Measuring occupant satisfaction is key to ensuring the services and space you provide enables them to be successful, whether they are tenants in a commercial building or employees in corporate facilities.

Used as a management tool, satisfaction surveys allow you to change what doesn’t work, improve what does and focus on the issues that matter.

Unfortunately, many surveys are designed and implemented without a clear idea of why the survey is needed and how it will be used once the results are in. Often, surveys are designed simply to get a number you can measure against. The valuable strategic information a survey provides is often an after thought, with post-survey analysis based on questions that were not designed to provide the data you need to take action.

Goals

The starting point for a satisfaction survey is establishing goals - deciding what you what to learn from the survey. This includes establishing a benchmark percentage satisfaction for comparison and strategic questions you can use to analyze the results and improve satisfaction.

To compare satisfaction year over year, the questions you base your benchmark on must remain the same for each survey. The rest of the questions must focus on issues you want to know more about. Before developing the survey, establish the goals related to your specific objectives. This may be tenant retention, efficiency for employees or a pre-cursor to a relocation decision. Discuss these goals with other decision makers in your organization to validate their usefulness and the priority.

Questions

The questions must give you information that is easy to analyze and provide data that you can act upon in order to meet your goals. While asking general questions, such as overall satisfaction with cleaning, may be useful for benchmarking satisfaction levels, it won’t provide information you can analyze and act upon. For action, you need questions that are more specific.

To get service related feedback, phrase questions so you get feedback on the service, not the building systems. Asking about your response to hot/cold concerns is a service related question, while asking about satisfaction with the temperature is a technical issue, not a service issue. If you already track complaints and service calls, you have data you can use to identify and act upon technical problems in your building.

Questions related to individuals, especially if the occupants see those individuals face-to-face, often receive a higher positive response than questions about the service they provide. Carefully consider whether a question about individuals or staff members is worth asking, since there are often more other more relevant questions to ask.

Comments are a very important supplement to the question, and can help with the analysis of the results by giving you specific, situational examples. Allow space for at least one general comment, however if possible, providing the opportunity to comment about specific questions would be ideal.

Once you have crafted the questions to match your goals, randomly list your questions instead of grouping them by service area. The occupant will think about each question on it’s own, rather than taking the easy way out and answering a group of similar questions with the same answer.

Survey Methodology

Effective survey methodology is essential for accurate, relevant results and a survey that is easy and efficient to administer. Along with good questions, the result will be valuable management information you can analyze and act upon in order to increase satisfaction.

Sampling

The sample size is important, since it influences the validity of the results. The sample size also influences whether to use a targeted, random or mass sampling method. For a large corporate portfolio where you want satisfaction results from all the occupants, a non-targeted sampling is appropriate. The same applies to commercial properties where your tenant’s employees are the target for the survey.

If you need to gather input from a smaller number of individuals, such as the tenant representatives, department managers, etc., then a targeted approach is more appropriate.

Either way, ensure your response rate is as high as possible to get statistically relevant results. Dissatisfied people tend to fill in surveys more often than satisfied people, so a higher response rate will moderate the effect. For targeted sampling, you have more control over response rate, since you can contact the individuals directly and influence their participation.

Regardless of the method used, it’s important to include tracking information on the survey to facilitate analysis. This includes data such as the building name, the individual’s department or company name, floor or other key information.

Distribution

The distribution method depends on the sample size, and level of effort required. The options are telephone, paper or web based. Telephone surveys work for small sample sizes, and can result in high response rates. Paper based surveys can be manually or automatically tabulated (with scanning technology), however compilation of the comments could be time consuming, so this option is not effective for larger surveys.

A web-based survey is efficient since the system itself collects and tabulates results, including comments. It does have challenges, however. In a commercial building environment, your tenant’s employees may have varying access to the Internet, and your ability to send notices and reminders about the survey will be limited. For corporate facilities, this is easier since the entire organization is linked through one system. Access to the internet by all employees shouldn’t be assumed, and a detailed discussion with your IT department is necessary.

Consider using a third part service to administer your survey. They have the systems in place to manage distribution and compilation of results, and will provide the respondents with an assurance of anonymity.

Response Scale

The scale you use for the responses is very important, and can influence the results as well as your ability to analyze the results.

A four point scale forces the occupant to identify whether they are satisfied or not, eliminating the use of a ‘neutral’ option when they are not sure. However, since some occupants will not be able to respond to the question for various reasons, using a four plus one scale by adding ‘insufficient information’ or ‘don’t know’ as an additional option is better than using ‘neutral’, and reflects the fact that for some questions, the occupant may truly not know how to respond.

As a result, the scale would look like this:

• Very Dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Satisfied
• Totally Satisfied
• Don't Know (N/A) 

Analysis

Once the results of the survey are tabulated, the next step is to analyze the results. Where possible, individuals involved in delivering the services should be involved in the analysis, providing additional insight and facilitating the development of action plans.

To create a benchmark, calculate the satisfaction level for the questions identified as benchmark questions, and establish an average overall satisfaction level. You can refine the benchmark by building or type of building.

For analysis that allows you to take action, look at each question separately and assess the results of the four response options instead of simply analyzing a single number that shows % satisfied. This provides more information on the degree of satisfaction, which is important in determining the extent of the problem.

If you have a more detailed breakdown - by building, tenant or department, for instance – it is easier to pinpoint the issue. Comments also help pinpoint actual events or issues, enhancing your ability to develop an action plan that results in change.

In addition to reviewing the data question by question, analyze the results between related questions. This validate the results and pinpoints issues. For instance, if the occupants are satisfied with the service from the call center, yet not satisfied with the results of their service request, you can eliminate the call center as a source of dissatisfaction and focus on other areas of the service management process

Communication and Action

Whenever a survey is conducted, it is important to communicate the results and the action plans back to the participants. This shows you are listening, identifies the value in filling out the survey and tells them what you are going to do.

Develop an action plan that tackles a small number of important issues and successfully implements change rather than tackling every issue and diluting your efforts. Focusing on the questions that received the lowest level satisfaction, as long as you have the ability to make the changes necessary, will result in the highest value.

Regardless of what you do, communicate the results, and your action plan openly and honestly. Celebrating your success is important, but being honest about the questions that had low satisfaction levels and telling the occupant what you plan on doing about it is more important in the long run.