Tpoll Launches Online Satisfaction /Placement Surveys toolkit

Since the withdrawal of the Audit Commission, it has become the responsibility of the Council themselves and their own levels of commitment, to decide how they want to engage with their communities and ascertain resident feedback.

The annual satisfaction surveys are arduous tasks, with many involving several departments and numerous staff; they are costly and require someone to input all the data manually. With councils enduring cuts in their budgets, it is admirable to see how many still feel that conducting these surveys is a core requisite and is something they will continue to do as best they can.

Tpoll is a partner company in the MRS who is working with Local Government to provide guidance and support to help councils produce their resident engagement and feedback more easily and efficiently. Following discussions with over 70+ councils, Tpoll has found that many share exactly the same objectives, concerns and requirements as one another. Tpoll has therefore constructed a standard online module that provides reliable and accurate research while being both low-cost and simple to use.

Using experience gained in the private sector, Tpoll has found online research programs can provide more robust data than traditional 'hall groups', telephone and door knocking paper surveys. While some demographic groups are traditionally difficult to engage, new smart devices can provide unique access to a much more inclusive demographic than ever before, allowing feedback to be gathered anonymously and to the greater convenience of these individuals. 

As with many forms of new technology, mobile access means busy residents and/or less-able bodied residents, can now participate where and when it suits them. Furthermore, once the first study has been completed, then future programs become even easier and trend data can be extracted at a click of a button.