com and I'll be happy to help. Whether you use our tool, or create your own process, I can offer some tips to get going well.
Meanwhile, here are some relevant blog posts you might want to read:
http://blog.designfacilitator.com/2009/08/07/great-expectations-theory-of-a-feedback-scale/
http://blog.designfacilitator.com/2009/06/18/improving-your-response-rate-part-i/
http://blog.designfacilitator.com/2009/05/06/getting-started-with-a-feedback-initiative/
That would be great if you could please send it to me.
Brian Novinska / Facilities Manager / Summit Credit Union 4800 American Parkway / Madison, WI. 53718608-243-5000 ext. 4606 (ph.) | 608-243-5011 (fax)SummitCreditUnion.com
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