Dr John May

Unlock the secrets of survey data

When "most people" are "reasonably satisfied", where do you go next for service improvement?

Global findings like this aren't much help. Find out which segments of the public are dragging your ratings down, and target your service delivery and communications programmes accordingly. Conversely, identify your fans and enlist their support in spreading the word about how well you are doing.

Case study: The Police Authority

A representative survey showed that a majority of the residents of the city (52%) felt confident that the police would deal with it seriously if they (the residents) were the victim of a crime. 28% had no such confidence.

Who were these unsatisfied people? Conventional analysis by age group, gender, ethnic origin, housing tenure or even social class - and all the literally hundreds of combinations of these variables - would have missed the key finding from this survey: that the most important single factor affecting someone's confidence in the police is previous experience. Broadly speaking, if you have been the victim of crime within the last twelve months in this city, you will have significantly less confidence this time round that the police will deal with it seriously.

Clearly the police have some work to do in improving the public's confidence in them, beginning with the way they deal with crime victims.

This case study used the advanced statistical segmentation technique 'CHAID' to identify the single most important factor affecting confidence in the police. Use this and other techniques including multiple regression, Key Driver Analysis and factor analysis to unlock the secrets of your survey data. Contact John to find out how!