STEP 1
E VA
MANAGING THE
CAMP CUSTOMER
FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
By Gina Calvert with Russ Milham, MSc, James Alford, PhD, Alex Genov, PhD
Global Experience Research Team at ACTIVE Network
581_14
L U AT E
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
INTRODUCTION
As camp comes to a close, it’s time to pull out the post-camp survey and find out what
your campers and parents thought about their experience with your camp. Before you
look for last year’s survey or throw together a list of “what did you like?”/”what didn’t
you like?” type questions, we’d like to share a few ideas for making the most of the
valuable resource of customer feedback throughout the year.
There’s an art to collecting, understanding, and leveraging feedback. From timing to
tools, from interpreting results to taking action, managing the entire camp customer
feedback loop is crucial. That means:
++Doing the necessary upfront thinking before the feedback is gathered
++Engaging well with customers to draw out the best they have to say
++Knowing what to do with the answers you get afterwards.
PLAN
With the help of ACTIVE Network’s Global Experience Research team,
we’ve developed a series of how-to guides to help you make the
most of your customer feedback initiatives.
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
Plan
E VA
L U AT E
YOUR KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are self-assigned
measurements of success. These measurements rely
on a strong internal sense of what’s important to an
organization. Perhaps success is determined by 10/10
customer satisfaction, an 80% return rate, or 5% growth
in enrollment year over year. Does your camp have clearly
defined KPIs?
Ideally, these are in place before you start thinking about
obtaining customer feedback. If they’re not, this is a good time
to establish KPIs. Otherwise, your feedback requests can completely
miss the mark.
THE PURPOSE OF YOUR FEEDBACK REQUEST
The first step in planning your customer feedback request is to explore these factors:
++The purpose of your request
++When and how you will make the request
++How you will process the data into actionable conclusions
++What action you will take as a result of these conclusions
Start by defining exactly what it is you need to understand. It can be tempting to test
for everything and then look for patterns, but this method is typically best used by
experienced statisticians. It’s more effective to articulate your idea into a narrowly
focused, testable hypothesis question or statement, such as “Parents would support a
camp tuition increase to accommodate a healthy salad bar at lunchtime.”
Once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to ask the right questions and
capture just what you need. You won’t end up with useless data, or wish, later, that you
had asked additional questions.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
You never want to ask
questions about items
you cannot or do not plan
to take action on.
Besides the specific information you’re seeking, the ultimate goal and purpose of all
feedback requests is to be able to draw actionable conclusions. That means you
never want to ask questions about items you cannot or do not plan to take action on,
such as fixed details about your property.
THE TIMING OF YOUR FEEDBACK REQUEST
In the world of statistics, data cannot become insight until it is relevant, actionable and
timely. With regard to timeliness, researchers suggest keeping in mind two things.
First, customer feedback must be requested only when the respondent has the
knowledge to give you actionable data. You’ll need to make sure customers have all
the information they need to give you information you need.
You also want to get feedback when the experience under consideration is fresh
in customers’ minds. For example, ask about the quality of the registration process
immediately after parents have registered their children. Days or weeks later, their
frustration or delight—or the desire to talk about it—may be a distant memory. Big
frustration can fuel the desire to make big waves later (“you bet I’ll fill out your survey!),
or it can lead to a decision to cut losses and move on (“I’m not wasting any more time
with this camp by filling out this survey!”). Mid-to-minor frustration or satisfaction may
dissipate once the experience is over.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t reach out for feedback during the off-season. Staying
in touch throughout the year is vital to building a lasting relationship. Just be aware
that off-season feedback requests are especially dependent on a firm knowledge of
the specific information you’re seeking and creative ways to engage your audience.
THE TYPE OF DATA YOU WANT
There are two types of data and they serve different purposes. Knowing which one
you’re trying to obtain will guide the next steps in the process. They are:
++Quantitative: What’s going on?
This data can be described in numbers (i.e. 50% of those surveyed like “x”).
Quantitative data gives you information on who’s coming to which camps and the
revenue generated by each, so you can be efficient in your programming and
marketing. This type of data is easy to work with and you can calculate averages,
percentage increases/decreases, and other trends.
++Qualitative: Why is this happening?
This is a richer story, the thing that tells us not just what to do, but what we should believe
about the group and topic being surveyed. Qualitative data can often be converted to
quantitative data, as well (i.e. 50% of those surveyed like “x” because of “y”). This kind of
data gives you insight into new programs you could offer or where engagement is
needed to increase loyalty to your camp
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
THE TYPE OF REQUEST TO USE
There are three different areas of decision-making when it’s time to design your
feedback request.
1. METHOD: Determine which method of obtaining feedback best fits the purpose and
timing of your request:
++Surveys
Surveys can be in the form of paper, web, phone or personal interview. You would
use a survey when you want to quantify (put numbers to) customers’ satisfaction and
perception on how well you met your goal of standing out against competitors with a
new offering new offering, for example. Think of a survey as a ruler.
++Focus Groups
A focus group is a small number of people who help you know what to measure with
your survey or “ruler”. They gather to give deeper insights into how your customers
talk about certain topics in order to use that language in formal surveys. Pre-qualify
your survey hypothesis and questions for clarity and relevance with this group.
Be proactive rather than reactive and ask customers what they value the most. Have
they recommended camps in the past? Why? What makes a good camp experience?
What makes a bad camp experience? Keep track of these responses. Once the
answers from different focus groups start to get repetitive, you’ve probably learned
what most of your customers care about.
++Conversations
This could be formal questions in person or by email, or information you gather
during informal conversations and email. Keep these in a file to refer back to later for
focus group or survey questions rather than using as actionable customer evidence,
due to the fact that stand-alone verbatim customer feedback can serve opposing
agendas or amplify vocal minorities.
There are several informal, pre-existing feedback formats to monitor, as well, including:
++Complaints (written, verbal)
++Social Media (monitoring what people are saying about their camp experience)
++Data Analytics (this includes not only the data you’ll receive from your feedback
request, but also the data already residing in your camp registration and
management software)
If you’re thinking about online surveys, take advantage of available survey tools, such as:
++Survey Monkey. It’s free for short surveys, inexpensive for more in-depth ones, and
contains analytics to help you aggregate of your responses.
++Net Promoter System (NPS). The popular tool that specializes in creating engaging
surveys that help you convey that you’re asking AND listening.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
Be aware that COPPA
prohibits surveying
children under 13.
2. QUESTION TYPE: The question type determines the answer type, so you can back
your way into writing effective questions by determining the answer types you want to
receive and how you want to tabulate the results. Question types include:
++Multiple Choice
Example: Which activity would you most like to see at next year’s Summer Camp?
(Select one.)
· Archery
· Canoeing
· Basket weaving
· Other (Please specify)
++Yes/No
Example: Which activities would you like to see at next year’s Summer Camp?
(Select all that apply).
· Archery
· Canoeing
· Basket weaving
· Other (Please specify)
++Rank Ordering
Example: Please rank the following activities, with 1 being the activity you would
most like to see at next year’s Summer Camp, and 3 being the activity that you
would least like to see at next year’s Summer Camp.
· Archery
· Canoeing
· Basket weaving
++Open-ended
Example: What activity would you most like see at next year’s Summer Camp?
++Likert Scale (agree/disagree)
Example: How much do you agree or disagree that you’d like the following
activities included at next year’s Summer Camp? 1=Strongly Disagree 2=Somewhat
Disagree 3=Neutral 4=Somewhat Agree 5=Strongly Agree
· Archery
· Canoeing
· Basket weaving
· Other (Please specify)
As you can see, the formatting of the questions slightly affects the format of the answers,
helping you get broad or specific answers, depending on your desired outcome.
3. QUESTION QUALITY: The quality of the questions in surveys and questionnaires
also determines the results. Guidelines for writing good questions include:
++Use language any participant can understand
Yes: How would you describe our camp check-in process on opening day?
No: How well does our camp align with ACA guidelines for camp procedures and
processes?
++Be clear and direct
Yes: Were you able to easily notify us of your child’s special needs?
No: What did you like or not like about the way we requested information about
meeting your child’s special needs?
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
++Don’t ask leading or loaded questions (questions worded so the answers are
automatically stacked in your favor or containing emotionally charged language that
may limit their responses or lead responders to react to your wording rather than the
topic at hand.)
Yes: Rate your level of satisfaction with our registration process.
No: How was this year’s camp registration an improvement over last year’s?
++Avoid “double-barrel” questions (make sure only one question is being asked at a time.)
Yes: How long did the registration process take from start to finish?
No: How would you rate our new online registration tool and our supplemental forms
submission process?
++Be sure to test your questions for clarity (and user experience, if online)
++Provide short questions (20 word max) and short surveys (people prefer them. In
addition, consider that longer web surveys may be hampered by computer time-outs
or responder exhaustion)
In creating multiple choice questions, keep these three things in mind:
++You must allow for an “other” option.
Some people don’t like to include “other” because they feel that it makes the data more
time-consuming to classify or changes it from quantitative to qualitative, but there’s no
possible way you can list every potential answer. By eliminating an open-ended choice,
you have loaded your question to where only your answers are possible.
++Research practitioners report that no more than 5% of the answers you receive
should be “other.”
If you get a lot of “other” responses, it means you may not know your customers as
well as you should or didn’t think through enough of the possible answers. Use this
data to improve future surveys.
++Reduce the length of the “other” response by limiting space for the answer.
THE AUDIENCE YOU’LL POLL
The decisions you’ve already made should make it clear who you’ll be asking for
feedback: campers, parents, or possibly even counselors. Be aware that COPPA
prohibits surveying children under 13. Please also consider creating a best practice
policy of getting consent from parents before surveying older children.
The main thing to remember is that the results you obtain must come from a
large enough group to be representative of your entire customer base. There are
calculators that can help you determine how many responses you’ll need from the
larger group to validate your conclusions and make data-driven decisions.
You may feel that you are hearing a certain message over and over again, but unless
you do a formal test or survey, that number may represent a much smaller (or larger)
segment than you knew.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 1: PLAN YOUR APPROACH
Customer feedback
and resulting data can
validate and fill in the
gaps between intuition
and fact.
Next Stop: Converting Customer Feedback into
Insight and Action
THE VALUE OF DATA
Camp directors rely on strong, valuable intuition to run their businesses. Done well,
customer feedback and resulting data can validate and fill in the gaps between
intuition and fact.
In addition to the data that results from direct feedback requests, such as surveys, we
encourage you to explore the customer insights your camp management system may hold:
What have your customers already told you through their purchases and
registration patterns? Can you easily extract your management systems’ data
and identify trends or patterns, such as which programs and months produced
the most registrations or cancellations, and exactly what dollar amount is
associated with each program?
Now you have some ideas to guide you through the process of creating customer
feedback requests. As our Customer Feedback Series continues, we’ll share with you:
++How to ENGAGE customers to increase participation in your surveys and questionnaires
++How to EVALUATE customer responses by turning them into usable data and
understanding what the data means to your business
++How to EXECUTE insights into actionable, data-driven decisions, taking guesswork out
of the picture.
LET’S TALK! Speak with a Camp Specialist to
learn more about how you can grow your camp.
888.820.5808 | [email protected] | www.ACTIVEcamps.com
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
++Survey Monkey Best Practices
++Super Survey Knowledge Base: Why Survey? and Types of Surveys
++ 501(c)reative: Focus Groups: How 12 People & Two Hours Can Change Your Organization
STEP 2
E VA
MANAGING THE
CAMP CUSTOMER
FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
By Gina Calvert with Russ Milham, James Alford, PhD, Alex Genov, PhD
Global Experience Research Team at ACTIVE Network
581_14
L U AT E
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
FOUR LEVELS OF
ENGAGEMENT
D
C
B
A
INTRODUCTION
Most people value the opportunity to express their concerns, but it can be a challenge
to get their attention or get them to slow down long enough to give their opinion. Take
advantage of their willingness to share by understanding what makes people engage
and by being engaging enough to catch their eye.
The Psychology of Customer Engagement
As you plan your feedback request, your questions, the timing, and the audience you’ll
poll, it’s important to recognize what people are looking for if you want them to see
what you’re asking for.
1. USE THE WORDS THAT TOUCH THEIR EMOTIONS
Through extensive research, Gallup developed a rating scale of the 4 emotional
states you’ll see customers go through as they become more and more engaged
with a brand/organization.1 Together, these states reflect the strength of the emotional
connection between a customer and a brand. They are:
A. Confidence: They believe your camp can be trusted
A. CONFIDENCE
Friendly Fans: They may not
chatter about their loyalty, but their
repeat business sends a message
that they trust you with their kids.
B. INTEGRITY
Faithful Fans: They are committed
enough to investigate problems, and
endure price hikes, complaints from
others, and a few inconveniences
before switching camps.
C. PRIDE
Fervent Fans: They will promote
you heavily on social media,
engage in public interactions with
your camp brand, and volunteer or
get involved in special requests you
may have
D. PASSION
Fanatical Fans: They will donate
or fundraise for you even after their
children are gone. They’ll be your
best word of mouth advertisers and
feel like a part of the family.
B. Integrity: They’ve seen that you always treat customers fairly and
resolve any problems that occur
C. Pride: They feel appreciated by the camp staff and proud of being
associated with the camp
D. Passion: They consider your camp to be irreplaceable and a perfect
fit for their needs
Understanding this progression helps you interact well with individuals, value every level
of engagement, and have a target for increasing customer confidence in your camp.
Take advantage of this engagement track by displaying these values in your requests
and questions in order to touch these emotions in them. Use these actual words in your
subject lines, emails, and surveys. Other emotions that help increase engagement are
laughter and playfulness, empathy, and a strong concern for kids’ issues.
2. ENGAGE REGULARY
You can’t expect your camper parents to be engaged if you (or your team members)
aren’t. Don’t hide behind your clip board or your computer. Let your personality
become connected to your camp brand.
Regular contact with camp customers creates an ongoing dialogue. Avoid the timeto-register reminder and end-of-camp survey as your only points of contact. Think of
fun polls and short surveys not just as a way to get information, but as a way to keep
people connected to you.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
The Personal Side of Customer Engagement Requests
UNDERSTAND THEM, NOT JUST THEIR CAMP OPINIONS
Remember the old line: “Enough about me. Now, what do YOU think about me?” You
don’t want to be that person! Most surveys and questionnaires seek to understand
the camp customers’ thoughts about camp. That’s great. You want that. But it’s equally
important that customers feel you care about them beyond their opinion of you.
Customer engagement is not one-size-fits-all. The parents of 5-year olds have different
life concerns than the parents of 16-year olds. Moms may want different things than
dads or guardians (and moms make most of the decisions). They want to know that you
understand them. What do you know about your camp parents’ lives, families or values?
SEGMENT YOUR LIST AND ENGAGE SEGMENTS SEPARATELY
People love to talk about their passions. To discover and then address this, you must
classify your customer base into common categories, such as location, child’s age,
programs attended, gender, or length of relationship with your camp. Segmenting your
list helps you send messages and requests that appeal to the right people. It keeps
other customers from feeling bombarded by irrelevant messages. Ultimately you get
better participation and feedback if you tailor your message to the targeted group. A
simple poll in your email newsletter can help you segment your customers. Data from
your own camp management software can assist with this as well. And modern email
tools will allow you to email directly to specific segments of customers.
Also, use your data to poll the segment of lost prospects or customers about why they
did not attend. Imagine getting a message that says, “We missed you this week. Will
you share your reasons for not returning to our camp this year?” Who doesn’t want to
be missed? Boom! Engaged ex-customer-who-could-soon-be-a-returning-customer.
TALK TO PEOPLE
Quality surveys and questionnaires often begin with real-time discussions of issues or
concerns with a focus group. This can help you develop a better feedback request.
When it’s time to send out the survey or poll, personally ask as many people to
participate as you can. Research shows that prior knowledge and invitations to
participate keep people on the lookout for the request and increase participation.2
Explain why you need the feedback. Be sure to poll both satisfied & dissatisfied customers.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
The Personal Side of Customer Engagement Requests
BE BRIEF
People are busy. People are easily bored. In terms of length, 1-2 questions are easy for
most people. 2-4 questions are doable for somewhat engaged customers, and, unless
you have an extraordinarily passionate customer on your hands, 10 questions is probably
max for an occasional, focused, serious request. Short, frequent feedback requests are
more effective at building long-term customer relationships than long, annual surveys,
especially if they’re fun.
People skip the instructions, so you should too. Participation increases if people know
exactly how many questions there are or how long it will take.
BE CREATIVE, NOT BORING
There’s a lot of stuff coming into our inboxes, eyes and ears. You must stand out. Humor
is increasingly a factor in the content choices that get read. Who says your questions
have to be serious? If you want to get to know people, why not ask which summer
blockbuster was their favorite and display the results of your poll?
Or, using a common camp motif, open up your survey by asking customers to rate how
many s’mores, canoe paddles, or macaroni necklaces they’d give on a scale of 1 to 10 for
whatever aspect your survey covers. The surprise factor will take them out of auto-pilot
for a moment and make them curious.
Turn polls into contests for parents and kids to collaborate on best counselor, worst
camp food, funniest camp memory to be highlighted in the post-season eNewsletter
and keep people thinking about camp after it’s over. Award a prize or “title” that would
appeal to the kids.
The things you poll about can affect participation too. Ask what blog topics they’d like to
read or events they’d attend.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
When customer
engagement is limited
to the occasional survey,
your participation is
probably only as good as
your gimmick.
Payment and Prizes for Customer Engagement
Sometimes respondents are paid to take surveys. That may not be in your budget,
but most people have a ‘What’s in it for me?’ kind of attitude and will be more likely to
participate in surveys (especially longer ones) with some type of incentive. Monetary
rewards can include Starbucks gift cards or a discount on future purchases/registrations.
A ballpark for cash incentives is $10-$50 for a 20-minute survey. We’ve also seen camps
use prizes like announcing their dates and times early to certain parents or sending next
years camp t-shirt to a child early as marketing promotions.
This is important: Research also shows that “offers of free, low-value merchandise,
coupons, or even cash incentives don’t go as far in increasing response rates or building
long-term relationships as simply communicating to customers the actions that have
resulted from their feedback.”2
That’s powerful! Here is a list of non-financial responses and rewards that can be meaningful:
1. Show you’re listening by responding to feedback with feedback of your own; at
the very least, a thank you.
2.Publish your results.
3. Recognize comments in your newsletter or on your website or Facebook page
with your thanks for their participation in your survey. (Take care not to use
comments that could put the respondent under attack.) This can help increase
participation on the next survey, as commenters and readers see that you value
customer input.
4. Turn a comment from one request into a question in future feedback requests
to test the value of a customer’s idea or criticism. Let the respondent know
you’re taking the idea under consideration and anonymously reviewing it for
stickiness with other camp customers.
5. Use a comment in favor of a change you were already planning to make as
the introduction to the change, or give credit for an improvement to the person
who supplied the idea.
6. If you sense a serious concern from a survey response, pick up the phone and
call to have a real conversation about it. What customer would not be blown
away by your personal attempt to solve their problem? (Make sure that the goal
of your conversation is not to defend yourself. Customers may not always be
right, but give them the right to be wrong with dignity.)
When customer engagement is limited to the occasional survey, your participation is
probably only as good as your gimmick.
When customer engagement is an ongoing dialogue, however, each quality feedback
loop strengthens the participation of the next one. So, ultimately, the best way to
engage customers to participate in feedback requests is to complete the loop!
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 2: ENGAGE PARTICIPANTS
Next Stop
Now you have some ideas for engaging your customers to participate in your requests
for feedback and building long-term relationships with them in the process. As our
Customer Feedback Series continues, we’ll share with you:
++How to EVALUATE customer responses by turning them into usable data and understanding what the data means to your business
++How to EXECUTE insights into actionable, data-driven decisions, taking guesswork
out of the picture
LET’S TALK! Speak with a Camp Specialist to
learn more about how you can grow your camp.
888.820.5808 | [email protected] | www.ACTIVEcamps.com
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
1
Gallup Scale
2
An Oracle Best Practice Guide for Improving Survey Participation March 2012
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT CHECKLIST:
FF Use words like Confidence, Integrity, Pride, Passion and Short
FF Engage regularly
FF Be Fun—you’re a CAMP director, after all!
FF Get to know people – not just their camp opinion
FF Use technology to target messages to the right
people and STOP SPAMMING everyone else!
FF Show you’re listening and taking action
FF Offer rewards:
++Gift cards
++Cash
++Discounts
++Recognition
++Personal attention
++Bragging rights
++Survey Results
STEP 3
E VA
MANAGING THE
CAMP CUSTOMER
FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
By Gina Calvert with Russ Milham, James Alford, PhD, Alex Genov, PhD
Global Experience Research Team at ACTIVE Network
581_14
L U AT E
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
INTRODUCTION
The results of your feedback request are in. What now?
Now it’s time to take your customer’s responses and turn them into usable data. Data
analysis can sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. With a few basics
under your belt, you’ll be amazed at what your data can tell you.
Many online survey tools incorporate metrics for data analysis. This paper
will help you make sense of those metrics as well as increase your skill
level for deeper mining of that data, responses from other types of
feedback requests, and even the data you already have in your camp
management system.
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
E VA
L U AT E
Validating Your Results
Determining the validity of your survey results is an important first step.
You don’t want to make significant or expensive decisions based on
faulty or inconclusive data or interpretations.
Start uncovering your survey’s first data simply by counting the number
of customers who completed your survey. As we’ve said before, you need
enough of them to make the survey results statistically meaningful. There is no
definitive rule, but more is better. 90% of 10 respondents simply doesn’t mean as
much as 90% of 1,000 respondents.
If the number of responses is lower than you’d like, all is not lost. Review the data
anyway. You can:
++Get a feel for how people responded and what they’re saying.
++Use an online calculator to show you the margin of error your responses will have if
you are working with a small response rate. That means you will take responses with
a few grains of salt!
++Use the data to practice the skills in this paper.
++Focus on the open-ended questions and see if there are any good suggestions for
improvements.
++Compare survey data with other data (registration, benchmarks, experience of program managers and other staff members) to see if it can be validated through other
means.
++Discover areas that warrant continued investigation.
++Learn areas of improvement for your next feedback request.
Remember from Step 1 that a greater than 5% response to “other” in a multiple choice
question indicates you may not know your customers as well as you should or didn’t
think through enough of the possible answers.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
Benchmarking
How do you know if your results are good, bad or average?
Ideally, there would be a set of standards to compare to in your industry, but if there are
none, you must measure your results against your own results, from season to season,
year over year, or sessions and demographics against themselves. If you don’t have
benchmarks, this is the year to set baselines to compare against next year. Baseline
suggestions are given in the next section.
Mining Quantitative Data (Numerical)
Numerical data is the What? of responses. It tells you what’s going on. There are several
simple ways to view the numbers:
NUMBER OF RESPONSES
MEAN & MEDIAN
You can increase the value of your averages by applying a top-box/bottom-box
perspective. Say you arrive at an overall satisfaction average of “5”. What does it
signify? Not much. Did you get all 4-6 responses, or did you get a wide spread with a
lot of 0-1 and 9-10 responses? Dive deeper into top-box numbers (10) and bottom-box
numbers (1). In other words, who are the people who love what you’re doing? Who are
the people who are really dissatisfied? Or which counselor’s group scored the most
top-box responses? (Maybe you should hire that person fulltime!)
RESPONSE RATING
Fig. 1: Normal Distribution, average
(mean) represents majority of responses
NUMBER OF RESPONSES
AVERAGES AND TALLIES
Averages and tallies are easy starting points. Individual numbers don’t tell you much
by themselves, but they are useful for comparison to benchmarks or other segments
of your data.
MEDIAN
MEAN
RESPONSE RATING
Fig. 2: Skewed Distribution, average (mean)
does not represent majority of responses
RESPONSE SPREAD (FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION)
There are a lot of insights to be gained by looking at all your responses as they relate
to each other. When data is charted out, it falls into different distribution patterns,
organized across your measurement grid. Normal distribution refers to a simple bell
curve of averages, where the highest part of the curve represents the majority of
responses (see Fig. 1). Sometimes, however, the distribution leans heavily toward one
side or the other (see Fig.2), giving you more insight into your average.
Means and medians show you the center of your response spread. (The mean is the
exact center of averages; the median is the exact center of the response spread. They
do not necessarily correspond to each other.) Knowing the center of the curve, or
distribution, helps you understand the significance of all responses in relation to each
other. For example, is a comment stating “the website registration didn’t work for me”
common, occasional, or an extreme outlier? This view of your data makes it easier to
determine the level of action to take with regard to various responses.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
Mining Quantitative Data (Comments)
Customer comments (called verbatims) are the Why? of feedback. They add richness to
the What? of quantitative data.
Comments can be extremely insightful, but there are a few realities to keep in mind.
First, it is difficult to put them into context; you have to filter them through your own
experience, which is subjective. Second, survey comments tend to be complaints, so
it’s easy to get discouraged by the lack of positive comments and conclude that they
represent the majority of your population. Third, they may be outliers in the spread of
responses. As such, they should generally be taken with a grain of salt. Or, they could be
that rare but serious response that demands immediate attention.
The best approach is to look for trends and themes. CustomInsights, a company that
provides online HR/employee assessment and development tools, suggests the
following steps to analyzing comments:
1. Read through all the comments
2. Go back and categorize them by topic (not all will fit a category, and you’re not
worrying about frequency at this point).
3. Analyze each category separately. Patterns should start to emerge during this step:
++How many unique comments are in each?
++How detailed are those comments?
++How strongly stated are those comments?
4. Refer back to numeric results to identify any survey questions that address the
same topics as the comments. Look for links between the numeric results and the
comments. If you identified a theme in the comments (positive or negative), check
to see if numeric results supports the trend.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
Segmentation: The Highest Value in Data Mining
Segmentation is where the highest value lies in communication, customer engagement,
marketing and in understanding your data. If you are using a survey tool, it’s likely that
you will need to export your raw data into Excel in order to drill down into your data to
this degree. They will have instructions for how to do that.
Drilling into data to see how different segments (i.e. sessions, ages, or zip codes)
responded is where real insight begins to emerge. To do this, you’ll compare responses
relative to other responses. Always gather fixed sets of data, such as location, ages, or
specific sessions in your feedback requests in order to compare opinion-type responses
to different segments. The data achieved through segmentation will also serve as
benchmarks.
Here’s how it works: Say you want to find out the average age of your campers by camp
type so you can step up special offers and promotions to parents with children in that
age range. In just a few clicks of the mouse, you can summarize your raw data, group it
by camp type and average age, then drill into your source data to extract family details
and contact information for your marketing outreach.
If you’re thinking, “this sounds amazing, but how do I do it?” it’s time we introduced you to…
Crosstabs
Crosstabs/PivotTables allow you to pull all your data, giving you complete visibility on
individual families and their registration details. They enable you to manipulate your
data to spot trends and easily summarize large volumes of data by any variable you
have on record.
Excel has a PivotTable wizard that will walk you through the process. We recommend
Microsoft’s PivotTable reports 101 for a tutorial on the topic. This is how you compare
different variables. At this point, you’ve taken data analysis to a level that requires a
higher degree of skill. But take heart, it’s not difficult to do once you’ve seen how it works.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
When analyzing data,
there is no substitute
for having an intimate
knowledge of your
business & good access
to your customers.
Conclusion
We’ve all heard that numbers can say anything we want them to say. We encourage
you to remember that, at best, informal survey results are imprecise. There is always
a margin of error and possibility of drawing incorrect conclusions. Use them primarily
to get a feel for potential trends and themes to explore further. If you start with a
hypothesis, you should always end with some kind of actionable data, even if that action
is “take no action at this time”!
The primary purpose of data from feedback requests is to determine action around
specific hypotheses and requests. Ancillary purposes include discovering more
questions, and learning how to phrase your hypotheses to yield better responses.
When analyzing data, there is no substitute for having an intimate knowledge of your
business and good access to your customers. The qualitative responses you collect
from your customers help build a rich human story around what your quantitative data
tells you is going on with their experiences.
Final Stop Ahead
Now you have a primer on how to evaluate customer responses and turn them into
usable data. This is the beginning of understanding what the data means to your
business. We encourage you to make this topic an ongoing area of education. You can
start by digging into a sample analysis at the end of this paper, provided by our Global
Research Team.
In our final installment, we’ll discuss:
++How to EXECUTE insights into actionable, data-driven decisions, taking guesswork
out of the picture
LET’S TALK! Speak with a Camp Specialist to
learn more about how you can grow your camp.
888.820.5808 | [email protected] | www.ACTIVEcamps.com
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Custom Insights: Interpreting Survey Data
Math is Fun: Normal Data Distribution
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 3: EVALUATE CUSTOMER RESPONSES
Sample Analysis: Let’s Try it Out!
Are there any differences in reported ease-of-use of our online registration
process based on the number of participants registered?
Here’s an example of what an excerpt
of raw response data might look like
in Excel, based on a Lickert scale of
1 = Difficult to Use, 5 = Easy to Use
LET’S GET TO THE INSIGHTS.
LET’S DO A CROSSTAB!
For now, let’s ignore whether folks said
they were signing up day or residential
campers and just focus on the number
of campers registered and perceived
ease-of-use.
If we set up a pivot table in Excel using
the sample data, we can tell the program
to show us just the average ease-of-use
responses for each type of respondent.
That would look something like this.
RESPONDENT
Assuming we got enough responses
from each type of respondent, we can
start to hypothesize what might be going
wrong for folks who are registering more
campers in a single session.
INSIGHT POSSIBILITIES:
++The difference we see is just a fluke,
due to blind chance
++There aren’t enough responses to
validate that a 1.5 is different from a 3
++Investigate anyway. The data’s error
margin is large, but not as large as our
concern for the apparently low score.
DAY CAMPER
(0=NO, 1=YES)
NO. OF CAMPERS
REGISTERED
EASE OF USE RATING
4
1
98155
0
1
2
98024
0
2
3
3
98628
0
2
2
4
98312
1
2
2
5
98563
1
2
3
6
99519
0
2
4
7
98155
1
1
5
8
98024
1
1
5
9
98628
1
1
4
10
98312
0
1
5
11
98563
0
1
4
12
98155
0
1
4
13
98024
1
3
2
14
98628
0
1
5
15
98312
NO. OF CAMPERS
REGISTERED
16
98563
AVERAGE17
OF EASE OF USE
SO WHAT DOES THIS SEEM TO BE
TELLING US?
It looks like people who registered fewer
users perceived the Website as easier to
use. Overall, folks gave the site a middle-ofthe-road 3.7 out of 5. For our tiny little set of
sample data, that would look like this.
ZIP CODE
1
2
3
1 1
2
1 3
GRAND TOTAL 4
3.0
2 1.5
3.7
98155
0 4.5
18
98024
0
1
4
19
98628
0
1
5
20
98312
0
3
1
NO. OF CAMPERS REGISTERED
1
2
3
GRAND TOTAL
COUNT OF EASE OF USE RESPONSES
11
7
2
20
(Sample provided by the Global Experience Research Team: Russell Milham, James Alford, PhD., and Alex Genov, PhD.)
4
STEP 4
E VA
MANAGING THE
CAMP CUSTOMER
FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
By Gina Calvert with Russ Milham, James Alford, PhD, Alex Genov, PhD
Global Experience Research Team at ACTIVE Network
581_14
L U AT E
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
EN GAG E
EXECUTE
PLAN
INTRODUCTION
You’ve rounded the corner in the camp customer feedback loop. The last step,
executing on data to make smart decisions, is not only the final piece in the
process, it’s also a transition into your next feedback request. Here is where
you’ll decide how to act on, or know for sure that you should not act on, the
data you derived from your customer’s responses.
E VA
Data Integrity: The Best Decisions Come
from Clean Data
In Step 3, we discussed validating your responses, or, making sure they’re
telling you what you think they’re telling you. In surveys, this is largely a
function of making sure you have enough responses, have asked the right
questions, and have accurately viewed your data.
L U AT E
As you integrate survey data with existing data, it bears mentioning that being able to
come to valid conclusions depends on the quality of your data management. Without a
careful watch on it, data tends to get messy. Your conclusions are only as good as the
accuracy of your data. Duplications and incorrect or missing information mean that your
report isn’t showing you the whole picture.
To feel confident about decisions based on data, take the time to keep your data clean.
The first step is to assign someone the job of maintaining data integrity. If no one is
responsible, it will not get done. We recommend following a simple, regular schedule to
keep it from becoming an overwhelming job:
++Weekly: Remove duplicates and review “New” system statuses
++Monthly: Remove unverified addresses and review recently modified addresses
++6 Months: Investigate missing values
Give it Some Time
Another aspect of validating your data is making sure you allow enough time for it to
reveal trends. This involves setting those benchmarks discussed in Step 3. You should
keep an eye on numbers as they happen, but without a larger context (such as how
they compare to last year at the same time, or how they have fluctuated over the last 12
months—or both), it’s risky to make major decisions.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
Master the Three Dimensions of Metrics
Metrics are what you measure. What you measure—and the questions you ask of
it—completely determine what you get out of it. It’s a matter of how deep you’re willing
to dive. Are you willing to go 3D?
FIRST DIMENSION – WHAT HAPPENED?
First dimension metrics are reactive and obvious. This is a simple measurement of what
happened, usually in operations:
++How many registrations were in each session?
++What was the total revenue per session?
++How many campers did not return from last season?
++At what age do registrations drop off?
Compiled with qualitative data (comments), you may be able to investigate ways to
improve these numbers.
If your survey planning phase began with a hypothesis, your survey responses may
have proven what you suspected. Or you may have discovered something unexpected,
widespread, and easily actionable, such as broken links on the website or a serious
need for reminder emails for swim day. Sometimes, you may have simply discovered
that more research and insight are necessary for taking action. That is action in itself!
SECOND DIMENSION – WHAT’S HIDING IN THE NUMBERS? WHAT’S HIDING
OUTSIDE THE NUMBERS?
The second dimension of metrics is proactive and analytical. The information is not as
obvious and requires more skill to discover, but it’s the key to discovering what lies
below your initial observation. It’s vital for identifying growth opportunities.
This is where you have a chance to spot trends, associations or relationships. A strong
sense of curiosity will help you craft questions that drill deeper.
For example, if you looked into “At what age do registrations drop off?” and found that
it was 16, your next step might be to run a survey to parents of 16-year olds whose
child did not return, so that you can discover the reasons. You might also compare the
offerings in the 16-year old group to competitors’ camps to see if you’re keeping up with
what 16-year olds find interesting.
A camp director who’s curious might start to think about what could be happening in the
last year many kids attend (15-year olds) as part of the mystery that needs to be solved.
Broadening the scope of possibilities to explain trends leads to 3D metrics…
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
THIRD DIMENSION – WHERE DO I WANT TO DRIVE MY CAMP BUSINESS?
The third dimension of metrics is strategic. This is where a camp director’s desired
results meet the necessary actions to achieve those results. It starts with recognizing the
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals and making sure to set early
benchmarks. If it’s important to you, you’ll want to be able to measure it in some way.
Knowing what you want to learn makes it easier to ask the right questions.
This dimension includes predictive reasoning. Taking the age of drop-off illustration
above, you might try to determine what happens among kids in the 14-15 year range that
affects the decision not to return by age 16. Proactive, 3D metrics might include:
++Investigating the quality or age of leadership in the 14-15 year old groups by
strategically testing older counselors in some groups and younger counselors in other
groups to see how this affects satisfaction and return rates.
++Surveying the counselors themselves to gain further insight into the minds
of 14-15 year olds.
++Having conversations with high school teachers or administrators about this age group.
++Bringing parents of 14-15 year olds into the discussion about what could lie ahead,
according to your data’s trends. Share research with them about the increased value
of camp at an age many are dropping out, and enlist their help in reducing attrition
among that age group.
It is at this level that camp directors get creative and extremely curious about not only what
is happening, but even more so about what isn’t because “what isn’t” means unmet goals.
Strategic metrics:
++Hold you accountable to your mission, vision and strategy
++Usually require some effort to obtain
++Encourage the right behaviors
++Focus on actions in order to drive focus back to strategy
++Sets up the tests required to get the desired data
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
What is a Data-driven Decision?
Data-driven decisions are not guesses or shots in the dark! Good surveys and data
analysis mean you can make decisions with confidence. Data-driven decisions are:
++Well-informed due to sufficient scope of research, responses and time
++Tested prior and reviewed afterward for effectiveness
++Good for increasing customer engagement because changes you implement will often
correspond to their areas of interest, validating their opinion and sense of being valued
What if Your Data Didn’t Support your Assumptions?
Consider the famous Thomas Edison quote about failure: “I have not failed. I’ve just
found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Inconclusive data based on too few responses or “dirty” data is still a great source of
information. It just means you’ll make different kind of decisions at this time, such as:
++ What additional information you should begin collecting & retaining about your customers
++How you can establish or convey a firmer foundation for your camp’s vision and mission
++How you can improve your data’s integrity
++The need for camp management technology for capturing and reporting on your data
++New questions to ask in your next survey
++Engagement with online survey tools
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
STEP 4: EXECUTE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS
Conclusion
Hopefully, by now you’ve begun to see how the customer feedback loop spirals you
deeper and deeper into better questions, more useful responses, and more rewarding
customer engagement. Each round provides you more support for good decisionmaking and increased insight for the next conversation with your customers! That’s why
we call it a loop!
Now that you’ve made your way through the entire customer feedback loop, we think
you’re ready to get started increasing your customer engagement and understanding
your data.
Refer back often to the four steps and go a little deeper each time around. They’ll be
more meaningful each time:
++How to PLAN your approach to customer feedback requests
++How to ENGAGE customers to increase participation in your surveys and questionnaires
++How to EVALUATE customer responses by turning them into usable data and
understanding what the data means to your business
++How to EXECUTE insights into actionable, data-driven decisions, taking guesswork out
of the picture.
LET’S TALK! Speak with a Camp Specialist to
learn more about how you can grow your camp.
888.820.5808 | [email protected] | www.ACTIVEcamps.com
GO FOR THE GOAL!
INSPIRATION FOR CAMP GOAL-SETTING
+ BONUS WORKSHEET
581_14
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
GO FOR THE GOAL!
INTRODUCTION
Often, we fall into the trap of setting loose goals that are vague, undefined, or easy to
achieve. These non-specific and uninspiring goals are difficult to stick to or measure,
and easy to cast off when faced with boredom or opposition.
Specific, clear, and challenging goals, on the other hand, act as a guide to where you
want your camp to go. Even those goals can be difficult to meet, but Dr. Gail Matthews,
a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, conducted a study on
goal-setting that offers a simple solution. She found that you are 42 percent more
likely to achieve your goals just by writing them down. That means taking the time to
complete our short worksheet significantly increases your camp’s odds of growing.
Make sure the goals you write down are SMART goals, and get ready to watch your
camp grow!
SMART Goals
You are 42% more-likely
to achieve your
goals just by writing
them down.
Dr. Gail Matthews,
Professor of Psychology
Dominican University of California
You’ve probably heard of SMART goals. This simple formula instantly makes your
target objectives more successful:
++ SPECIFIC
++ MANAGABLE
++ ACHIEVABLE
++ RESULTS-FOCUSED
++ TIME-BOUND
SMART goals require focused thought and articulation, which leads to purposeful
effort and a greater chance of measurable success. An example of a non-SMART goal
might be “I want to get more registrations next year.” This goal fails to meet at least
four of the five SMART criteria.
A SMART goal would meet all five objectives:
“Camp Lakeside will increase last year’s summer session 1 registrations by 40% by
May 15, 2015. To achieve this, I will start an email marketing campaign, switch to online
registration and partner with local businesses.”
SPECIFIC
Define the exact accomplishment you want to achieve.
Clearly define what you aim to achieve. Unspecific goals cannot be met. If you have no
destination, how will you know when you get there? Specific goals keep you focused
and allow you to recognize progress or digression. Specific goals for camps
could include:
++Increase camp participation
++Retain 90% of participants
++Increase your number of counselors
++Expand marketing Into another region
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
GO FOR THE GOAL!
Why doing the
unrealistic is easier
than doing the realistic:
“99% of the world is convinced
they are incapable of achieving
great things, so they aim for the
mediocre middle-ground. The level
of competition is thus fiercest for
“realistic” goals, paradoxically making
them the most time- and energyconsuming. It is easier to raise
$10,000,000 than it is $1,000,000.
If you are insecure, guess what?
The rest of the world is too. Do not
overestimate the competition and
underestimate yourself. You are better
than you think.
Unreasonable and unrealistic goals
are easier to achieve for yet
another reason.
Having an unusually large goal is an
adrenaline infusion that provides the
endurance to overcome the inevitable
trials and tribulations that go along
with any goal. Realistic goals, goals
restricted to the average ambition
level, are uninspiring and will only
fuel you through the first or second
problem, at which point you throw in
the towel.”
-Author, Tim Ferriss
Experiments in Lifestyle
Design Blog
MEASURABLE
Pinpoint specific targets and track your progress.
It is easy to lose your place in the process when you are focused on day-to-day tasks,
so plan now for a once-a-month review of your worksheet. Put these reviews on
your calendar.
We find it helpful to review goal progress with a focus on where you stand at the
halfway, 90, 60, and 30-day point before your deadline. If your goal is to retain 90% of
participants, for example, check the status at set dates, and adjust your strategy based
on these findings. A camp management software like ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager
can track your goals for you.
ATTAINABLE
Realistically be able to reach this goal without making it too easy or too challenging.
What “realistic” or “attainable” means is up for interpretation. Author Tim Ferriss puts a
twist on this aspect of goals that’s worth considering. He says, “If the potential payoff
is mediocre or average, so is your effort.” He challenges people to raise their ambition
level so that they’re inspired to take the necessary actions that goals require.
Ready to create an inspiring goal? You’ve heard that you can’t swallow the ocean in
one gulp. Once larger goals are set, create action steps and smaller goals to keep
you on track. It’s best to think backwards at this step. Ask yourself what tasks need
to be completed to meet your goal. For example, if your goal is to increase camp
registrations, how will you do that? By improving the registration experience? By
contacting campers’ families monthly?
Now, break these tasks into smaller tasks. If your plan was to improve the registration
experience, will you provide online registration via PC and mobile? Will you send
registration deadlines multiple times and through various mediums? Now you are
beginning to have daily tasks that build to your overall goal!
RESULTS-FOCUSED
Goals should measure outcomes, not just activities.
An outcome-based goal might be to have the best camp counselors, but how will you
make that a reality? An action step you could take to make that happen is to create a
strict staff review procedure. If your mission is to get more kids in camp, your action
steps could revolve around increasing marketing or social media efforts.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
GO FOR THE GOAL!
We’ve seen night and
day improvements
since we began using
ACTIVE. I couldn’t run
the size company
I do without it.
Jeff Serowik,
Founder and President
Pro Ambitions Hockey
TIME-BOUND
Identify a specific period of time to achieve the goal.
This one’s self-explanatory. Setting an end date creates healthy pressure and urgency
to complete your goal. If you break it down into smaller steps, you will easily meet
your deadlines.
Final Thoughts
Enlist a partner or team to share the inspiration of the goal with you. Weight loss
organizations have long-known that companionship increases the chance of success
with long-term goals.
Don’t be afraid to reassess goals as you move forward. Unavoidable barriers or
dependencies may force you to reevaluate, reframe, or make deadline adjustments.
That’s ok!
Don’t forget to celebrate your successes. Working toward goals is not easy. Plan ways
to reward yourself and your team as small and large goals are met. Post images of
your reward to keep motivation high.
Ready? We’ve provided a worksheet to get you started.
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
GO FOR THE GOAL!
SMART Goal-setting Worksheet
Step 1: Based on your customers’ feedback, what can your camp improve on?
I can improve my camp’s: ________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Step 2: Now, let’s turn the feedback into a detailed and specific goal. Answer the
who, what, when, where why and how.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
How will I reach this goal? Three specific action steps I’ll take to achieve my
goal include:
1. _________________________________________________________________
2._________________________________________________________________
3._________________________________________________________________
Step 3: Make your goal measureable. Add details, specific targets and how you will
track your progress.
I will measure/track my goal by using the following methods or tools:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Who will be accountable to track the progression:
____________________________________________________________________
Step 4: Make your goal attainable. Do you have the required time and resources
you need?
I will find time to work on my goal by:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
MANAGING THE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK LOOP
GO FOR THE GOAL!
Potential obstacles I will need to overcome include (list at least 3):
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
I can talk to ________________________ for support (ACTIVE is always there to help).
Step 5: Make your goal relevant. How does this goal fit in to your camp’s business
model:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Step 6: Make your goal time-bound. Create a deadline and a benchmark to track
your progress.
I will reach my goal by (date): ____/____/_____.
Clearly rewrite your goal with SMART in mind:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
CONGRATULATIONS!
By the very act of writing these goals down, you’ve increased your odds of meeting
them by 42 percent! Our mission is to help you and your camp succeed.
Let us know how we can help you further.
LET’S TALK! Speak with a Camp Specialist to
learn more about how you can grow your camp.
888.820.5808 | [email protected] | www.ACTIVEcamps.com