7 things you need to ask supporters

Did you ever wonder what people interacting with your organization think of it? You want to find out what they love or hate about the organization — why they stay for years or go after a few experiences.

Why not ask them, asks Bridget L. Brandt, senior marketing manager at Sage Software in Austin, Texas? Brandt explained that you need more information to really see how people interact with your organization at the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, Calif. One way to accomplish that is to survey your participants to really get a sense of their feelings.

Here are some tips:

• Don’t over survey your audience. Asking their thoughts about every change might get annoying.
• Make a plan. Plan how many people should receive the survey.
• Write a short questionnaire. Ask for some identifying features that may help with other endeavors.
• Use simple words. Ditch your organizational jargon and make the survey conversational so people will enjoy doing it.
• Keep it short and sweet. Too many questions will make the survey seem daunting and time consuming. Keep the questions to the minimum that would help you.
• Don’t make the choices too long. Making a list of 32 answer options and telling your participants to pick one could get irritating.
• Give an introduction. Tell your participants why you are conducting a survey and how it will help the organization.
• Leave some things open. Throw in a few open-ended questions so participants could go more in-depth with their answers. They could give more details about the good, bad and the ugly of the organization.