Conclusion

As a first-attempt at doing a needs assessment of their customers, the CMC team learned some things which may you might find useful.

Learning 1: Time

The project team sorely underestimated the amount of time their needs assessment would take. The three main phases of their work, design of the survey tool, distribution and data analysis, all took at least twice as long as they had first thought it would. While each needs assessment endeavor will be different, it is reasonable to suggest that if you have never done this sort of work before, to make sure that you leave enough fluidity in your planning to adequately address all issues that will arise.

Learning 2: Method of Distribution

Not wanting to alienate their customers by forcing a survey on them, the project team decided to have surveys available, but not hand one to each customer as they left the circulation desk. This resulted in an extremely low distribution rate, and an even lower return rate. They were forced to alter their methodology in mid-survey to offering a survey to each customer, which dramatically helped the number of survey's returned. They found, as well, that if they explained why they were offering this survey, (to help serve them better,) it was rare that a customer became aggravated by the intrusion on their time. The web distribution of the survey was an overall failure. Such a small return rate came from the web, as compared to the amount of time it took to create the online survey, that it was not worth the effort. A possible way to overcome this would be to get a random sampling of your customer's e-mail accounts and send out an explanation and a link to the online form. The team, again for reasons of not wanting to intrude too much on their customers, decided not to do this.

Learning 3: Timing

Because the team did not take into account the amount of time it would take to develop the survey, they were not able to distribute it when they had wished. They were forced to hand out surveys during a period of relatively low use in the Library, which negatively impacted their return rates. While a better understanding of Learning 1 would have prevented this, a side learning can be found here in looking at your customer activity over time. If you're looking to reach as many of your customers as possible, consider doing your needs assessment during peak activity. Just remember to take into account the increased workload on your staff during those peak times.

Learning 4: Scope

At the end of the assessment, the project team had identified roughly 20 projects that could be started…each one addressing a distinctly different issue raised by their customers. The project team made an error, in hindsight, of bringing all of those projects back to the larger team with the expectation that they would be worked upon. As one might expect, the larger team was overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done. None of the projects were outlandish, but the sheer number of them ended up working against the project team. A way to combat this would be to select one or two projects that address high importance / low satisfaction areas and that have high visibility, and move forward with those.

Let's continue on and make your own needs assessment plan.