For many of us it has been a rather warm and dry spring, helping us to get out and deliver leaflets, knock on doors and campaign our socks off during the local elections.
Now the dust has settled, and the thank you leaflets are delivered, it is time to start looking ahead to getting back on the doorsteps and talking to residents. Surveys are the best way to find out what residents are thinking, what they might want done in the area and they tend to be more candid (and often more detailed) when they have time to think and put pen to paper. So here are our key tips to taking advantage of the long, light evenings and campaign with a summer survey.
Why Survey?
The best reason to survey is it shows you are working for the community. Not only are you asking for their opinion, you are going to follow up on the issues they raise and feedback to them about the work you have done (please make sure you do this!). But it also gives residents the chance to have their say, give you a good indicator of what to campaign on going forward and can also help you find those people who may be able to help in the future. It makes the residents feel empowered and listened to, while you can create your campaign plan going forward. Very often surveys raise issues that had not necessarily been making it to you in the casework you were collecting.
Surveys are also good to help you collect election data (asking people how they have voted in previous elections helps us target our efforts) and also an opportunity to add emails and phone numbers to our systems. Giving people the opportunity to sign up to your newsletter is also a useful way to engage with residents. It is also worth asking people if they can volunteer or have a poster at election time too as this data can all be added to Connect and used during the next election.
What should be in your survey?
Content can vary considerably but always make sure you have the Fair Processing Notice (FPN) so people know what you might do with the data. You can find an example in our templates below. If it is a new area to your campaigning, or it has been a while since you have surveyed, you might want to use a more generic survey asking people what the key issues in the area are. If you have surveyed more recently, or you know there is a particular issue in the area, you can pick a theme such as crime or health and the NHS.
It is always good to vary the question style to keep people engaged. A variety of open and closed questions is a good idea. Closed questions, with tick boxes or ranking scales often get answered more than open questions, where people have to write down their views, but it is always good to give people the options. Choose your question style carefully though. For example, questions with ranks can be problematic as asking someone to rank the quality of the roads out of 1-5 scale can be very subjective. Therefore, it is worth following up to see if people have particular roads that need resurfacing. This also gives you something to work with for campaigning in the future.
When using a survey it is always best to ask people for their views without trying to lead them to a conclusion. So statements like, “a number of residents have said…” or, “do you agree with…” can create misleading outcomes. You might find a number of residents raise the same issue and a follow up letter to them highlighting this and what you plan to do is welcomed by many residents.
How to survey
The two key ways to survey is by sending them with a letter (either hand delivered by volunteers or by post) or what is known as a knock and drop survey. The advantage of posting surveys is it is quick and doesn’t require too many people knocking on doors but generally has a lower return rate and is more expensive. Knock and drop surveys are a great way to canvass as you get to speak to people. They also provide immediate feedback as you ask residents to complete them and leave them hanging out the letterbox for you to collect later in the canvassing session. It is always good to give them an online option if you can as well for those who like to complete them later.
The other advantage to knock and drop surveys is this is a great opportunity to train people to canvass. Having a physical survey to hand to people helps new canvassers get used to knocking on doors and speaking to people without the difficult questions of voting intentions. People are also friendlier with this style of canvassing so it takes the pressure off a little.
What to do after you collected the data
After asking people for their opinion it is really important that you use the data to feedback to residents. A feedback leaflet with a ‘You said, we did’ theme is a great way for people to see you are listening and taking their views seriously. It is also a great way to make use of the offers of help you received by creating a delivery for your new deliverers! It is also really important to follow up on any individual casework that appeared so if there are issues that people mentioned, it is worth following up and seeing what can be done to help.
It is worth keeping copies of these feedback leaflets for when you survey the area again to see how trends change and new issues arise. In a recent survey I discovered that an issue had completely fallen away because of the work we had put in to stop it after a survey round. So it was good to highlight it as a success for the Liberal Democrats in the area.
Finally, it is really important that all data is stored correctly so do not hold on to the used surveys for longer than is needed and make sure you shred any surveys with personal data on them.
You can find all our summer templates, including our surveys, below: