Connecting with your consumer-members means truly understanding their stories that shape who you are as an organization. This process goes beyond just gathering data. It’s about making your consumer-members’ experiences a key part of your direction. By focusing on what your community tells you, every choice you make is influenced by their perspectives. Strategic consumer-member surveys help your leadership build a story that reflects everyone, highlighting the strength of working together.

But where do you start? Before asking consumer-members for feedback, Pioneer’s survey partner, Pulse Research, advises answering four questions.

1. Why do you want a survey?

Before you start your research, it’s crucial to define clear goals. Knowing the specific improvements or changes you aim to inform helps tailor your approach, ensuring that your research directly supports your strategic objectives.

For example, does your utility have any new initiatives that would benefit from consumer-member feedback? Using a survey to gauge community sentiment guarantees that decisions about forthcoming projects or services not only gain widespread acceptance but are also thoroughly understood and meet the genuine needs of your members.

2. What does leadership need to know?

Determining what information your board members, trustees or commissioners require is essential for building a strategic survey. Make sure research questions reflect the organization’s broader ambitions. Before you ask the first question, have your leadership’s strategic objectives in hand as a guide for anticipated issues and opportunities for growth.

Quantifying and integrating member feedback into board-level discussions not only validates the relevance of consumer-members, it also highlights the importance of community input in steering the organization’s strategic directions.

3. Who should you talk to?

Once you have clear goals for your survey in hand, consider your target audience. You could survey a sampling of everyone in your community, or you could focus on specific areas or demographics.

• Gauging interest in economic development program? Focus on business accounts.
• Developing programs for new consumer-members? Survey people who joined your utility in the last two years.
• Setting a bar for consumer-member satisfaction? Survey a group representative of the entire community.

4. How do you begin?

Outlining the initial steps for designing and implementing the research process is critical. This includes choosing the right methodology, tools and research partner to effectively gather and analyze the data needed.

Keep in mind:

• Set a clear timeline and budget to manage internal expectations and resources.
• Engage with your consumer-members from the start to foster ownership and participation.
• Communicate the purpose and benefits of the survey through various channels — website, email, newsletters, social media, direct mailings — to both drive participation and illustrate how your utility values community feedback.

Craft A Shared Story

Through thoughtful member research, you’ll not only understand your members better, you’ll also empower your decisions and communications with their input.

Actively gathering and analyzing member feedback is vital. This process not only gauges satisfaction levels but also highlights areas for improvement, ensuring that your members’ voices are heard and valued. Incorporating this feedback demonstrates a commitment to member-centric growth and service enhancement.

This collaborative approach to storytelling ensures that as you move forward, you do so as a unified organization poised for success and growth.