At one point or another, you’ve probably been asked to complete a survey after visiting a business. Many businesses even offer incentives such as discounts on future purchases or entries into drawings for prizes. These firms invest heavily to hear your feedback, but is it worth it?

Not-for-profits are different from for-profit businesses, but one of their commonalities is the need for high levels of service and ongoing engagement with clients. If your organization isn’t using surveys, here are a few important reasons why you should:

• Confirm you’re properly servicing your clients – Using a customer service survey is a great way to ensure the community you serve finds value in what you do. Providing a feedback mechanism allows you an opportunity to learn more about areas of potential improvement. Using a survey such as a net promoter score will enable you to learn what people think of your organization and the personnel you have working on the front lines.
  
  
• Ensure your donors are happy – Surveys are a great way to measure the effectiveness of your communication with donors. Do donors know what you’re doing with your money? Are you providing them with valuable insights about why they should give more? Surveys help you gain feedback on the efficacy of your outreach and how well you’re marketing yourself to the people who support you.
  
  
• They can be a great marketing tool – Surveys offer your clients and donors an opportunity to have a voice in your operations and also provide valuable feedback. Their feedback can be used to market your organization and its mission. If your organization has a great net promoter score, you can use this in your marketing materials (e.g. “9 out of 10 people would recommend us to a friend”). This information can also be used to solicit donations by informing prospective donors about how clients value your services and the good they can do by donating.
  
  
• Can be used to drive engagement – If your employees or volunteers are going “above and beyond” a survey can be a great way to capture and quantify this feedback. Sharing kudos with staff can provide important comments and reinforce good behaviors. Surveys also help you identify when people are placed into improper roles. For example, some people are better suited for behind-the-scenes roles and lack the temperament for working with the public.

Surveys can be a great way to learn more about how well your organization is doing. You can gain important insights and feedback and learn ways to improve. If you would like to learn how to improve your organization’s operations and implement organizational improvements, contact Zinner’s Not-for-Profit team.